Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Blu-Ray Bonus Clip Highlights Motion Capture Work

Visually, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have come a long way from the bulky foam suits that defined their early cinematic adventures.

The evolution from cumbersome costume to the sleek computer generated imagery used in Michael Bay's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was documented in a new featurette included on the film's Blu-Ray, which is out today.

In the clip, the film's creators discuss how they used the cutting-edge technology to bring Raphael, Donatello, Michellangelo, Leonardo, and Master Splinter to the big screen in the most visually advanced ways possible. Through motion capture, in which an actor is filmed and then animated over in the post-production process, the film's creators were able to create fluid and graceful Ninja Turtles. 

"We thought that we could bring the Turtles into a CG world where they could do anything. We didn't have to have guys running around in suits that were limiting," Producer Andrew Form said in the video.

The video also revealed that film relied mostly on motion-capture acting and stunts, allowing for the most accurate battle sequences and realistic choreography as possible. 

"I think the way to sell visual effects as much as possible is to have as much visual reality in the frame as you can have," Director Jonathan Liebesman said. "It was important to us to have actors in the frame who were the Ninja Turtles as well as stunt people doing the martial arts so that the animators were matching something real as opposed to something imaginary in their head."

You can check out the full featurette below to see how the overgrown turtles got all those moves.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is out on Blu-Ray and DVD today.