Q: How did you design the look for the “game” version of Free City, do you all play video games or did you have to research?
A: We actually did a bit of both. Charlie Lemur, who worked on the client-side VFX team for Free Guy, is a huge gamer, and director Shawn Levy used him as a consultant and expert for the look and feel we wanted for the gameplay portions of the film. On the Digital Domain side, our in-house VFX editor for the film was a gaming fanatic, and he provided input. After work, he would record his gaming sessions to share with us the next day as reference for different styles of games. Our initial design focused on photo-realistic gameplay, but director Shawn Levy and the filmmakers thought that if the audience saw photo-real gameplay on a player’s monitor in the film, they may mistake it for a live action shot. At that point, we had to come up with a more traditional style of gameplay for the movie with two things in mind — 1. It could not be mistaken for anything but gameplay and 2. the audience needed to feel empathetic with the emoting and action of the characters. The end result was a stylized look between Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite.

Q: Free Guy is packed full of video game references, gags, and little details. Are these part of the spec given to you by the director and film makers or is there a certain amount of freedom when it comes to adding Easter Eggs and extra details?
A: Most of the cameos and Easter eggs we included weren’t planned. They came about when we were creating gameplay, and both Shawn Levy and Ryan Reynolds wanted to add more comedic elements into the mix. One example is that both Ryan’s wife, Blake Lively, and his 4-year-old daughter appear in the film as game characters. Blake even kicks Guy right in the family jewels. Another funny moment was when Shawn appeared in the game world as the character “Hot Nuts” as a burning blimp came crashing down behind him in the middle of the street of FreeCity. We did have some creative freedom, but it was really a collaboration. We worked closely with the filmmakers to make sure each shot included all the elements they wanted.

Q: When collaborating with different VFX houses on the same project, how does the work get shared out? Do you get to “Cherry pick” the scenes you want to work on? (If so, which scene did you really want to be involved in?)
A: It’s different for every project. We typically bid on the entire project, but ultimately it’s up to the VFX Supervisor on the studio side. In the case of Free Guy, Swen Gillberg divvied up the work between VFX houses, and delegated individual sequences mostly based on the vendor’s strengths. The opening ‘Oner’ known as the “BadAss Oner,” for instance, was something that played to our strengths. We spoke to Swen about it from the very start, and we were working out the creative and logistics before the show was even awarded. We actually have a great relationship with the other teams on Free Guy. There was even a moment on set when Bryan Grill from Scanline and I decided to arm wrestle for a particular sequence as a joke, but Swen convinced us that there’s plenty of work to go around. Fun fact, I’ve known those guys for 25 years. They’re like family. We really had a blast working together.

Q: Can you explain a little of the process that went into translating Ryan Reynolds’ facial performance onto the face of the bodybuilder for the “Guy fighting Dude”?
A: This handsome work was delegated to and executed by LOLA VFX. They did an amazing job on it. For the gameplay portions of the film, we were able to record Motion Capture and Facial Capture on our stages at Digital Domain of Ryan Reynolds to help us with key comedic moments.

Q: We understand you used your proprietary tool “Charlatan” to overcome a problem with being unable to do a reshoot with Channing Tatum for a “Badass Scene”. Did you use any other proprietary tools in the movie?
For Free Guy, the proprietary tools we used included Charlatan, and only in that one scene, and Masquerade for facial capture. When we choose what tools to use, it really just comes down to what tool is best for the job. Sometimes we experiment with different ways of creating a sequence, but only when it makes sense for that sequence. For the scene with BadAss, Charlatan was the best way to accomplish the goals and we were amazed at the outcome.

Q: The final question has nothing to do with the film, we’d just like to know your professional opinion. As we understand it, the Charlatan tool uses a library of learning data for machine learning, other VFX houses also have proprietary tools that have similar A.I Learning abilities. Do you think A.I. tools are the future of VFX? and if so, would a shared centralized machine learning database be a possibility?
A: After having conversations with Matt Smith, the head of the Charlatan team at Digital Domain, we believe AI will continue to creep into the visual effects workflow, and even replace parts of it. Research in this area is advancing quickly, and Digital Domain is invested in its future. Large datasets are often one of the primary keys to this research. VFX houses could collaborate in this via “Federated Learning“, where datasets are shared without exchanging them. We’re already doing this to a degree with our machine-learning software Charlatan, and with our proprietary Masquerade tool, facial capture with our real-time LiveDrive system and in the real-time cloth simulation tool, Elbor. Paint/Roto via Nuke 13 does this, and it has incredible potential. In the future, I see AI used in large scale environment generations and texture shading, possibly with mocap cycles and blending of cycles too. Hopefully, it may be leveraged to reduce facial shot modeling timeframes. As the demand in our industry grows, and we have a finite labor pool, the help of AI technologies is definitely welcomed!

Special thanks to Digital Domain and Nikos Kalaitzidis for answering our questions!

The post Amazing “Free Guy” VFX Breakdown appeared first on Fame Focus.

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A factory is generally made up of different departments, all working together to produce the final product. The VFX industry is similar, with many different departments, each with its own area of expertise, all working together to produce the final product. As you’d find in a factory, each department requires a different set of tools and machinery to complete their task. In the VFX industry, each department requires a different set of software tools to complete theirs!

We’ve created different categories based on areas of expertise to show you, what software options are most commonly used by the big VFX Houses.

Meantime, you can grab some amazing drag and drop VFX for your next project directly from ActionFX.

Rotoscoping

This skill is when the VFX artist basically traces around an object to create a mask that can then be used to remove the object from the shot to use on a different background. This process is quicker and easier when the background is a green or blue screen because you can then create this mask using color hues or Chroma range, a process known as Chroma Keying.

The majority of Big VFX houses outsource their “Grunt work” (Matchmoving and Rotoscoping) to India or Asia but when they do do it, they tend to use either, Silhouette or Mochapro, and some rotoscoping will be done in Nuke by Foundry.

Matchmoving

Matchmoving uses a variety of different techniques to track the movement of that camera that is filming a certain shot, this enables them to create a virtual camera that mimics these movements so that when they composite any 3D elements they’ve created back into the original plate, the scale, orientation, are perspective are perfectly matched.

This process (much like rotoscoping) is laborious and time-consuming and is generally “Outsourced” but the most popular software in use is 3D Equalizer, SynthEyes, and PFTrack. 3D Equalizer is the most popular and has been in use since 1996.

FX

This department is mainly responsible for creating natural effects, water, wind, fire, smoke, magical effects, and explosions. Unlike CG objects, characters, and animals, these effects are all too big, and too complicated to be animated by hand, so VFX Artists simulate them using Procedural Simulation Software. The two that are most widely used are Houdini by SideFX and Maya by Autodesk. Houdini is however very much the most widely used, so much so, that it has become the industry’s standard.

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Modeling

Modeling artists create 3D models of characters, animals, plants and objects. Working from concept artwork, photographs, and other reference material, they begin by creating a wireframe, commonly referred to as a “Mesh” and then use digital tools to “sculpt” it. When ready, the 3D models can then be passed on to be animated, textured, and lit. There are a lot of software options out there but the main ones used are, Maya by Autodesk, 3D Studio Max by Autodesk, ZBrush by Pixologic, Mudbox by Autodesk, and MODO by Foundry. Maya and 3D Studio Max have become industry standards for building 3D characters, creating particles, rigging, and animating, whereas ZBrush has become the industry standard for 3D sculpting, and Mudbox, is its main competitor.

