Must Watch: The Incredible 'Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes' Performance Capture

Last month, 20th Century Fox screened five scenes from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. While I was very impressed with the footage, I was blown away by the performance capture I saw in the 20 minutes previewed — it was the best performance capture performances I had seen to date.

On top of that, Andy Serkis was on hand to introduce a brief video showcasing the live-action human actors filming the performance capture for the Ape roles side by side split screen with the computer animated finished footage of the Apes. I cant tell you how impressive this brief clip was on the big screen — it brought me back to the days of movie magic specials from my childhood.

20th Century Fox has now released the clip online for all of you to see. Watch the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Performance Capture comparison clip embedded after the jump.

The clip features most of the main apes, showing a side-by-side comparison between the live action performance capture process and the computer generated apes you'll see on screen in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The footage features Andy Serkis as Caesar, Toby Kebbell as Koba, Larramie Doc Shaw as Ash, Terry Notary as Rocket, and Karin Konoval as Maurice.

Official Dawn of the Planet of the Apes synopsis:

A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth's dominant species. Andy Serkis, celebrated for his performance in the last film, reprises his role as Caesar. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes also stars Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty, Public Enemies, The Great Gatsby), Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises, The Harry Potter film series), Keri Russell (The Americans, Mission Impossible III), Toby Kebbell (The Prince of Persia, Wrath of the Titans, Rock N Rolla), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In, ParaNorman), Enrique Murciano (Traffic, Black Hawk Down), Kirk Acevedo (The Thin Red Line) and Judy Greer (The Descendants, Three Kings, 13 Going on 30).