Avengers Infinity War VFX Breakdown

Avengers Infinity War VFX Breakdown

Avengers: Infinity War

The Avengers and their allies must be willing to sacrifice all in an attempt to defeat the powerful Thanos before his blitz of devastation and ruin puts an end to the universe.

Directors: Anthony RussoJoe Russo

Avengers: Infinity War VFX Done By

Industrial Light & Magic -VFX Supervisor: Russell Earl
Weta Digital -VFX Supervisors: Matt Aitken & Charles Tait
Double Negative -VFX Supervisor: Graham Page
Cinesite -VFX Supervisor: Andrew Morley
Digital Domain -VFX Supervisor: Kelly Port
RISE -VFX Supervisor: Oliver Schulz

Method Studios -VFX Supervisor: Greg Steele
Framestore -VFX Supervisor: Patric Roos
Lola VFX
Perception
Territory Studio

Production VFX Supervisors are: Dan DeLeeuw & Swen Gillberg

Avengers Infinity War VFX Breakdown By Industrial Light & Magic 

Avengers Infinity War VFX Breakdown By Method studios 

Production VFX Supervisor:
Dan Deleeuw

Method VFX Supervisor:
Greg Steele

Method Animation Supervisor:
Keith Roberts

Method created nearly 24 minutes of CG content for this hero-packed film, including CG characters Rocket and Groot, the Guardians’ ship and escape pod, and the massive Nidavellir environment. Rocket and Groot were primarily keyframed, and Groot had to be completely recreated as a new asset.

Method collaborated with Marvel Studios to create and refine the design of the complicated Nidavellir environment, which comprised millions of parts. To convey the large scale of Eitri (Peter Dinklage), compared to average stature of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), production filmed separate passes for each actor, which Method helped blend. Method also created a digital double for Eitri, and digitally replaced his manacles. Additionally, artists added Thor’s eye patch, which is later replaced by a robo-eye. 

Avengers Infinity War VFX Breakdown By Cinesite

Cinesite joined forces with Marvel Studios to create 215 shots for Avengers: Infinity War, an unprecedented cinematic journey ten years in the making.  Anthony and Joe Russo directed, Dan DeLeeuw was production VFX supervisor and Andrew Morley was Cinesite’s in-house supervisor.

In his quest to obtain one of the Infinity Stones for Thanos, Maw has kidnapped and is torturing Doctor Strange on the deck of the Q ship.  Principal photography for the sequence was shot on a partially built set in Atlanta. Cinesite created large sections of the environment in CG, based on concept work and previsualization geometry provided by Marvel’s art department.  Cinesite’s team rebuilt the ship interior using a modular 3D construction, creating an alternative damaged version for later destruction sequences. The environments included the stunning nodule screen; a massive fluid, motion-based screen on the front of the ship showing the exterior celestial environment, complete with infinite stars and galaxies.

However, the most challenging aspect of Cinesite’s work was the creation of Ebony Maw, an important and entirely CG character seen in extreme camera close up.  Actor Tom Vaughan-Lawlor’s facial performance was captured using a head rig; this data, combined with set photography and witness-cam footage was used as a guide for the full body animation.  The team received artwork and a high-resolution digital sculpt, from which they rebuilt the character.

Further character animation was required for ensuing fight sequences’s loyal cloak!) battle to free Strange, and a later skirmish when they meet with The Guardians.  Both Iron Man and Spider-Man, newly transformed in his enhanced “Iron Spider” suit, were entirely computer generated.  In dialogue shots where their masks are removed rotomation was key to the successful integration of the actors’ heads with the CG suited bodies.

The fight with the Guardians involved multiple visual effects, from full CG character animation to blast and web effects, CG daggers, Quill’s mask, Mantis’ antennae and damage to the Q ship environment.

Avengers: Infinity War is the fourth Marvel film Cinesite has worked on.  We previously contributed VFX to Iron Man 3, Ant-Man and Captain America: Civil War.  

Avengers Infinity War VFX Breakdown Framestore

Framestore completed 253 shots for the opening act of Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War. From the moment Bruce Banner crashes into Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum in Greenwich Village to the epic ‘Race to Space’ sequence, our varied and action-packed work includes building the New York environment in CG, crafting the Q-ship, and creating CG friends old and new: Iron Man, Spider-Man, Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian.

Patric Roos // Its was the NYC sequence at the beginning leading up to our heroes leaving earth.

worked on framestore 

Framestore had the unique opportunity to be creatively involved in the planning of the work, with a team of 160 artists, led by VFX Supervisor Patric Roos and CG Supervisor Rob Allman, crafting the dramatic opening.

The New York fight sequence sees well-known Marvel characters Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Spider-Man (Tom Holland), Wong (Benedict Wongand Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) take on members of the Black Order in an action-packed attack. ‘We were awarded a whole act, which was a really nice body of work’, says Patric Roos, VFX Supervisor. ‘The work was a real mix of full CG shots, plate shots, FX, set extensions, magic spells and a lot of character work.’

Roos supervised the shoot at Pinewood Studios, Atlanta in which large areas around Doctor Strange’s sanctum had been built, as well as the green screen, which the team extended to mimic Manhattan. The fight moves on to Washington Square Park, which was replaced in full CG. Framestore’s Capture Lab spent a month in Manhattan and New Jersey shooting photo reference, LIDAR and gigapixel panoramas to capture the the environments that had to be recreated in CG. ‘Production closed down whole city blocks’, says Richard Graham, CaptureLab Studio Manager. ‘We came back with more than 250,000 photos and 15TB of data to be used by the environments team to build Washington Square Park and the West Village, among others.’