Animation

Animators use CG rigs to animate the objects previously created by the modelers. These rigs can be set up to control where the joints or pivot points of an object are, or how far an object can move or rotate. The animators must then use these controls not only to control movement but to convey emotion. whereas a puppet may just drop its head, an animated character will make you feel its sadness.

As far as software is concerned there is only one way to go, Maya by Autodesk, very much the industry standard, and its use is so widespread that it’s really become the only option.

Texture and Shading

The Texture artist is responsible for creating photorealistic textures to be placed on the gray 3D models that were made by the modeling department.
Maya by Autodesk and 3D Studio Max by Autodesk are generally used for shading because both feature a Node-based shading system. Textures, however, are usually created with either Mari by Foundry, Substance Painter by Adobe, or Photoshop, also by Adobe.

Rendering

This is the engine that is responsible for the final 3D image generation and is generally connected to the modeling and shading software. The most widely used are Renderman by Pixar, Arnold by Autodesk, and V-ray by Chaos.

Compositing

Compositors take all the CG components from each department and combine them with matte paintings and live-action footage to create the final shot.
Nuke by Foundry is the most popular and the most widely used, a similar software is Fusion by Black Magic Design but it is far less popular.

After Effects by Adobe is also used but mainly for TV advertisement compositing or motion graphics because its layered-based system is too limited for major movie productions.

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Every decision mattered and they had to carefully choose where to add CGI and where to use practical effects.
In the freeway sequence they replicated a huge stretch of the Georgia Viaduct in Vancouver, to mesh in with the real-life scenes at the end of the car-chase. Once all the CG shots were finished, it then took 8 weeks of straight rendering.

Bryan Hirota, vfx supervisor for scanline vfx commented on how most of the heroes’ action shots were filmed without capes.” In fact they treated Superman and Batman’s capes as actual characters in post production, having them move almost as characteristically as the iconic super heroes. This was also very important for continuity between shots, where a real-life cape would move differently each take.

During the production of gravity, Alfonso Cuarón’s team quickly ran into trouble. Zero gravity is already complicated to shoot, but floating in outer space is harder still. In order to have various actors weightlessly spinning and colliding with virtual objects they invented the Light Box. A rig with a moving camera, moving actor rig and 196 LED panels, to give the actors a point of reference and for light reflections.

The logistics of having a boy and a large tiger on a small boat were technically impossible, so for obvious reasons Richard Parker was 100% CGI”. However they did film a real tiger on some shots, especially one where he swims, which then set the benchmark for the CGI; for the real footage to not look out of place, the CG tiger had to be spot on.

To play us out are some scenes from TV series “Missing” and “Pan Am”. So if you liked this breakdown give us a like and we’ll seen you behind the next one.

Breakdowns featured:
Deadpool – Atomic Fiction
Batman V Superman – scanline vfx
Gravity – Framestore
Life of Pi – Rhythm & Hues Studios

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Today’s movie is Robin Hood (2018), starring Taron Egerton.
LIONSGATE FILMS (2018)

Director – Otto Bathurst
Taron Egerton – Robin of Loxley
Jamie Foxx – Yahya / John
Ben Mendelsohn – Sheriff of Nottingham
Eve Hewson – Marian
Jamie Dornan – Will Tillman

The post Amazing Before & After Hollywood VFX – Robin Hood appeared first on Fame Focus.

Nowadays, for most FX you’d just boot up a PC and “hey presto” a fully digital photo-real Spiderman double! Ok, it’s a little more involved than that and we’re not saying that VFX don’t require a huge amount of very talented people who are ever expanding the possibilities of what can be done on a computer.
However, back in the late 90’s when directors Lily and Lana Wachowski were making their first instalment of ‘The Matrix’, computers weren’t so powerful. But, despite that, they still managed to push the boundaries of what could be done at the time.

And that’s what we’re going to talk about right now in this SFX breakdown of ‘The Matrix’.

For those of you who prefer to read, rather than watch videos, here’s the transcript…
It’s no surprise that the first effect we’re going to be talking about is the one known as ‘bullet time’. Not only is it the most famous one, used 4 times in the movie, but it’s also one that happens right at the beginning of the movie.
And before you go skipping this part because you’ve already seen how it was done’ using a bunch of cameras lined up in a circle behind a green screen
Let me just say that what may seem obvious at first glance, is often more involved than what you may have imagined.
Ok, they were definitely suspended on wires for this shot but you get the idea; the bullet time effect was way more involved than just the obvious ring of cameras.

Just look at the difference between the fast and jerky footage picked up by the cameras and the slower, much smoother, final edit!

This shot, in particular, has 120 still cameras taking photos in succession.
Now, seeing as the standard playback rate for a film is usually 24 frames per second, the 120 photos captured by the cameras would only last 5 seconds. However, in the final version, it’s a lot slower, lasts about 10 seconds, seems to speed up and slow down in places AND looks way smoother! So, how did they do this?

Well, before they even began setting up cameras they needed to first create a 3-dimensional computer-generated simulation of the scene. This then gave them all the information they needed in order to then set up the shot.

Information such as; where to put the cameras, how far to space them apart, what frame rate to shoot at…

But even with all of that, getting all the cameras set up with the correct focus adjustments that would have needed to gradually change as the camera comes closer to the subject and getting them to all point exactly in the right place must have been quite tricky, hence the wobbliness.
So they had to adjust frames and slightly warp other ones in post-production to smooth things out a bit.

Next question; how did they control the speed of the camera movement?
Well, seeing as the sensation of the camera moving around Neo is actually an illusion created by placing one camera after another in a ring and then having them take photos in succession at a constant interval, increasing the space between the cameras would allow it to ‘travel’ further in the same amount of photos. So, to speed sections up, they set them further apart and to slow them down they bunched them closer together.

And, finally, to make the shot even smoother, and slower,” they used a process that digitally created additional artificial frames based on an approximation between each existing real frame. “This process is called interpolation and is what they used to add that buttery smoothness and extra slow motion, making the shot last twice as long.

After that, they tracked the whole shot to a 360º computer-generated environment, using the actual on-location photographs for the texture.

The only problem with this shot is, while dodging the bullets, Neo manages to make his guns disappear too… Here he is throwing them on the floor and then they’re gone and they’re back again! Maybe they momentarily disappeared due to some kind of glitch in the Matrix from him moving too fast, or something… Yeh, that’s what it was. That makes me feel better… Not a mistake at all…

If anyone can come up with a better explanation for this, please let us know in the comments, we’d love to hear

For the scene in which the agents plant a tracking ‘bug’ inside Neo, a combination of CGI and animatronics were used. The shots where the bug is being placed on Neo’s stomach were CG while this animatronic torso was used for the shots where we see the bug wiggling its tail just before entering and later on for the bug moving under the skin before being removed.

