Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1358125
26 cgw a p r i l • m ay • j u n e 2 0 2 1 meant things such as dialing in the density of the darker tendrils, adjusting the heat at the core of the magic, how much camera shake there should be, and adding layers of period TV static and glitching." saYing 'good-byE' In another compelling finale scene, Vision begins to slowly disappear, this time in a sheath of yellow light and filament. "Vision's 'death' in Wanda's arms was a very emo- tional story point. There is a strong narra- tive symmetry with the previous episode, which ends with Vision's creation at the hands of Wanda," DeMarco notes. Again, this moment was carefully concepted by ILM's art department, where individual key moments throughout this long shot were carefully constructed. One of the first big challenges of this emotional and complex shot, where the camera rotates around the couple as Vision disintegrates, was the stitching together of three different plates, as the desired action was not captured in one take. There was a plate shot for the travel toward the house on the edge of the Hex wall as it closed in on Wanda and Vision, and two separate takes of the actors inside the house. All three of these takes need to flow seamlessly as one. They were camera-tracked, as were the ac- tors, with their body positions matched up as closely as possible in 3D space across the section where the transition from one plate to the other occurs. Subsequent 2D warping and patching was done to make sure the arms, hands, heads, and hair matched up completely across the transition – as no actor perfectly re-creates a previous pose when in a moving embrace. Meanwhile, the group captured Vision's body, head, and facial movements, enabling the generation of his head in 3D. The artists matched the lighting and integrated it around the actor's real eyes and mouth to preserve as much of his actual performance as possible. "Vision's internal structure is revealed as a glowing net of wires and particles, not quite organic, not quite machine," says De- Marco. "Getting the pacing right was crucial as it is a very long, slow-moving shot." Again, using Houdini, ILM created multiple particle, mist, and filament layers. To tie the effect with the TV signal distortion and artifacts theme, some of the layers moved on a 2.5D space. The particles were created in the correct 3D world space, but their mo- tions were constrained to the plane of the camera. This allowed the team to generate scanline and block artifacts that interacted with the three-dimensional world. During this reveal, the team removed the actor and replaced him with these varying effects elements, which were animated to swirl and dissipated away. In terms of the house, four differently- styled interiors were modeled to represent different decades, and the artists glitched and wiped between those decades using 2D techniques. Towards the end of the shot, the final environment was broken up into particles and wispy creation magic by the effects department, again taking inspiration from House of M as they did in the previous episode. One of the most challenging aspects, according to DeMarco, was retaining a photographic feel while keeping the overall effect simple-looking. Processing all the glows and light interactions through detailed mist renders provided texture and breakup. All of this was then composited together us- ing Foundry's Nuke, with additional 2D chro- matic glitching added over the environment and Vision to keep in line with the glitching treatment applied across the whole show. staY Tuned Since 2008, fans have moved through three phases of the MCU. WandaVision was the first offering in Phase Four, which will encom- pass additional series and films over the next few years, including The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which began airing in mid-March, picking up aer the events of Endgame. Despite the release of so many MCU projects over the past dozen years, Marvel Studios managed something extremely unique with WandaVision, while delivering on the high expectations of audiences – including high-quality visual effects. "We all knew the show had to have the same quality of visual effects, just over a longer period of time in terms of airing. So we chose when we wanted to have those big beats and tried to make them as impactful as the beats in the movies," says DeMarco. Bettany has said on numerous occasions that he believes the series had more VFX shots than Endgame (nearly 2,500). He is correct; WandaVision tapped out at 3,010 VFX shots. Impacting the work was the challenges presented by COVID, as principal photography on this series was interrupted and the crew sent home to work remotely as best they could, not knowing when they would be able to continue filming, where they could film, what restrictions they would face, which sequences they could get done…. With rigorous COVID protocols in place, work started back up aer several months, with the production pivoting to move a number of scenes outside. And then there's the pressure of working on a brand-new series and finishing the first TV show for Disney+ and for Marvel. "It took a while to wrap our minds around the shot count and the turnaround time, and trying to preserve the quality from the feature films and get it onto the small screen. The whole big picture was a chal- lenge, and while difficult, it felt achievable. I think we've created something great," DeMarco says. Indeed they have. Audiences think so, too: Viewers crashed Disney+ twice – when Ep- isode 7 went live and when the series finale dropped. Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of CGW. Like Wanda's power, the effects intensify during the course of the series.