Why Did They Create A CGI Baby For Renesmee In Breaking Dawn?

Divesh Solanki
October 24, 2022

The Twilight Saga is notorious for how Renesmee in Breaking Dawn was portrayed by an eerie CGI infant. The romance between human Bella Swan and vampire Edward Cullen is the focus of the Twilight series. It was long believed that it was impossible for Edward and Bella to become pregnant with a human-vampire hybrid kid during their honeymoon in Breaking Dawn: Part 1, but it was even trickier to depict their love child on camera.

The particular genetic makeup of Renesmee in Twilight makes adaption difficult. Renesmee develops physically and emotionally faster than a human child because she is part vampire. This means that the infant in Breaking Dawn had to be convincingly dissimilar from other human infants, both in terms of look and behaviour. Renesmee would also need to age quickly and convincingly throughout the finished movie.

The CGI infant that was featured in Breaking Dawn: Part 2 was made by Lola VFX and went through a laborious process. Five of the nearly 30 genuine babies used to film Renesmee’s appearance were combined into the final look [source: Flickering Myth]. Furthermore, Kristen Stewart’s own infant eyes served as the model for the baby’s animated eyes. The CGI for an adult Renesmee was made using a similar technique: When Jacob meets Renesmee, he envisions her becoming an adolescent. Using the same face-aging technology used to help locate missing children, Lola VFX blended a shot of an 18-year-old model with the digitally changed visage of 10-year-old Renesmee actor Mackenzie Foy to produce this effect. Unfortunately, the older version of Edward and Bella’s daughter doesn’t appear quite right despite the best efforts of the production team.

Renesmee’s appearance in Breaking Dawn was created digitally throughout her early years because to her rapid ageing. With the real Foy only making an appearance toward the end of the movie, altered versions of her face were repeatedly edited onto the bodies of various infants and toddlers. As a result, there were numerous young actresses on the set who served only as vehicles for Foy’s facial expressions. The baby, on the other hand, sticks out as the most unforgettable scene with its big eyes and surreal appearance.

To recreate baby Renesmee, the movie’s creators initially intended to use a life-size mechanical. The doll didn’t appear realistic, and because of her unsettling bug-eyed appearance, she was given the nickname “Chuckesme,” and the producers swiftly changed their minds. While effective, the varied techniques they used instead produced some unnerving images in Breaking Dawn. Even the film’s director, Bill Condon, later acknowledged that the representation of the hybrid infant was “a mess” [via Hollywood Reporter]. Because of her distinctive features, Renesmee was challenging to portray, and given the technology at the time, getting a perfect outcome was almost impossible.