One of the reasons why most of the effects in this movie still look convincing today is down to the well made decisions on when to use CGI or other post-production techniques and when to use practical effects.

A nice example of this is when Neo’s on his way to see the Oracle and looks through the car window. Rather than use a green screen and edit in the moving footage in post-production, they used some good old fashioned rear projection, projecting pre-recorded footage of the moving background on a canvas outside of the stationary car. This was done deliberately to give the Matrix a sense of fakeness to complement Neo now seeing the Matrix as something that is not real.

The shootout scene in the lobby was another masterpiece of practical effects, pyrotechnics, wirework and well-choreographed ‘gun-fu’. And as if the place wasn’t quite destroyed enough, they top it off by blowing it all up. The shot, that is, as it was actually a scale model of the set, only, scaled-down and upside down, in order to get the flames to appear as though they’re spreading along the lobby floor. And, for the elevator door, well… that; they created digitally.
And even though the pillars all appear to look brand new again, it still makes for a nice blend of Practical FX and CGI.

Another example of a nice blend between CGI and practical effects was the helicopter crash scene.
This was comprised of several plates, or layers, all tied together with the help of some CGI.
Let’s walk through this sequence and see how it was put together…
First, we have a stunt guy being pulled along the rooftop on location. Next, Trinity in the chopper with CG background. Then a shot of a hollow rope with a squib going off inside. You can also see how the gun fires before the squib explodes, here.
Next Trinity in front of a green screen and now we start to get more layered.
We have Trinity on a rope, the model chopper, Neo on a green screen and the CGI building.
Then the model chopper and CG background. Back to the multi-layered shot and then we have an awesome mix of CGI and practical pyrotechnics with a nice camera wobble/rumble effect on the final composite. Now a practical FX explosion plate on top the GC building with more rumble and a plate of Trinity swinging in front of a sheet of glass on top. And, finally, back to the previous multi-layered shot with post-production rumble, finishing with Trinity facing the other way in front of the glass and green screen.

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The post This Is What ‘The Matrix’ Really Looks Like Without CGI!!! – Special Effects Breakdown appeared first on Fame Focus.

The special effects in Home Alone also helped to protect actor Daniel Stern’s feet. “Whaa…?” …You ask?
Well, for the scene where he loses his shoes and socks and ends up standing on a nail, this was luckily only a soft rubber nail that didn’t hurt a bit. Or when you see him running barefoot outside in the snow outside, thankfully he had a cosy pair of fake rubber feet to wear as you can see here.
And when he comes in through the window and plonks his feet down on a bunch of glass ornaments, they were made out of special sugar glass that is designed to break easily and not cut. It still must have hurt though…

However, it wasn’t just Stern’s feet that were protected by effects, they also protected his face. I mean, shooting a BB gun point-blank at someone’s face is kinda crazy dangerous.
So instead they paid a guy called Kevin Nordine who had a studio in his parent’s basement, to some VFX, like all of the VFX; for the entire movie!
Yep, this one guy, charging up to around 600 dollars depending on the shot, working out of his parent’s basement in Chicago was responsible for all the VFX in Home Alone. From superimposing Kevin’s family members onto this shot to making Harry’s tooth shine and, of course, adding this ball bearing that allowed Daniel Stern to do this shot without actually getting shot.
This was done by hand painting the ball bearing right onto the film, frame by frame. Which actually looks pretty awesome!

But, perhaps, the only scene where Stern’s face wasn’t quite protected by SFX, other than standing under a 300-pound camera falling toward his face, was where the tarantula gets put on his face. That sucker was 100% real!

And, while special effects mostly kept Stern from getting injured, many of actor Joe Pesci’s booby-trap scenes relied on stunt doubles to keep him safe.
However, forgetting about those shots for a moment, there is one memorable scene where Pesci was, thankfully, protected by some clever camera trickery as, for this scene, they needed to blowtorch his head.

They achieved this by using a technique called “Pepper’s Ghost” which is actually quite an old camera trick.

To do this they set up a sheet of glass in front of the camera, angled at 45 degrees. Then they set up a dark booth with a black mannequin head and a blowtorch with a black nozzle, off shot and perpendicular to the sheet of glass. It’s similar to a green screen in the way that it’s essentially creating a mask.

But this mask is black instead and works because the camera will only see a reflection when there is enough light bouncing off the glass. So anything that is black isn’t giving off enough light and thus invisible to the camera. Therefore, when the blowtorch fires, the flame is the only source of light hitting the glass, reflecting off it into the camera lens. So, when Joe Pesci stands in just the right spot, the reflection of the flame lines up and even looks like it’s moulding around his head thanks to the shape of the black mannequin’s head.
All you need then is to add some additional flickering light to Pesci to simulate the light coming off the fire and you’ve got a pretty convincing special FX shot.

The only problem is, if you look carefully you can see some additional spill of light on the curtains behind the blowtorch being reflected onto the glass. You can also see the edges of the mannequin’s head outline where Pesci’s face isn’t quite lined up. But, despite all that, it still looks pretty convincing.

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But, before you go hating on the artificialness of computer graphics; saying things like “soon all the actors will be replaced with CG ones”, and they probably will, but there is actually a crazy amount of human creativity that goes into making these VFX. The concept artwork, look development, animation choices and a ton of other genius ideas that you wouldn’t even have noticed until people like us point it out to you.

So, in this video, we’re going to review some of the work ‘Rising Sun Pictures’ did to show you just how much creativity actually goes into CGI in this VFX breakdown of Spider-Man Far From Home – Part 2.

Spiderman Far From Home was so jam-packed full of huge and impressive monsters, stunts and overall action that seeing a smaller 3D hologram of the monsters and their origins may have slipped by almost unnoticed and, therefore, definitely unappreciated. It’s just some fancy pictures of the baddies, right? Skip to the action, c’mon…

But no, these holograms were actually quite involved and some of ‘Rising Sun Pictures’ most complex work in ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’.

As, aside from fixing a few things at the beginning of this scene… Urgh, wrinkles… hmm, much better…
Research into the latest scientific hypotheses on the behaviour of black holes was needed just to get an idea of what hell they’d even look like close up AND in 3D.
Then they combined all of those latest theories as well as theories on how they distort time and light; along with the audience’s expectations of what they look like, based on other movies; to then put it all together in a way that was in keeping with the style of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

For the earth water wind and fire Elemenalts and their origins, VFX artists had to study up on ancient statuary and totems, doing extensive research on deities related to each element.

The CG department used artefacts from different countries to base the elements on. While the studio’s 2D department took on the role of putting together the live-action and CG elements and finalizing the whole thing.
Everything also had to be further processed in order to give the style of holographic look that we see in the movie.
In order to light the actors on set with the light that would be coming off the holograms before they’d even made the holograms, they used a table with a lighting panel on the surface. Unfortunately, RSP was tasked with having to dim it; add layers so that it would follow any changes in light of the holograms and, in some instances, completely remove it!

And, as if that wasn’t enough, the hologram also had to follow a similar style to the other holographic elements throughout the Marvel movies while, at the same time, adding something new and exciting to keep it fresh.

