Post uncovered: Untold Studios on Remarkably Bright Creatures (Netflix)

Untold Studios has revealed its work creating a fully-CG octopus for Netflix mystery drama Remarkably Bright Creatures, and you watch its behind-the-scenes video above. 

The highly intelligent octopus is at the heart of the screen adaptation of Shelby Van Pelt’s bestselling novel, which came out in May. The film follows Tova Sullivan, a 70-year-old widow who works as a night cleaner at an aquarium, where she makes a life-changing discovery that brings joy and wonder back to her life - an intelligent giant Pacific octopus called Marcellus. 

Untold was brought on during early development to help define how Marcellus could be realised for screen. Senior VFX supervisor Chris Ritvo led the work, reuniting with director Olivia Newman following their collaboration on Where the Crawdads Sing.

“Before we even started prep, we spent around six months researching how we could bring Marcellus to life,” said Newman. “We learned pretty quickly that there was no way to train an octopus to perform in the way the story required. So we knew the bar for our CG Marcellus had to be as photoreal as possible.

Head of animation at Untold Studios Ross Burgess explained the nuances of building complex creatures: “Octopuses are among the most complex creatures to recreate in VFX. Their soft-body anatomy, constant micro-movement, changing skin texture and colour, and highly dexterous arms make them a formidable CG challenge. Marcellus also needed to interact naturally with water, tank glass, props and live-action environments, often moving between underwater and above-water states within the same sequence.”

Untold proved the approach with an early CG test, staging Marcellus hiding on a shelf in a scene from the script. The test gave the filmmakers confidence that the character could be built digitally, with the realism and performance range needed for the story. 

Ritvo said, “Marcellus was built as a complete performance asset rather than a shot-specific solution. His look development was designed around the adaptability of a real octopus, with multiple pattern, texture and camouflage states that could be blended across scenes. The model included more than 270 suckers per tentacle across eight arms, supported by layers of rigging that allowed animators to shape both broad performance and highly specific sucker and contact behaviour.”

On set, production used a puppet matched to Marcellus’ colour, scale and texture, giving the filmmakers and VFX team practical lighting reference while preserving the flexibility of a fully CG performance in post.

“When you look at a real octopus, everything is moving all the time, in every direction,” said Ritvo. “Our CFX team created the skin and tentacle movement that really made Marcellus come alive underwater. The character also required extensive CFX work to capture the constant motion of an octopus’ skin, arms and suckers. Untold developed simulation passes for tentacle movement, skin detail, environmental contact and underwater behaviour, giving Marcellus the tactile, living quality needed for Newman’s adaptation.” 

Untold’s project was assisted by its previous octopus work on Blub Blub for Disney and Octo for BMW’s Heart of Joy, which gave the team a head start in rigging and look development. 

Marcellus also stars in the wider launch campaign for Remarkably Bright Creatures, including the new film tie-in edition of Van Pelt’s novel and a Times Square billboard.