Up, Up and Away! ‘Superman’ VFX Leads Discuss Its Visual Feats

[the_ad id=”3275645″]

There have been many incarnations of the Son of Krypton in television and movies, but director James Gunn’s latest take on DC’s Superman proved an instant hit with audiences worldwide. Armed with his vision for the superhero (played by David Corenswet), Gunn laid down the foundation for using CG effects strategically to achieve an epic scope, and reunited with Guardians of the Galaxy VFX supervisor Stephane Ceretti and the teams at Wētā FX, Framestore, ILM and Rodeo FX to create 1,730 visual effects shots. Unlike the dour tone established by Zack Snyder, Gunn opted to channel the hopefulness and idealism associated with the title character but also to deal with the ramifications of those personality traits in a world that is far from utopian.

“Granted, Superman is going to be wearing a cape and tights, can fly and has laser vision, but to some degree this felt like we were working on a new IP because James Gunn has a totally fresh take on comic book movies in general,” says Guy Williams, senior VFX supervisor at Wētā FX, who had to deal with everything from capes, a massive kaiju and a mathematical environment to a 2,000-frame oner that features Raptors for a total of 586 shots.

“If you do visual effects well, you don’t notice them,” Williams tells Animation Magazine. You notice the impact. In that regard, all movies strive to be the same. This one present[ed] numerous unique challenges because James went comic book with it. It’s not just cars being flipped over and the occasional superhero punching somebody or flying. There’s a kaiju, the Pocket Universe, the River Pi and a black hole. We had a lot more fantastical stuff to wrap our heads around and that creates way more work for us because it means a lot more visual problems that you have to solve.”

Krypto the Superdog follows the CG creature footsteps of Guardians of the Galaxy’s Rocket Raccoon. “A talking raccoon is a little less something you wake up to in the morning, so a dog is trickier,” says Stephane Ceretti with a laugh. “While we were shooting Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, James adopted his dog, Ozu. We had to be careful in everything we’re doing because he’s gray, not white, as well as scraggly and bigger. We scanned Ozu in Los Angeles before we went to Atlanta to shoot Superman. James showed us videos from his iPhone of his dog chewing his shoes or going around in circles and doing crazy stuff.”

Silent film star Buster Keaton was a great point of reference for the production. “Dogs have these eyes that are round, and you need to express everything with very few things,” Ceretti explains. “We don’t want him to be an animated character. Krypto needs to be profoundly a dog.”

“Dogs have these eyes that are round, and you need to express everything with very few things … We don’t want him to be an animated character. Krypto needed to be profoundly a dog.”  

— VFX supervisor Stephane Ceretti

 

Robot #4 (voiced by Alan Tudyk) is Superman’s other charming companion that resides in the Fortress of Solitude. “Alan spent a lot of time with the guys from Legacy Effects, who built real robots for us,” notes Ceretti. “During each take, we looked at every little thing he was doing, like twitchy head moves, because the robots have only one eye and a slit. The animators looked at what we had from the actual mechanical robot and the acting on set, then mixed the two together.”

A complex proton waterway in the Pocket Universe was another visual that was quite esoteric in nature. “The River Pi was described in the script as ‘math gone wild,’” recalls Williams. “You’re seeing formulas and equations flying past you in a sea of antimatter. We got some beautiful artwork from the art department that set us down a path, and then we worked for literally six months doing iteration after iteration, trying to find a look for it. We knew it was going to be a river, so you start with a fluid simulation; however, we didn’t want it to look like water. We were doing tricks like adding what we call jets and mushrooms. We would have these strong jets of water that could push extra water into the simulation to create these swells in the river. We also had mushrooms, which were like a vertical jet of water that bubbles up onto the surface and collapses; that gave it this interesting cauldron effect that didn’t feel like a river but felt energetic.”

Metropolis Revisited

Although the setting of the movie was inspired by New York City, there was also another major influence on the layout of Metropolis. “The rift is going to come from the river, go through where the bridge is and then it’s going to where the LuthorCorp building is located,” says Ceretti. “All of these things we had to hit because of the script, so we started laying out the city based off of story points. I didn’t want to do compositing for every shot. We had to create a 270-degree view of Metropolis from the LuthorCorp building before we started to shoot. I wanted to use a Translight outside and not have to deal with bluescreen with those reflective surfaces inside the set.”

Every good Superman project also needs an impressive Fortress of Solitude. As Ceretti explains, “[Production designer] Beth Mickle had done amazing concept [art] of that beautiful fortress with these crystals fanning out of the ground based off locations that we could shoot in. We went to Svalbard and shot as much as possible in camera. Because all of the crystals are refracting, and there’s so many of them, it turned out to be a heavy render.”

Mister Terrific’s (Edi Gathegi) battle with a pack of Raptors at the beachside Fort Kramer required a two-minute, 2,000-frame oner. “Even with all the rehearsals and planning, if you’re going to do two or three setups for each one of those pieces, there’s three different stitches,” notes Williams. “The reset time because of all the wirework, footprints and destruction is large. What that means is to get three shots, and each shot takes two days, which is slow compared to a typical day where James Gunn does anywhere from 12 to 20 setups.”

“The challenge is that you might shoot this part of the scene in the morning,” he adds. “Then, when you are done with that part of the scene, the sun would be setting in a different direction. We had to replace all the environment so that the tent had the right light on the roof. The shadows of the people were coming forward instead of going the other direction. You can deal with some of those issues in grading and by making the plates feel the same average value as you go across the cut. But, if the shadows and the light direction swing badly, then they have to be fixed.”

Hair Apparent

Besides the cape, the hair was another key consideration for shots of Superman flying. “David Corenswet would wear a bald cap a lot of times,” reveals Williams. “We could replace his hair and have it really fluttering along. It was [something learned] from a previous movie that James did where they had the actor on set, did up his hair and then hit him with a fan. It turned into this almost wet-dog look where the hair just streaked backwards.”

Progressive Field in Cleveland posed an interesting challenge for the team. “We couldn’t do anything to the grass, so when you see Superman, the Engineer or Mister Terrific hitting the ground and plowing through the dirt, that’s all CG,” notes Ceretti, who says he is a huge fan of Richard Donner’s Superman movies and Star Wars. “These are the films that made want to do what I do. And to have James, who I have worked with for so long, take that on was somewhat unexpected and magical for me.”

Warner Bros.’ Superman opened in theaters on July 11, delivering a $217 million opening weekend worldwide and making it one of the biggest Superman movie debuts of all time. The film will arrive on Blu-ray on September 23, accompanied by the first of four new animated Krypto cartoon shorts.