Finally, RSP also worked on the scene where Nick Fury tranquis Peter Parker’s best friend Ned.
They added the tranquillizer dart and also some more holograms that shine out of the tiny device Fury pops on the table.
The holograms for this scene were also full of an extensive amount of work involving split-screens and clean-up.

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Image Engine delivered only 8 VFX shots for this scene. But that didn’t mean that there wasn’t much work involved. With shots as long as 1000 frames, full of extensive and complicated CG, plate stitching and comp integration, Image Engine certainly had their work cut out.
Creating assets that had to be photoreal while also matching practical ones. Creating seamless camera transitions between the Verrazano bridge footage and greenscreen shots while, at the same time, matching the animation style to the live-action stunt shot. As well as adding extra realistic-looking VFX elements and executing perfect 2D integration.

The sequence was made by combining on-location shots of professional stunt drivers riding at 100km/h, as well as some rigged crash stunts with dummies, on the Verrazano Narrows Bridge and some less impressive-looking shots of Keanu and the guys sat on bikes in front of a green screen while being pushed around by some other guys in green zentai suits, for the close-up shots.
In order to allow for seamless transitions between shots, they paid careful attention to both action and camera movement choreography.

To get a seamless transition between the riders and bikes, they took cues from the shots of the Verrazano Bridge stuntmen.

Of course, Keanu’s face also needed to be added in some shots. But, unfortunately, only one take of Keanu riding on the real Verrazano bridge was filmed so that take was inevitably the one that was used for the base of the 2.5D face replacements as it had the correct lighting on it.
They also created a 3D face replacement of Keanu using cyberscan and some texture photography while creating his hair in Houdini.

Stitching together the real shots with the greenscreen ones required a mix of cutting out bikes frame by frame and tracking CG objects and backgrounds all to the live-action footage.

Getting the animated CG background to perfectly match the real moving one is really where the magic of this shot lies and Image Engine have absolutely nailed this!

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Responsible for 200 shots, Cinesite’s Montreal team spent 8 months on delivering six key VFX sequences for the movie. One of which being the sequence where 20 huge trap-jaw ants are working on the ‘quantum tunnel’, using power tools and carrying props around Dr Hank Pym’s laboratory.

Cinesite were mainly responsible for bringing those massive ants to life.
To do this, they did extensive research in order to create a library of various realistic walk cycles, in various poses so that they could move and interact with their environment at a larger scale in a more natural and believable way.

Now, due to the natural smooth texture trap-jaw ants have, the CG ants easily ran the risk of looking too pristine and plasticy. So, to better define roughness, subsurface scattering and light transmissions were added by the look development team.
Different thorax proportions and head shapes were given for the audience to better distinguish between the ants.

But it doesn’t just stop there.
The realistic translucency of the ants’ bodies was designed to vary from ant to ant depending on their age. This was done by including internal shapes in order to simulate the thickness of a real ant’s skin, which is otherwise known as chitin, and help the shading work.

Many shots of the set featuring the ants on the upper and lower floors inside Hank’s lab were actually expanded further with CG
Various props were also added to the scenes, like these AA batteries, for example…
And, in some cases, removed and replaced with animated CG versions to allow for better interaction between the CG ants.

For the ‘Scott under house arrest’ shot outside Hank’s lab, Cuinesite used a CG environment of a San Francisco suburb created using lidar scans and 360-degree reference photos to create a 2.5D set extension.

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The sequence for the illusion battle wasn’t ever set in stone and actually ended up being made while it was being designed.
So, aside from all the VFX work, Framestore was also encouraged to come up with creative designs of the ‘Illusion Battle’ sequence.
To do this, they started with a pre-visualization by Proof and began building storyboards and concept artwork, adding movie references and other things to put Spidy in all sorts of uncomfortable scenarios.
By the time they were finished designing the sequence, they had only 8 weeks to complete it.

Fortunately, Framestore was able to quickly present concept ideas to the team over at Marvel, by sending rapid prototypes, made by modelling as much as they could in 2D while using as much stock footage as they could, as well as a 2.5D projection technique. This allowed them to promptly and efficiently produce a kind of animated storyboard full of ideas and sequences, for the client to decide upon.

For the shots where Spider-Man ends up pulling a crane through the hologram effect, all the action was first blocked with concepts before VFX work started. The environment and action were completely created from scratch which gave the animators a nice amount of freedom to add or remove shots in order to get the timing and feel of it all spot on.

The spooky green smoke that we see pour into each scene was done in Houdini and, also, really added to the spookiness of seeing Iron Man as a zombie.
The resurrected Iron Man needed to be chilling but not too horrifying or gory while at the same time looking pretty cool.

Due to the fact that Framestore was working on the sequence before any shots had actually been filmed, they were also able to help out with the shots on set.
Now, most of the shots were fully CG but there were some that really needed to be done by the actors themselves. Like, for example, the scene where Mysterio grabs MJ.
However, due to the scene not having yet been filmed, Framestore was able to take advantage and block out the animation with a CG version of MJ before the shooting began.
This way they could light a scene with precise lighting information for the position of the Eiffel tower lights and also the light from the moon, and render it before passing to production making whatever they filmed on set be, pretty much, the exact plate material they needed.

And lastly, whenever our hero breaks out of the illusion world there’s a blue sparkly transition, based on the transition we see in the B.A.R.F technology scene in Captain America Civil War.
The transitions move slowly, revealing the real world bit by bit.
Framestore helped drive the voxelization process before passing it on to the comp team for the final look in Nuke.

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The post Spider-Man Far From Home – VFX Breakdown [Framestore VFX Breakdown] appeared first on Fame Focus.

Weta Digital worked mostly on the 3rd act battle scene of the film which takes place on the rubble of the Avengers compound.
Now, seeing as the Avengers compound was situated next to a forested area beside the Hudson river, debris from all the destruction also featured some tree stumps.
The only problem was, after compiling a rough cut pre-visualization of all the shots filmed, all those lovely broken tree stumps made it seem more like they were fighting in a smashed-up forest rather than a demolished Avengers compound.
So Weta took on the tedious tasks of rotoscoping out all the actors in order to replace the background with less trees.

The lighting of the backgrounds throughout the fight was designed to subtly change in accordance with what was happening in battle. For example, Thanos destroying the Avengers compound or when our heroes seem to be in a position of desperation, the lighting was dark and gloomy but when help arrives through the portals, it brightens up slightly. These subtle lighting changes were added to almost subliminally tell the audience who’s winning in the fight.

Creating the huge portals was challenging. For Endgame, these needed to be huge, making it way more involved than the ones from previous movies.
Sparks needed to be spinning really fast and floating while, at the same time, cooling off, causing some particles to fall and others to float away.
To make it all look more natural, they created custom simulations to behave as wind fields.
This was then passed on to the lighting team along with some controls to alter the size and length of the sparks the time of rendering.

Captain Marvel’s costume was initially designed to be similar to the 2024-era Captain Marvel look. However, filmmakers changed their mind post-production and wanted it to look even cooler. So, Weta were tasked with creating a CG costume for her instead.

