Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1144162
s u m m e r 2 0 1 9 c g w 6 7 Banner retrieves the Time Stone, and Rogers the Mind Stone, but Stark and Lang have difficulty as Loki makes off with the Space Stone, which they later obtain by traveling back further in time. ILM was able to reuse a lot of the assets for Stark Tower and the penthouse from the first Avengers. The sequence in NYC is especially entertaining, as new Hulk meets his old self, thanks to the artists at ILM. "It was a combination of old and new, which was fun," says Earl. For the most part, the moments before and aer the flashback in the sequence were reshot, and then the artists restored and upgraded the original assets. S TA G I N G T H E F I N A L B AT T L E Endgame is filled with many impressive vi- sual effects sequences, none more than the end battle, which brings back a plethora of characters who join in the fight to defeat Thanos. Aer the Avengers return to pres- ent day with the Infinity Stones, the stones are inserted into a gauntlet created by Tony Stark, and Bruce Banner uses it to bring back all those who had disintegrated from Thanos's snap. But, the past version of Tha- nos arrives and attacks the compound with his warship. Soon the restored Avengers and other heroes arrive, and a battle of epic proportions ensues. Various heroes step in for the relay to carry the gauntlet to safety, with Thanos gaining control at one point, but not before Stark snatches the stones and uses them to disintegrate Thanos. "Going back to Civil War, we had about a dozen heroes running at each other and fighting in the big battle scene. In this one, we had hundreds of heroes and villains, and every Avenger using his or her powers at the same time. The complexity of the shots went through the roof!" says DeLeeuw. "When we started the show and read the script, we thought, OK, there are a lot more character moments in the film and we wouldn't have quite as much to do in the early part. But, there were visual effects running through the entire beginning of the film. And then once we got to the final bat- tle, there were showcase effects – and lots of them. It was kind of the kitchen sink, with everything in the kitchen sink." The big challenge in the sequence comes from the sheer number of digital characters and blending them with the live-action characters. "It's something that really should have broken the back of the entire studio in terms of getting it out, but Weta Digital and ILM really pulled it together and got it done," says DeLeeuw. The battle starts when the Avengers' compound is blown up. Weta built, and then destroyed, the CG environment, making sure set pieces could be moved to accommo- date various camera angles. Weta also built digital doubles of all the characters and all the creatures – essentially a kit they used to create the battle. Then, the fighting breaks out within the crater that's now where the compound used to be. A lot of the sequence was shot in Atlanta on a soundstage. "One of the biggest chal- lenges was just trying to get the lighting to work in a way that was believable," DeLeeuw says. "And, no matter how big the stage was, it was never big enough to photograph all the action. Whenever we tried to put set dressing out, it would interfere with the sheer number of stunt characters we had to photograph. Imagine trying to have maybe 40 stunt people out there, spread out. There are sorcerers and Asgardians, all in costume, and between them all, you have to have your CG characters interacting as well." As DeLeeuw points out, the Sakaarans from Guardians were actors, dressed in black armor. The Chitauri were CG, as were the Outriders from the first Avengers and Infinity War. "You are on the stage, and there's dirt on the floor, and set dressing, with stunt people swinging through the air. That's where we started the battle," he says. "Then the CG has to carry that all the way to what you actually see in the film, where the battlefield is populated and extends for miles beyond what you're actually photo- graphing. You've got the fog of war and the THE SHOT COMPLEXITY DURING THE EPIC FINAL BATTLE WAS BEYOND COMPREHENSION. ENDGAME IS ALL ABOUT THE INFINITY STONES.