History Main / SerkisFolk

* Gollum was the TropeNamer and Page Image. The team was aware of the UncannyValley effect, and used it to their advantage: the character was ''supposed'' to look dead-eyed and soulless.

* In addition to Gollum, Andy Serkis portrayed Film/KingKong in 2005 remake (as well as the live-action character Lumpy), and an intelligent chimp named Caesar in ''Film/RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes''.

* This was used in Michael Jackson's "[[Film/MichaelJacksonsGhosts Ghosts]]", when Maestro appears as a living skeleton.

* For probably the first time in his career, Doug Jones did this in ''Film/FantasticFour: Rise of the Silver Surfer''.

* The Comicbook/IncredibleHulk in [[Film/{{Hulk}} both]] [[Film/TheIncredibleHulk movies]] (in the first one, director Ang Lee himself provided the motion capture), and also in ''Film/TheAvengers'', with motion capture provided by Banner's actor Mark Ruffalo.

* ''Film/ToyStory3'' had some motion capture for the final scene where Buzz and Jessie dance together.

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': The Xindi-Insectoids and Aquatics. (the other three races -- the Arboreals, Reptilians, and Humanoids, were [[RubberForeheadAliens portrayed by normal actors]].) From ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', [[PeopleInRubberSuits Rubber suit aliens]] the Gorn and... well, to be honest [[SpecialEffectsFailure face painted on a background aliens]] the Tholians are redone as SerkisFolk in season 4.
* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'': Species 8472
* ''Series/BabylonFive''
** The Na'ka'leen Feeder from season 1. Also the Shadows, any Vorlon out of its suit (and not disguised as an angel), and the aliens of Sigma 957 when Ivanova confronts them.
** The Thirdspace aliens, the Drakh Keeper, Lorien's true form. Also, given their biological nature the Shadow and Vorlon ships can be regarded as these.
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|Reimagined}}'' (2005): centurion-style Cylons.
* Control, the warder of Martin Kove's alien prisoner character in ''Series/HardTimeOnPlanetEarth''.
* In ''Series/StargateSG1'' the Asgard are at various times played by either puppets or SerkisFolk. On DVD, the difference between the two is quite noticeable, especially episodes where a puppet and a CGI character are in the same scene and on camera at once.
* Sensei Kanoi Watanabe in ''Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm,'' while he's a guinea pig.
* The "videogame characters" of ''Series/AceLightning'', in a way which was sometimes so limited that real characters and [=CGIs=] were rarely seen in physical contact.
[[/folder]]

* As opposed to the [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles original films']] usage of animatronics, the [[Film/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2014 2014 movie]] uses MotionCapture. Their Mocap suits had the addition of what looked like couch cushions stuck to the back, though.

* The Na'vi (real and Avatars) from JamesCameron's ''Film/{{Avatar}}''.

* This was used in Michael Jackson's "Ghosts", when Maestro appears as a living skeleton.

* ''Binary Domain''.

* This was used in Michael Jackson's "Ghosts", when Maestro appears as a living skeleton.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

[[folder: Anime ]]
* The 2004 CGI adaptation of Shirow's ''{{Appleseed}}'' uses significant motion capture for all the characters.

[[folder: Film ]]

** Creator/BenedictCumberbatch is to voice as well as provide motion capture for the dragon Smaug in Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheHobbit''. Andy also returns as Gollum in the first film.

** Jar Jar Binks in ''The Phantom Menace'' was the first entirely CGI major character to be blended with live-action actors. Actor Ahmed Best acted on set wearing a Jar Jar hat for the benefit of the other actors, and was superimposed over by the CGI.
** The actor also wore a perfect replica of Jar Jar's clothes, which, weirdly, were also replaced by C.G.I. This is because they were originally planning on just replacing the actor's head with CGI, and not the rest of the body. This was later changed as it was easier to just make the whole character from scratch, rather than stick a CGI head on existing footage. There are a few shots where Jar Jar's face isn't visible so it was cheaper to go with the live-action Best.
*** After learning that it was easer to create Jar Jar entirely in CGI, George Lucas grumpily said, "So I just spent $10,000 on a costume that I don't need."

* Davy Jones (played by a CG Bill Nighy) and the crew of the Flying Dutchman in ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean: Dead Man's Chest'' and ''At World's End'', in their "monster" forms, with the exception of Bill Turner (Stellan Skarsgård, who was the only one who actually had to wear makeup and prosthetics instead of motion-capture gear). Also, Barbossa and his crew in their moonlit undead forms in ''Franchise/PiratesOfTheCaribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.''

* ''MirrorMask'' featured a number of completely CGI characters.