The Mark 85 suit in Avengers Endgame needed to keep a sense of flexibility while at the same time not looking cheap, plastic, knock off, Halloween costume.
So, seeing as the red and gold areas are more noticeable than the grey parts, they were able to hide a lot of stretching in those grey parts, clever. This meant they could preserve the sense of rigidity in the suit’s material while, at the same time, giving it the flexibility they needed.

Aside from some extra fixes to Thanos’ facial rig that they didn’t have time to fix in Infinity War, Thanos was, essentially, a different Thanos from the 2014 Guardians of the Galaxy era.
But, instead of de-ageing his face, they made animation changes to his fighting style and movement, making him look more agile and stronger, having him appear more like a warrior in heavy armour.
However, due to the design of his armour looking as restrictive as wearing a suit made of cardboard boxes, they did a lot of things behind the scenes to give him full flexibility while still allowing his armour to appear rigid.

Weta built Thanos using their muscle system that scans ahead of the animation, searching for any movement that would require muscles to contract beforehand. You can see a good example of that in this shot. Notice how his bicep fires a couple of frames before he actually moves?
Subtle muscle twitches and flexes were also added in shots where Thanos was stood still to greatly improve the realism.

And finally, we come to what Weta calls the ‘Blip’ effect. You know, when all the bad guys turn into dust.
Watching the almighty Thanos satisfyingly turn into dust and get carried away by a gentle breeze was all thanks to some very carefully timed and well-crafted work.
They created a simple 2 colour mask with the same growth algorithm used in the final effect that they could quickly update with any necessary timing changes. This allowed them to not only be able to show VFX supervisors how the blip would transition over Thanos’ body but also, once the client was happy, it could then be matched 1 to 1 as Thanos turns into dust.

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Track Title: Monkey Business
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The post Avengers Endgame Without the VFX – Part 5 [Weta Digital VFX Breakdown] appeared first on Fame Focus.

For the scenes where we see Thanos on his retirement planet, Digital Domain did an amazing job of bringing this artificial environment to life but it didn’t come easily.

A completely photoreal alien planet had to be created without it looking too much like Earth. They had to create alien plants and also the fruit that we see Thanos picking which is a mix of Guava, Artichoke, Kiwi and Kiwano, also known as ‘horned melon’.

Time was spent getting the lighting on the plants to look just right, with plenty of subsurface scattering, making sure they looked nicely backlit by the sun. Atmospheric elements like dust particles were added in comp as well as some good old’ God rays, otherwise known as volumetric lighting.

But this low angled sunlight shining through the many layers of animated alien plantlife took a lot to render. Renders would use nearly all of their render farm, taking a whole weekend to complete.
Aside from some alternative versions like Damaged Nebula and a clean Hulkbuster, Digital Domain recycled most of the CG characters they used in Infinity War for Endgame, with the exception of War Machine who was actually new to them.
Both War Machine and Hulkbuster’s models were shared assets from another company.

Thanos had some minor upgrades since Infinity War. More resolution was added to the Thanos model and textures. Additional controls were added to the rig, including the face, to allow for more detailed facial performances, such as partial facial paralysis, for example.

In order to make his face look and move like it had suffered the wrath of using all the infinity stones at once, so extra controls around the mouth were added in order to improve the realism of muscles not quite contracting the way they should.

For the scene where Nebula fights Nebula, it was shot in a way that didn’t really show both faces at the same time. Which made it much easier as it meant that there wasn’t much Digi-double work to do, leaving them with just the other tasks, such as; replacing future Nebula’s arm, makeup and costume touchups, eye replacements and adding the orangy stripe to her head.

Shooting this scene on a green screen soundstage actually made it more difficult for Digital Domain due to them having to make an entire digital set, matching the already established lighting on the actors that could also hold up to close-up shots.
To save on time, due to deadlines, they reused parts from other sets that they had previously created, adding additional textures and more resolution.

Thankfully, they were given quite a bit of freedom when creating the set which allowed them to insert lighting to match the already established lighting, baked onto the actors.

For the holograms in the scene where Thanos finds out about the future, they already had a nice about of the animation work already done, like the scene where Thanos loses his head, literally…
What they did do was to film the same scenes but from the perspective of Nebula and then create the 3D holograms but in the perspective of the audience. After that, once achieving the right hologram style for the shots, it was then applied in 2D.

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The post Avengers Endgame Without the VFX – Part 4 [Digital Domain VFX Breakdown] appeared first on Fame Focus.

Framestore were the original developers of the character Rocket back in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume one, giving him a slight upgraded for Vol. 2. For Avengers Endgame, Framestore have given him yet another upgrade. This time, making him a little greyer. Care needed to be taken not to overdo any tweaks to the character. Too much and he ran the risk of looking like a totally different character.
They also gave his suit a refresh, adding goggles and a red scarf.

So, let’s talk about the Quantum suits, made of high-tech armoured cloth and carbon fibre that we see them wearing to travel through the quantum realm. Here’s a fun fact, they weren’t even wearing them! Nope, for these shot, the actors just wore their everyday, casual, superhero costumes.
“Why?”, you may ask… Well, we do too. The most logical explanations are; timing, flexibility and convenience (weirdly).
Having CGI costumes meant that they weren’t locked into any specific design nor did they have to wait for costumes to be made. They could incorporate the nano-tech effects more seamlessly and seeing as they’d need to create full photoreal costumes for transitions anyway, just tracking them to the actors for the rest of the scenes makes sense. That would be my guess anyway…
So, reasons aside, to achieve this, Framestore built digital doubles for each character. They then set about building the suit based on concepts provided by Marvel Studios. Their Ant-Man esque helmets that look like they were made from a mix of nanobots and Guardians tech look pretty good.
However, personally, I think they could have improved it slightly by adding a subtle head jolt from the inertia of the movement to really link it to the head in the shot.
Here’s a really roughly put together shot with his head jolting verses not jolting. Let us know in the comments which one you think looks more natural.

Now, brushing aside this costume swap, been there, done that.
Let’s talk about what Framestore did to bring back the Quantum Van from Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Framestore used scans from the original to build the whole model on.
They used Nuke to get it to look as close to the original as possible and then decided which elements needed to be 3D.

For the quantum effects, they used a mixed of optical FX; aberrations, colour breakup, heat distortions, and even their own blue plasma.

For the big Quantum Gate time travel portal, this effect was magnified
And had to integrate with the Avengers shrinking and falling down into it. To achieve this they had to use a lot more optical effects, such as; smoke, heat distortions, aberrations, atmospherics, time echoes and lens-tilts with a few flares for good measure in order to key it all together nicely.

Framestore also worked on the super realistic looking smart Hulk
To get the ball rolling, they developed their machine-learning technology to learn source footage of Mark Ruffalo for it to then create a solve in order to match it in animation.
With this technique, they were able to create a first pass of animation that would help filmmakers decide on the edit in order to begin adding face-shapes to use in the rig.
The build of his face was challenging you can’t just pop on a hulk head with the face cut out.

as Ruffalo and Hulk’s face shapes are so different. For example, Hulk has a bigger mouth and deeper eye sockets. So tiny changes to Ruffalo’s face had a huge effect on smart Hulk’s performance.
So, a new subset of facial shapes was created with more complex and nuanced expressions to give animators that extra bit of control that they needed.

