It's Not Easy Being Green

One thing that the various video versions of The Hulk have in common is that he's big and he's green. But what would a big dude with green blood flowing through his veins actually look like? In both the original TV series and Ang Lee's 2003 movie the Hulk (played by Lou Ferrigno in the former and CGI in the latter) was a bright green color. If you've seen the new movie version that was released on Friday, you probably noticed that the Hulk was looking a little less brightly colored. According to an article in Sunday's LA Times about the movie's visual effects, the toned-down skin color was meant to be more "realistic."

Skin tone was another primary focus, as animators studiously considered, yes, what it would mean to be someone with green blood coursing through his veins. Their determination: The "meat" would be darker as a result, not brighter. Accordingly, their Hulk appears olive in most scenes and, fleetingly, almost slate gray. "We wanted to incorporate him more into our environment, to make him feel like he's right there and you could touch him," says visual effects supervisor Kurt Williams, whose team used software engineered for the fantasy menagerie of "The Golden Compass" as a springboard for rendering the Hulk. "We needed to approach him like a CG [computer graphics] human, not a creature."

I wonder if they'll use the same philosophy when they make up Zachary Quinto as young Spock in the upcoming Star Trek movie (probably not).

Tags:The Hulk, biology, green blood