Two Friesian stallions a large, black breed of horse originating in the Netherlands were used for the role: Bonce worked as the main Pegasus, with the stunt rider riding Gallo.
The visual effects team developed a complex system of putting tracking markers on the horses and using special cameras to track the motion very carefully. Completing the illusion, wings were placed on afterward, via digital imaging.
In addition to the two horses, the cast and crew also worked with a menagerie of other animals including four camels, a seven-foot, 44-pound Burmese albino python, two young oxen and a number of dogs.
As befitting his owner, Zeus, perhaps the most majestic of the animals was an American Bald Eagle, who became an instant hit on the set; at the end of filming, most of the cast and crew had their picture taken with it.
Not only did everyone involved enjoy working with their live animal 'cast,' the production also garnered the American Humane Assocations’ highest rating for their care and treatment of the animals.
The design phase for the Kraken the most feared beast in all of Argos took a period of approximately five months. Davis relates, "Aaron Sims, our character designer, worked with Louis and me and the art team until we had something everyone was happy with, and then the people at MPC (Moving Picture Company) took over to work through the texture, and so on.
"The water was also a huge element. The Kraken rises out of the sea, so it’s got water cascading off of it on a massive scale, but part of it is always in the water, thrashing around. It was quite a challenge."
"The Kraken is mysterious, it’s a legend," says Leterrier, "so we didn’t want to reveal it right away. Nick, Aaron and MPC did an amazing job creating this unfolding sea monster.
"There is transparency in the scales, because this is a monster that hasn't lived in the sun for thousands of years, so there would be subsurface transparency and light would come in and bounce into the shell."
In addition to the creatures, the special effects unit regularly incorporated a good deal of nature’s elements into the scenes, including wind and water machines, fire and steam. "Neil was supplying us with as much interaction on the set as we could get, be it objects blowing up or falling over, the gimbals and the rig, the explosions and flames and dust hits. We worked together to figure out all the logistics," Davis says.
With locations in Tenerife, Wales and Ethiopia, the visual effects team had a vast canvas from which to work.
Davis continues, "We were building off of those places, so we wanted the city of Argos to look like it really belonged in the cliffs and mountains that we shot whole sequences around. Everything was based on that, and it was a wonderful starting place."
Clash of the Titans is out now.
Tagged in Clash of the Titans