Alternate Fifield mutant ~ alienex plorations

leading from
Fifield Monster

a) Weta Digital generated a digital Fifield with elongated limbs and an engorged , translucent head incorporating a semblance of Sean Harris' face to mutate the crewmember character beyond what was possible using practical effects. Before the shoot Weta developed digital creature concepts. They did animation tests of an embryonic looking creature that had sinister animal mootion. They studied references of acts, gorillas, and even crabs. Ridley was very interested in this. During the actual shoot, Ridley started leaning toward an in-camera trick effect with the actual actor, so they took the design of this embryotic creature closer to the human form.

b) Weta develop Fifield beast
Weta modeled the creature with a glassy head embedded with a withered likeness of Sean Harris. The idea was that it was as if a glass exoskeleton was forming around him, and as the design evolved, they made the inner head more visible so that it could articulate with facial expressions. As the design evolved, they clothed it in a simulation of Fifield's space suit, torn and covered in oil. The thing became a lot more humanoid, but distorted and long limbed, and it moved with a gorilla-type motion, very aggressive and walking on its knuckles.

c) Carlos Huante's response
The designer Carlos Huante observed the out takes from Prometheus, he loved the performance of the ape version of Fifield but the actual seemed more like an ape, but not right for the movie.

source quotes

To mutate the crewman beyond what was possible using practical effects, Weta Digital generated a digital Fifield with elongated limbs and an engorged, translucent head incorporating a semblance of Sean Harris' face. (Cinefex 130, p48)
Weta developed digital creature concepts prior to the shoot. "We did animation tests of an embryotic- looking creature that had sinister animal motion," observed Martin Hill. "We studied reference of cats, gorillas, even crabs; and Ridley was quite into that. During the shoot, he started leaning toward an in-camera trick effect with the actor, so we took the design of this embryotic creature closer to the human form. " Weta modeled the creature with a glassy head embedded with a withered likeness of Sean Harris. "It was like an exoskeleton forming around him. As the design evolved, we made the inner head more visible, so it could articulate with facial expressions, and we clothed it in a simulation of Fifield's spacesuit, torn and covered in oil. It became a lot more humanoid, but distorted and long limbed, and it moved with gorilla-type motion - very aggressive, walking on its knuckles. "(Cinefex 130, p51-52)
Carlos Huante: I saw all the outtakes as well and loved the performance of the ape version of Fiflield but the actual creature wasn’t Alien or Prometheus it was an ape… It looked great though, but it wasn’t for this movie. (Carlos Huante's interview for AVPGalaxy conducted by Jaime Praeter/ ThisBethesdaSea)