Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1438374
18 cgw o c t o b e r • n o v e m b e r • d e c e m b e r 2 0 2 1 the tool produces simulations that are too realistic, so instead the artists used Houdini to simulate giant spirals, which are more of an unnatural motion for water. "In the end, we had to treat it more like a character because of the way it moved and reacted, and had to make sure it could do all the things that essentially a character could do — for instance, hold down the beast — and then we used all our current rendering technology to make it look like water," Walker adds. Additionally, Weta generated VFX asso- ciated with the rings, which Walker called "deceivingly difficult." "They're simple, they don't deform or anything like that, but we had to do some development to get the motion of the rings, the character of the rings, especially since the rings react so differently for each character," he explains. The rings are blue on Wenwu, who uses them in a more angry, violent way, more as a weapon, creating whips out of them, discs of destruction, and projectiles, for instance. Whereas with Shang-Chi, the rings are gold and are more an extension of his body — graceful — and he uses them to accentuate his own motion, to block, for instance. Eventually Wenwu manages to release the Dweller and its demon horde, and a full-fledged attack ensues (see "Dragons and Demons," pg. 19). The destruction is extensive as the beast breaks free from the gate. The Third Floor previs'd most of the fight, but as the edit continued to change, at a certain point Weta began handling the postvis itself. "While they were cutting things, we had a constant continuity pass going. Our layout team would constantly make sure that the dragon and the beast were in the sky in the right position all the time. So, if a big chunk of the fight was cut out in the mid- dle [of the take], we had to align all the story beats," explains Walker. That's a Wrap Just as Black Panther paid a beautiful hom- age to blacks, Shang-Chi does so as well for Asians, leaning into Asian culture and mythology, and bringing that to the screen beyond the fighting styles we see. "Bringing in some of the elegance of that culture was a big part of our aim in the visual effects and throughout the film" says Townsend, "while also creating something unique." Perhaps Weta's Walker sums up the ex- perience working on this film best. "Shang- Chi has everything that a CG artist really wants to work on: giant beasts, superpow- ered martial arts, and just massive effects everywhere. It's the longest show we've done for Marvel — at least until Eternals comes out." That's right, there is never any rest for those associated with the MCU, as Marvel quickly moved on to Eternals, released Nov. 5, and the plethora of other cinematic and streaming MCU titles that will begin popping up soon enough. Karen Moltenbrey is the chief editor of CGW. Weta handled the final showdown between father and son, and dragon and beast. Digital elements are found throughout the film, including this mural.