Framestore did awesome character studies that were fully rendered vignettes with mini stories. Some of the ideas from the vignettes actually made it into the movie.’

Framestore tackled the character development of the Black Order members for around a year before post production, feeding into the Marvel Vis Dev group. A small in-house team created animation vignettes to delve further into their personalities and character traits.

The Black Order, or so-called ‘Children of Thanos’, presented their own challenges. Ebony Maw (Tom Vaughan-Lawlor) is tall, sinister, and the most restrained character of the group, delivering his lines in an almost deadpan manner. The animation team had to work out how much movement and expression to use, given that his facial design didn’t include a nose, a feature that usually aids a performance.

As the strongest of Thanos’ children, Cull Obsidian (Terry Notary) is the muscle of the Black Order. As one of the characters developed early on by the Framestore team, the challenge was keeping the design close to the comic book whilst still being a believable and threatening presence. ‘He has a massive torso, reasonably thin waist, huge thighs and a bunch of weapons’, says Nick Craven, Animation Supervisor. ‘So the challenge for animation was: how do you take a character who has aspects of a toy and keep him looking heavy and dangerous?’ The animators posed the character in a way that didn’t emphasis the silhouette, whilst the rigging team worked around the abnormally large biceps and unique bone structure, made up of pieces of bone protruding from his thick skin.

Iron Man has a whole new look in Infinity War. ‘Iron Man has a new suit design, which we worked on closely with Marvel for about two years before the design was locked in’, says Roos. Iron Man’s Mark 50 ‘bleeding edge’ suit is a move away from his solid suit of previous films: rather than unfolding, it is made up of singular nanobots which move around his body to form a suit. The manifestation of the suit moving around the character needed to look both organic and mechanical, with new weapons forming from it. The FX team used a bespoke FX set-up and Houdini to achieve the several layers of simulations and components required to look like a second skin.

Infinity War afforded Framestore the chance to work on Spider-Man for the first time. ‘I was a fan of the comic books as a kid; it was fun to revisit that,’ says Craven. Spider-Man is characterised by his dynamic and physical movement. Animators looked to past films for examples, and were often able to bring their creative flair to his performance. ‘They had pre-vised the Washington Square Park shots in a rougher form’, says Craven, ‘And I felt like we could really add some value to a lot of those shots, which was a great situation to be in.’

Within the 253 shots, Framestore also worked on the build of the ‘Q-Ship’, used by the Black Order; the Doctor Strange ‘Eldritch magic’, updated from the 2016 film; and an updated suit for Spider-Man. Fans were able to see a small glimpse of the Iron Spider suit in 2017’s Spider-Man Homecoming; it has an almost metallic-sheen, and allows the character to breathe in space as well as adding an additional layer of armour.

Avengers Infinity War VFX Breakdown By DNEG

Graham page vfx supervisor 

DNEG worked on 5 sequences across the film.

The Edinburgh sequence, where Proxima and Corvus attack Vision and Scarlet Witch. This sequence included extensive character work for Proxima and Corvus along with set extensions and CG environments, digi doubles, FX magic and destruction and Vision augmentations.

The scene in the jungle in Wakanda where Vision and Captain America fight Corvus, followed by the scene where Wanda attempts to destroy Vision with her magic.

The scene in Knowhere, where Thanos tricks Gamora, for which we did the environment work including fully CG establishing shots and ship animation for the Benatar.

Avengers compound interior shots, including set extensions hologram displays and Vision augmentations.

Benatar Cockpit interiors including set extension work.

DNEG  created additional motion capture for many of the shots using a Moven suit

Facial performances were driven by the facial capture footage, shot on set and during the dialogue and motion capture stages. The footage was used as a basis for the performance but often needed tweaking based largely on the difference between the actors playing the characters and the alien characters who were physically different. In some cases subtle performances had to be exaggerated and more extreme ones toned down based upon what read well.

Avengers Infinity War VFX Breakdown By Weta and Digital Domain

Weta and Digital Domain both did Look-Development work on Thanos. Weta’s shots were concentrated around the fight on Titan, and separate from Digital Domain’s work. It is a testament to the overall visual effects supervision and direction of the film that the two Thanos’ looked and behaved in such a unified way. Matt Aitken was the Weta Visual Effects Supervisor for Weta, who completed over 200 Thanos shots, along with another 250 of various other normal effects shots.

Avengers: Infinity War VFX Breakdown by Weta Digital

Thanos character throughout the following sequences (over 500 shots and over 40 minutes of screen time)

Avengers: Infinity War VFX Breakdown by Digital Domain

Digital Domain -VFX Supervisor: Kelly Port

Digital Domain worked on 513 Finaled shots.

Avengers Infinity War VFX Breakdown By RISE 

Oliver schulz VFX Supervisor 

RISE did the TAG sequence, a Central Park sequence at the movie’s opening, the Wakanda sequence where Bucky gets his new Arm, some inside shots of the Quinjet and an establisher of Planet Vormir.

Avengers Infinity War “Fight Scenes” VFX Breakdown

 

 

Avengers: Infinity War: Behind the VFX – BBC Click

 

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