* Creator/RobertZemeckis has directed three films with all-Serkis Folk casts: ''ThePolarExpress'', ''Film/{{Beowulf}}'' (especially Grendel), and ''Film/AChristmasCarol2009''. He also produced the Serkis Folk-starring ''MonsterHouse'' and ''Film/MarsNeedsMoms''.
** At least two of these films feature examples where actors are Serkused to the point where they're unrecognizable. The lead character in Beowulf, depicted as a muscular superhero, was played by a 50-something character actor; in Polar Express, Tom Hanks played several characters, one of which was a young boy. Beowulf also provides a case of Serkusing and InkSuitActor: AngelinaJolie was pregnant when she shot the film, but was able to appear in a nude scene thanks to being (otherwise photo-accurately) Serkused. The same can also (shudder) be said of Anthony Hopkins in the same film.

* The ''{{Tintin}}'' movies are full of this, directed by Creator/StevenSpielberg and Creator/PeterJackson. And Andy Serkis even plays Captain Haddock, making it a literal example.

* At least a few of the ConspicuousCGI characters in ''[[UncannyValley Immortal]]''.

* The penguins from ''HappyFeet'', obviously. Mumbles' dance moves were provided by Savion Glover, the lead dancer/choreographer for Broadway's ''Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk".
* In addition to Gollum, Andy Serkis portrayed Film/KingKong in 2005 remake (as well as the live action character Lumpy), and an intelligent chimp named Caesar in ''RiseOfThePlanetOfTheApes''.

* The third and fourth ''{{Terminator}}'' movies have skeletonized robots done as this.

* ''Anime/FinalFantasyTheSpiritsWithin'': Everyone. There are even cases of [[ActingForTwo mo-capping for two]].

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

* ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'': The Xindi-Insectoids and Aquatics. (the other three races -- the Arboreals, Reptilians, and Humanoids, were [[RubberForeheadAliens portrayed by normal actors]].) From ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', [[PeopleInRubberSuits Rubber suit aliens]] the Gorn and...well, to be honest [[SpecialEffectsFailure face painted on a background aliens]] the Tholians are redone as SerkisFolk in season 4.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': The Na'ka'leen Feeder from season 1. Also the Shadows, any Vorlon out of its suit (and not disguised as an angel), and the aliens of Sigma 957 when Ivanova confronts them.

* ''CaptainScarlet and the Mysterons'' is an example of puppetry getting successfully updated into SerkisFolk. As an added homage to the original animation, dubbed Supermarionation in the original, the CGI used in the new series was called Hypermarionation.

* The "videogame characters" of ''AceLightning'', in a way which was sometimes so limited that real characters and [=CGIs=] were rarely seen in physical contact.

[[folder: Video Games ]]

* The first few ''MortalKombat'' games used this trope.
* ''EnslavedOdysseyToTheWest'': Made use of the TropeNamer, of all people, to animate [[TheHero Monkey]] in the game's {{Cut Scene}}s. And Mose from NedsDeclassified plays Trip.
* Several Tony Hawk games have made use of motion-capture.
* ''EnterTheMatrix'' was at the time the most expensive game ever made, due to the heavy use of motion-capture and using live-action footage shot specifically for the game.
* ''GuitarHero''.
* Done with ''Resident Evil 5'' and ''Resident Evil 6''.
* The Rainbow Six Vegas games.
* Justified with ''Splinter Cell: Blacklist'' since Michael Ironside was old that he can't handle doing mo-cop sequences.
* For the Metal Gear series, it began with [=MGS=] 3 to 4, with recent mo-cop sequences used in Revengence and Phantom Pain.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* ''RedVsBlue'': Season 8 saw Rooster Teeth beginning to use CGI and motion capture along with their usual machinima, courtesy of Monty Oum, the guy who made {{Haloid}} and DeadFantasy.

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[[quoteright:350:[[Film/TheLordOfTheRings http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SerkisPeople_4854.jpg]]]]

* Sonny and the rest of the ''Film/IRobot'' robots, with movements provided by the guy from ''StrictlyBallroom''.

* ''EnterTheMatrix'' was at the time the most expensive game ever made, due to the heavy use of motion-capture and using live-action footage shot specifically for the game.
* Many videogames in general use motion capture to animate characters' movements. Everything in a videogame is computer generated.

* Creator/RobertZemeckis has directed three films with all-Serkis Folk casts: ''ThePolarExpress'', ''Film/{{Beowulf}}'' (especially Grendel), and ''Film/AChristmasCarol2009''. He also produced the Serkis Folk-starring ''MonsterHouse'' and ''Film/MarsNeedsMoms''.

See also InkSuitActor, ConspicuousCG and StarringSpecialEffects.

* Many of the Martians in ''JohnCarter'' (such as the ones played by Willem Dafoe and Samantha Morton) are this.

Named after the actor Creator/AndySerkis, who was transformed by CGI wizardry into the characters of Gollum (from ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Film/TheHobbit'') and Film/KingKong for [[PeterJackson Peter Jackson's]] films. The trope name is [[JustForPun a spin on the phrase "circus folk"]].

Named after the actor Creator/AndySerkis, who was transformed by CGI wizardry into the characters of Gollum (from ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' and ''Film/TheHobbit'') and Film/KingKong for Peter Jackson's recent films. The trope name is [[JustForPun a spin on the phrase "circus folk"]].