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For the space shots, DNEG used elements and techniques developed for ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ as well as adding layered gas cloud elements to enhance the depth. Spacing out layers helped give a better feeling speed and scale. Once they had it all designed, it could then be used as part of a lighting rig to better key in things like Captain Marvel and the Benatar.

When creating the Benatar, Previous models and textures of the Benatar were used as a starting point. However, the older versions didn’t have enough detail for the close-up shots and so several techniques were used to increase the resolution.
Extra greebles were added, straight lines were made to look more irregular, dirt, dents and flat surfaces were made to look more uneven in order to add more realistic imperfections.
As for the rigging, that had to be redone from scratch.
Additional parts that had never been seen before were also added, like the cargo hold, landing gear or the galley behind the cockpit.
And despite how comfortable Chris Evans may look in this picture, it’s not because of sitting on a sunlounger as this shot was actually mostly real! Well apart from Captain Marvel’s costume… and War Machine’s suit… aaaand Rocket.

Double Negative used Different approaches for Captain Marvel’s rigging and animation, such as digital-takeover, bodytrack augmentation, and digital-double shots.
DNEG created an animation puppet and face rig with their Modular Rigging System, ‘Pinocchio’,

Getting the movement right for the shot where Captain Marvel carries the drained Benatar ship back to earth was a challenge. In order to sell the shot, they needed to get a believable relation between the weight of the ship and her super-human strength. In order to remove to feel of Brie Larson dangling on wires, her body was replaced with a CG one. This way they were able to preserve the performance of Brie’s head while, at the same time, animate her body movement to fit perfectly to that of a person with super-human strength carrying a huge spaceship. Like anyone knows what that would look like anyway…

For Rocket, who wasn’t actually mocaped by a raccoon, which would have been ridiculous but also quite funny…
DNEG built a full CG raccoon skeleton and muscle system and based it on earlier models of the character.
For the fur, they ended up developing and new workflow that allowed them to quickly take in Rocket’s groom from other VFX studios.
They had to be careful with his facial expressions, too extreme would make the fur too dense in areas or look too cartoony, They also had to be careful with lighting so as not to tint the colour of his fur.

For the scene where Captain America fights his past self.
DNEG created a fully digital environment for the building interior and due to there being so much glass, a 360-degree digital environment and a matte painting of the whole city needed to be created because of the reflections on the glass needing to reflect parts of the background scenery that weren’t directly in front of the camera.
For example, the reflection of this building that would have been somewhere over there, off shot. And every shot of the characters also had to be tracked in order to be able to apply their reflections and shadows to the glass as well.

And finally, a fun little fact; DNEG actually injected some of their own personality into the movie by using the atrium and their London office as a reference for the interior design in the second half of the sequence.

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Track Name: Monkey Business

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The post Avengers Endgame Without the VFX – Part 2 [DNEG VFX Breakdown] appeared first on Fame Focus.

This sequence of Tony Stark, lost in space on the M-ship, was mostly done by Cinesite, who created the lonely exterior shots of the ship and retouched Nebula’s eyes to make them blacker. Her CG robotic arm was added by them too and they also did the visual effects for the sequence where she gets the orb and damages her arm in the process.

Cinecite also took care of the chase between the Outriders and Hawkeye beneath the rubble of the Avengers’ base.

Choreographing the interaction between these 8 limbed creatures was pretty challenging.
They created multiple animation cycles of the way the Outriders move, which included running, climbing, crawling and leaping.

The scenes were blocked out first, which basically means key poses are created to establish timing and placement of characters and props in a given scene or shot and the animation was then later refined for each creature.

One key aspect of Cinesite’s work was environments.
For example, this shot was made up of CG buildings vehicles, and multiple bluescreen shots of extras positioned on cards placed in Nuke, to bulk out the shot.

The sequence that involved Ant-Man giving Tony a “mild cardiac dysrhythmia” was also Cinesite’s doing…

Now, personally, despite how disappointing the character was for some, the VFX work done on Professor Hulk was insane!

What’s also insane is how many different VFX companies worked together on this move, 14!

Framestore developed their Machine-learning technology in order to create a quick first pass animation that could be used to help filmmakers decide on the edit before beginning the process of refining.
Keyframe animation was then deployed for over 60 shots of Professor Hulk.
This procedure of capturing the performance was key for the animators.

A new facial capture system was also created by ILM, specifically to make Smart Hulk look as close to actor Mark Ruffalo as possible.
Getting the look right look and performance also involved scans, facial capture and hand animation of the actor, as well as some concept art for reference.

Digital Domain and Weta Digital incorporated new proprietary software to put more detail into the face.

Now, seeing as Hulk’s face a lot larger than Bruce’s, tiny changes to his face had a big effect on the performance. So, a new subset of facial shapes was built to give animators more control in the animation allowing them to achieve more complex, subtle expressions.

When it came to shooting Captain America fighting his younger self, this was filmed on a green soundstage.

Yep, everything other than the bridge floor they’re standing on and a set of stairs was greenscreen!

The only problem was, all the detail added in the amazing CG set made it more confusing to follow the action on closeups. So, in order to get a cleaner silhouette of the Cap, they had to go back and sneakily do things like blur areas and add more atmosphere to make the Caps pop out more.

For the Cap fighting the Cap, they filmed actor Chris Evans fighting a stunt double and had VFX company Lola track Evans’ face onto the stunt double’s face.

And finally, for the portals scene in the final battle, before Tony Stark does the whole switcheroo with the infinity stones, showing them off like engagement rings,

Weta Digital’s digital matte painting department created completely CG environments and compiled multiple passes that were each rendered through their respective portals with the same camera movement in order to key together and parallax in this incredible scene.

If you enjoyed the music in this video, you can find links to it in the video description.
Please give this video a like to help us out and let us know in the comments what movie you’d like us to break down next!

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The post Avengers Endgame Without the VFX – Part 1 [Cinesite VFX Breakdown] appeared first on Fame Focus.

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The post Deadpool 2 Without The CGI! VFX Breakdown (DNEG) appeared first on Fame Focus.

They created a computer-generated photo-real version of actor Tom Holland that looked and moved so convincingly that Tom and even the filmmakers thought it was real.

One of the problems Imageworks realized was how all the iconic spidey comic book poses tended to make the on-screen animated character look a bit too artificial.
To overcome this, Imageworks focused on all the wobbly bits of Tom’s performances. They paid close attention to all of the times Tom was off balance or slightly hesitant in a movement, adding imperfections to the animation and other details like being misaligned with the camera or not quite holding a pose correctly. All of this made the animation feel more human.

Imageworks also worked on ‘The Vulture’, who uses an exoskeleton with huge bird-like wings. However, for reference, Imageworks didn’t actually use vultures as you may have assumed. Instead, filmmakers wanted it to have more of a military/steampunk look. So, Imageworks took references from real jetpacks and other one-man flying machines.

The end result was a bulky, heavy, powerful exoskeleton. However, this meant that The Vulture’s movements had to be slow, in order to stay true to how heavy things move. Remembering to slow down his animation went a long way in assuring he stayed grounded in reality.

