The Art of Being Human – Alita: Battle Angel

Centuries in the future, the cyborg Alita is found abandoned in the scrapyards of Iron City.

She wakes with no memory of where she is, in an unknown future. Visual Effects Supervisor Eric Saindon and his team completed over 1900 visual effects shots to bring her story to life.

Alita is undoubtedly our most ambitious digital character to date. We advanced our performance capture technology to gather Rosa Salazar’s every subtle motion, voluntary or not—even the rise and fall of her breath. Every fine detail of her performance was translated to create our CG lead.

As the story unfolds, Alita is revealed to possess unique fighting abilities that make her a formidable opponent in the film’s extreme sport motorball, and a fearless adversary to the corrupt powers of Iron City. Her manga origins come to life in the expertly choreographed action scenes.

Despite its dangers and social divisions, Iron City is a place of wonder for Alita, and she quickly finds connections and belonging there. We took the large set built at Robert Rodriguez’s Troublemaker Studios and transformed it into a thriving, post-apocalyptic metropolis.