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j u ly • a u g u s t • s e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 1 c g w 5 5 A udiences cannot get enough of the backstories to a number of the Marvel characters we love (and some we hate). Over the past several months, Aveng- ers fans have learned a lot about these characters, including Wanda Maximoff (the Scarlet Witch) and the synthezoid Vision; Sam Wilson (Falcon) and Bucky Barnes (Winter Soldier); and even Thor's nemesis and brother, Loki (the prince of Asgard and God of Mischief) — all playing out on the streaming channel Disney+. The most recent Avenger to lay her past bare is Natasha Romanoff (Black Widow), this time in cinematic splendor (and streaming simultaneously). And in the process, setting pandemic box-office records. Marvel Studios' Black Widow explores the evolution of the eponymous character. Fol- lowing the events of Captain America: Civil War (2016), Natasha finds herself alone and forced to confront a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, she must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships le in her wake long before she became an Avenger. And she does so in a spectacular – and explosive – fashion. Aer discovering a flying fortress hidden in the clouds, the Avenger puts on a master class in destruction, leading to an airborne battle with heroes and villains dodging flam- ing wreckage as they approach terminal ve- locity. It's one of the most visually complex and technically demanding scenes ever seen on film, made possible by Marvel Studios' longtime collaborator, Digital Domain. THE RED ROOM RISES Since her introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) more than a decade ago, the origins of Scarlett Johans- son's Natasha Romanoff, aka the Black Widow, have only been hinted at through the occasional one-liner and dream-like flashback. In Black Widow, Romanoff's history is finally revealed, including her time spent in the brutal "Red Room," a training ground for world-class assassins that she thought was destroyed. Aer discovering that it is still active – and airborne – the Red Room makes a spectacular and visually stunning debut in the film. Working with Marvel Studios and their visual development group, Digital Domain created the flying Red Room and the surrounding environments entirely in CG. The structure was designed to appear both intimidating and functional, with Marvel art- ists choosing a style that echoes Soviet-era architecture. The massive base features airstrips, walkways, a central tower, and sev- eral engines keeping the structure alo, all of which needed to be created digitally. To bring the Red Room and the surround- ing environment to life, including individual clouds and the countryside below, Digital Domain's artists used a suite of postpro- duction tools that integrated both Autodesk Maya animation and SideFX Houdini effects pipelines into every shot. With the stage set, artists then added movement to the flying fortress, giving it a realistic and consistent look that doesn't feel out of place in a world of superheroes. Digital Domain then went about destroying it. DOWNWARDS With hallways shattering around her and gravity turning deadly, the explosive collapse of the Red Room becomes a frantic escape for Black Widow and her allies. As characters flee the doomed structure via jet, parachute, and in some cases, freefall, they are joined on their descent by both enemy soldiers and debris ranging in size from small scrap to large sections of buildings. Each shot fea- tures dozens of pieces of wreckage at any time, all leading to one of the most intense skydive sequences ever seen on film. To create the live-action portion of the skydiving scene, the filmmakers used a combination of practical techniques to capture the principals, including shoot- ing talent on wires and mechanical arms against bluescreens, recording performers held alo in an indoor vertical wind tunnel, and filming trained stunt people through multiple skydives. The footage was then sent to Digital Domain, where the artists created a layout that tracked the location of the characters and the major pieces of debris at any given time. With the general layout set, the team at Digital Domain determined how the scene would evolve under different lighting and environmental conditions, as well as how the characters' interactions would affect the falling debris. That included altering the rotation of a jet in freefall as Black Widow flies through, and a memorable scene where the Taskmaster slows their momentum by dragging a sword across a piece of a falling building. Clouds were also added and removed to reflect momentum, the lighting was constantly changed to reflect the setting sun, and wreckage shattered as it slammed into itself, giving the entire scene a frenetic feel. Artists went through shot-by-shot to maintain continuity, digitally altering each key asset and environment by hand. It was a monumental and time-consuming task requiring several iterations. To create the destruction and hard surfaces – while also rendering the scene quickly enough to allow for changes – the team at Digital Domain turned to GPU rendering, along with Max- on's GPU-accelerated renderer, Redshi. "Rendering one cloud is easy, but rendering 100 clouds – along with dozens of pieces of big and small debris – is very complex, to say the least," says Dave Hodgins, Digital Domain VFX supervisor. "GPU rendering allowed us to do more in a shorter period of time, and create some- thing that we're not only proud of, but opens up a new world of possibilities." GPU rendering took on the bulk of the wreckage and debris work, while traditional CPU rendering was reserved for digital char- acters and volumetrics. Although a relatively new technique for achieving photorealistic effects on a large scale – due in part to the hardware demands – Digital Domain successfully tested the technique with Mar- vel Studios' Captain Marvel. To create the climactic and explosive shootout inside the hangar of the hidden Skrull ship during the third act of the film, GPU rendering was em- ployed to create several digital explosions, each leading to multiple, smaller explosions that created a sea of debris. The work done on Black Widow builds on that experience, but elevates it to a much higher level. REACHING THE GROUND Once the primary characters make it safely to the ground, the action continues as Black Widow faces off against the Taskmaster while a storm of metal rains down around them. The filmmakers used a combination of practical effects – including physical props dropped on the stage – along with bluescreens to introduce some of the larger wreckage. Artists at Digital Domain tracked