For the modern military jet and its cloaking device, Imageworks took all sorts of reference from modern, state of the art technology. Inspired by the real-world Adaptiv IR Camouflage tank cloaking system from BAE Systems, the idea they came up with was covering the whole plane in a screen that projects a 360º image of its surroundings. But instead of using a plane-shaped TV screen, they decided to cover it in LED squares and have a 360º camera to capture its surroundings.

(Cantina Creative)
Cantina Creative were responsible for creating a variety of HUD graphics, holograms and monitor designs.
The HUD for Spider-Man was designed to be unique to the character but still fit within the MCU, making sure to also include a reference to the famous Stark Industries technology.

They faced similar design and animation challenges with the tracking hologram in Spider-Man’s suit, Vulture’s HUD, and many other screen graphics. All had to fit within the film’s design style while also conveying specific story points.

(Trixter)
To help populate the Grand Central cleanup scene, Trixter added additional background workers whose sized and outfits could be adjusted as needed.

In the scene where Spiderman fights Schultz, Trixter used a CGI school and added 360 degrees of matte paintings for elements of midground and far away distances.

Trixter also added a 100% CGI Spider-Man, who actually came from Imageworks. But Trixter applied rigging, muscle and cloth systems to it to make it look and move more like a loose training suit. They also worked on Schultz’s gauntlets.

For the Avengers compound, Trixter were given concept art that had been previously used for the Avengers compound, but, in the end, ended up remodelling it.

(Digital Domain)
For the Staten Island Ferry battle, Digital Domain created CGI versions of Spider-Man, Spider-Man’s drone, Iron Man and the Vulture suit. They also used LIDAR to capture an actual Staten Island Ferry, as well as the one created on set, to help with creating the digital version.

Despite being filmed with the lighting to mimic a specific time of day, it was later decided to change the time of day in post-production.

(Method Studios)
And finally, Method Studios did some amazing work creating the scenes for the Washington Monument sequence, that weren’t actually filmed on location as they were not allowed to film at the real monument. So, instead, they built very large chunks of it on set which actually gave them more control over lighting and stunts.
Now, before you go thinking; “I bet they just filmed it on its side and then flipped the camera 90º in post”, they didn’t. Instead, it was filmed upright, with Tom Holland supported on wires. However, they did have it just slightly pitched, to make stunts a bit easier, but not enough to be noticeable.

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The post Amazing Before and After Hollywood VFX: Spiderman appeared first on Fame Focus.

(VFX by DNEG)
Characters like Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive were actually completely CGI. Despite being played by Carrie Coon and Michael Shaw, all of their acting scenes were done in a mo-cap suit which was later used to rig their digital counterparts.

(VFX by Rise)
Sam Jackson plays Nick Fury in the Avengers films. However (Spoiler Alert) in the end credits after Thanos has snapped his fingers, Nick Fury is headed downtown with his closest agent Maria Hill. When suddenly half of the world’s population starts to disappear. CGI helicopters crash into buildings and all kinds of chaos ensues. This is when Fury looks at Hill and she starts to disintegrate. Using a clever mix of rotomotion, matchmoving and 3D models, VFX artists then added a soft wind to disrupt and carry away the outside shell of the 3d model, with a combination of RBD and FEM simulations. Pulling off this very convincing shot.

A similar technique was planned for Nick Fury after he grabs Captain Marvel’s pager, but in the end, the studio decided to discard Sam Jackson’s original plate, and switch over to a full CGI environment and a 3D model of Fury from the production of Winter Soldier used to bind together flakes and sand until affected by the soft wind. This way, they avoided more complicated matchmoving and rotoscoping headaches.

In this Wakanda sequence, we see Okoye and King T’challa strolling along a field which was actually a grassy hill in Atlanta. Thousands of trees and shrubbery was added using SpeedTree and Houdini. Also, many assets were pulled in from the Black Panther production and parts of the Golden City which were done by ILM.

(VFX by CineSite)
In his quest to steal one of the infinity stones from Thanos, Ebony Maw is torturing Dr. Strange aboard the Q ship. The character Ebony Maw was one of CineSite’s most difficult challenges due to him being a 100% CGI model, with some extreme close up shots.
The plate featuring Benedict Cumberbatch was filmed on a half-constructed set in Atlanta and the ship’s interior was then rebuilt using a modular 3D construction, creating an alternative damaged version for later destruction sequences.
Suits, like Stark’s and Parker’s, were CG, and then tracked and mapped to the actors’ bodies, although full cgi models were used when the characters’ masks were on.
CineSite was also tasked with tracking and sticking on the antennae to Mantis’ forehead.

(VFX by Framestore)
It was Framestore’s first time working with Spiderman and looked through past movies for inspiration. It has a metallic-sheen and allows Spidey to breathe in space as well as adding an additional layer of armour. Not to mention an additional 4 legs…

Framestore’s Capture Lab spent a month in Manhattan and New Jersey shooting photo reference, LIDAR and gigapixel panoramas to capture the environments that had to be recreated in CG.

Framestore also worked closely with Marvel for two years, designing Iron Man’s new Mark 50 “bleeding edge” suit. As opposed to the earlier movies, his new suit is made up of thousands of nanobots which rush into place on command, comprised of many different simulations and layers within Houdini.

(VFX by Digital Domain)
The pressure was on Digital Domain to make Thanos seem like a living and breathing super-villain, some would say the success of the whole movie hinged on his performance being believable. Thanks to their hard work alongside Weta Digital, Thanos is one of the most convincing CGI villains in cinema history.

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The post Amazing Detailed Before and After Hollywood VFX: Avengers Infinity War appeared first on Fame Focus.

And that’s when you can tell that the VFX have been done right; when people don’t notice anything at all.

Just in case you haven’t already seen it, spoilers ahead.

Seeing as the main premise of this movie is that everyone has an evil doppelganger, it was fundamental the shots showing both versions of a character at the same time looked flawless.

Now, instead of creating expensive digital doubles that sometimes don’t quite convincingly mimic the motion or nuances of an actors performance, they decided to use a different technique.
They shot every scene twice. Once with actors playing one character and then, having quickly gone through hair and makeup, their counterpart right after. Some scenes were also filmed using a body double in place of their counterpart.
The idea was to get as much real footage of the actors playing both of their roles in order to splice it all together in postproduction. Which is far more practical than strapping a mirror to a body double’s face.

Careful notes were taken for each camera movement, noting every camera position and rotation, in order to be able to recreate, as closely as possible, the same shot for each additional pass of the same scene.
Having multiple versions of the same shot made it easier to track heads from other takes onto stunt doubles.

The problem, however, with this method, arises when both doubles need to interact physically with each other.
For this, Industrial Light and Magic ended up having to play a bit of Frankenstein by chopping and cropping actors faces and slicing and splicing parts from stunt doubles in order to create a hybrid version that made the interactions look more convincing.

For the flashback where Red and Adalade first meet in the Hall of Mirrors,
Jordan Peele made things look even more creepy by having actor Madison Curry stand in front of her photo double, instead of simply putting her in front of a mirror, making it feel all the more unnatural.

When Adelaide’s counterpart reaches out and grabs Adelaide’s neck, Curry was filmed grabbing a green paper cup that was later replaced.
Her hands were also later replaced as well as a full head replacement for an added ‘surreal’ effect.

