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56 cgw j u ly • a u g u s t • s e p t e m b e r 2 0 2 1 the falling debris and altered it to reflect the damage caused by the impact, altering each piece as needed. While the characters face off, Digital Domain also gave the Red Room a final send-off, as the remains of the fiery and smoke-covered structure crashed into a nearby forest. The main characters then stand amid a field of real and CG debris as they head off to their various fates. "Digital Domain has a long and proud history of creating amazing destruction on screen, from iconic ocean liners to entire cit- ies, but the work we did in Black Widow is on another level," says John Fragomeni, global VFX president at Digital Domain. "Marvel Studios' latest blockbuster challenged us to look at the debris as if it were a moving, fluid environment in its own right. That allowed us to rethink how we approach CG destruction in films, and it will help us go even further in the future." In total, Digital Domain completed around 320 shots for the film, with work spread between its Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Montreal offices. The studio's work on Black Widow marks more than a decade of collab- oration with Marvel Studios, including multi- ple feature films and television series. Digital Domain recently completed work on Loki, and is currently working on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and more. TERRESTRIAL VFX Cinesite also played an important role in Black Widow, delivering several VFX se- quences for the film. Cinesite's visual effects for Black Widow, in contrast with the otherworldly effects created for previous Avengers films, are terrestrial, ranging from helicopters to cars, a laboratory, and a prison. In one sequence, where Natasha and Yelena are having a con- versation while driving down a motorway, Cinesite's team replaced their BMW with a CG version, stitching together nine camer- as and forming a circular array to create a 360-degree environment. This environment was projected behind the actresses on set to achieve appropriate interactive lighting and added into the shot later, complete with glass reflections on the car windows. Another shot, filmed with a locked-off camera, was altered so that the car drives into shot, adding dynamism and pace to the dialog scene. This was achieved through careful sleight of hand, which involved adding the plate with the actresses into a separate card and positioning them within the CG vehicle and environment. Much of Cinesite's work takes place inside a squalid Russian prison, where Alexei (The Red Guardian) is languishing. In one gruesome but hilarious sequence, Alexei is participating in an arm-wrestling contest in which he easily snaps the wrist of a particu- larly gargantuan opponent, as his arm hangs precariously at a very uncomfortable angle. A CG hand and forearm were added, and 2D projection techniques used to blend seam- lessly out of the live action into the CG limb. One of Cinesite's most challenging shots involves Alexei pulling one of the prison guards over a guard desk, through a pane of toughened glass. Cinesite VFX Supervisor Ben White says, "What made this shot a particular challenge is that it's laminated glass, which behaves very differently from the regular type. It's like windshield glass – it's tough, flexible, and very difficult to break. As it shatters, it behaves more like a kind of rigid, glassy cloth; that was a challenge for the FX team, but they really pulled it off, and it makes for a very convincing action shot." Cinesite partner company Trixter also delivered a significant body of work, which includes Taskmaster's mask, Black Widow's veil, and several major action sequences and environments. Last year, they delivered over 280 shots for Captain Marvel, including Marvel's cat, Goose. More recently, they de- livered the VFX for the Loki series, and they are currently in production on Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, scheduled for release in September 2021. Meanwhile, Black Widow is the fourth Marvel film to which Cinesite has contrib- uted visual effects in the past three years, following Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Ant- man & The Wasp (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). Cinesite's work was more terrestrial, including building this helicopter.