Not too friendly completely unpredictable. It was a long process developing the look of the snake, we tried to stay as close as we could to the real thing, with some creative differences. We do alot of design work that all of us agree on in preproduction. We make machets of the creatures to look at muscle structure and skin texture and color. The animatronic and cgi sides work with first unit to agree on the final designs that will work for everyone.
Every film is different.
There are also digital paint people, matchmovers and the list goes on. I recommend anyone wanting to break into the field to inquire at a facility if they take interns. This is a good way to get your foot in the door and see how things work. At our Company they do. I am sure the same is true for Sony Imageworks and Sony Pictures.