For the deserted tunnels under the US, hallways were designed with movable walls, some on rollers. This allowed for them to be adjusted on the move however they wanted and meant that they could also switch to a green screen backdrop, ready for LIM to chroma in endless maze-like corridors.

The ending areal shot in the movie was filmed in Nicasio, not too far from ILM studios. The only issue with the footage was that there were a lot of forested areas which meant that large parts had to be digitally removed in post-production for the line of tethered to be seen well enough.

To make the huge line of tethered feel more ‘tethered’ to the countryside, a team of 90 extras lined up in red jumpsuits on one of the hilltops. From there, ILM extended the rest of the line digitally to continue on as far as the eye can see.

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How did Goose the cat fit so many tentacles into his mouth? What did actor Brie Larson have to do to shoot fire out of her hands? Was there really two guys behind her, firing flame throwers in front of a green screen? Maybe not. But find out what really went on in this amazing before and after Hollywood VFX breakdown of Captain Marvel!

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For the Desolation of Smaug, Benedict Cumberbatch not only recorded the voice of Smaug but also had a camera strapped to his head as he thrashed about on the sound stage.

Koba from the Dawn of The Planet of The Apes was a CG version of actor Toby Kebbell who acted out the bonobo’s part throughout. A fully computer-generated model was then constructed and rigged with the tracking points from Kebbell’s face and body. The motion capturing mixed with CGI is what made the chimps in the movie so convincing.

Game of Thrones! It’s pretty obvious to every viewer that Daenerys’ dragons were CGI.

It would have been a lot less convincing to simply enhance giant puppets. But she still needed to interact with the dragons on set so rudimentary green props were used.
The same challenge was encountered on a much larger scale with the skeletons.

In Guardians of the Galaxy, Rocket Raccoon’s CG character was based on very a real raccoon named “Oreo”. Also, there was a teddy bear version that would be filmed after the plate, so the animators could get a feel of how its fur reacted to the scene’s lighting. In many of Rocket’s dialogue scenes, a speaker and microphone were strapped to an extra to give the other actors something to react to and for the other scenes, actor Sean Gunn would kneel in front of them reciting Rocket’s lines. Many of his body movements were used in the final animation.

It’s no surprise that Man Of Steel is packed full of CGI.
When your main character is expected to have super speed and fly around the skies, there’s going to be some special effects involved. However, something that wasn’t CGI was Henry Cavill’s pecks as the actor refused any digital touch-ups or enhancement to his body in his shirtless scenes. He also refused to take steroids to muscle up for the role saying it would have been dishonest of him to use trickery while playing Superman and he wanted to push his body to the limits to develop his physique into one that was worthy of the character.

In X-Men Days of Future Past, Mystique was so much more complex than Jennifer Lawrence in a blue suit. The actors’ reels would have to transition seamlessly from one another and VFX artists added a system called Feather Groom tracked virtually to Lawrence’s blue skin changing color as the scales are flipped over. This system could be moved over her entire body like a ripple in water.
For her role as Mystique, Jennifer Lawrence wore a special bodysuit. She had previously worn full-body prosthetics in X-Men: First Class but found that too uncomfortable.

Some people wonder why the majority of the end fight of the Avengers was filmed on a green screen and not in the real Manhattan streets. Just the logistics alone, of shutting down a street for the entire shoot would have been a nightmare not to mention having to add so much digital debris and matte paintings afterwards anyway, that the whole thing may as well have been CGI from the start. And so it was. Artists had to create cars, mailboxes, fire hydrants, traffic lights, concrete streets, cables, bars, you name it, they CG’d it.

Amazing Hollywood VFX. So well done in fact that most of the time we don’t actually see it, at all!
But pretty much everything we see in the movies has a whole ton of CGI behind it, enhancing it into the polished scenes we’ve grown to love.

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One of the tricky things they had to deal with was how clean the actual ISS is in real life. Looking at reference photography, it all looked quite CG – the normal trick to break this up would be to add layers of dirt to the object but they wanted to try their best to stay true to real-life so they erred away from dirt where they could and went crazy with things like bolts, rivets, handles, cloth – basically anything that helped to add more texture onto otherwise pretty flat panels. They did, however, finally have to succumb and run a little dirt through which did actually help sell that last 2% of making something feel real.

Another aspect of recreating the real-world ISS that cropped up was the literal mix-and-match nature of the station. Different modules of the International Space Station were built in different nations, by different teams of people. Huw Evans and his team went to great pains to ensure those structural differences were preserved for the final film.

The planet Earth was all CGI too. As you might imagine, a special effects company like Doubled Negative has plenty of reason to have an in-house CG model of the planet Earth. And, According to Evans, the regularly-updated model can accurately portray the Earth from any angle. It rotates, it displays city lights and floating clouds. And that’s just the base model.

But Earth and the space station weren’t the only things they used CGI Models for.

For a moment when Russian actor Olga Dykhovichnaya’s character takes a walk in space, this was done entirely by computers. As Evans explained, Dykhovichnaya submitted to a scan of her entire body to render a 3D model. From there, a team of artists in London went to work, adding details to the final version.

Throughout the film, we see Jake Gyllenhaal, and crew., float through the International Space Station in zero gravity.

There are many ways to achieve this effect. You could film in a ‘Vomit Comet’, but this is a very expensive method.

You could have two guys in green costumes carry the actors in their arms in front of a green screen backdrop and then chroma key the background. But that would be a ridiculous idea. (3:15)

No, Instead, for ‘Life’ they opted to use wires to suspend the film’s actors. It’s a cost-effective technique that allows the filmmakers to film reliably (and predictably) for long periods. Of course, on the tail end of things, Evans and his team tackled the detail-intensive work of scrubbing out every trace of the wires. Imagine the artistry involved in erasing a steel cable that happens to splice Jake Gyllenhaal’s face in two on-screen and removing it so cleanly that no one can tell the difference even when the image is blown up to the size of a movie screen. Maybe option two would have been a better idea after all…

Moving on to the film’s big bad alien named Calvin

Calvin gets a lot of character growth over the course of ‘Life’. Like, literal character growth. He begins as a tiny organism and evolves quickly to a freaky predator. Evans and Espinosa accomplished this feat by splitting Calvin’s development into seven distinct parts: Petri dish Calvin, Finger-following tadpole Calvin, Finger-hugging baby Calvin, Hand-crushing flower Calvin, Mouth-erupting larger Calvin, Adult Calvin, and Final evolution stage Calvin.

Now, every studio wants to deliver on a terrifying movie monster, but creature supervisor Aharon Bourland had something a little more intensive in mind. According to Evans, Bourland wanted her monster to be based in reality. Says Evans, Bourland worked up a whole biology for this creature and tried to base it all on real-world references as much as possible so each part of its design had a function. And it really paid off.

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Enjoy

VFX Reels By: Rodeo FX and Rising Sun Pictures

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VFX By: MPC and Method Studios
Music By: Monkey Media Incorporated
Song Title: Monkay Business
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See for yourselves!

VFX by: Image Engine and Rising Sun Pictures
Music by Monkey Media

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