For Raymond Chen, a Co-VFX Supervisor on Shazam! Fury of the Gods who oversaw the contributions of DNEG, Pixomondo, Stereo D, and BOT VFX, engaged on function movie franchises is previous hat. “Lots of movies are sequels!” laughs Chen. “I’ve labored on at the least 10 totally different quantity twos! In some methods it makes issues simpler in that some stuff you don’t have to find. For instance, in Shazam! there are a variety of tremendous pace results, they transfer from one place to a different shortly. That was one thing there was already a language for from the primary movie. After all, it’s not locked however at the least you’ve a beginning place. The identical factor with the look of the lightning. David Sandberg, the director, would generally say, ‘Within the first movie that is how we did it.’”
On the movie, Sandberg created his personal storyboards that assisted with the framing and positions of cameras. “David doesn’t do previs per se, however for one sequence within the third act he did like a stop-motion factor with little collectible figurines of superheroes to plan out the digicam angles that means,” Chen notes. “His drawings had been somewhat bit cartoony, however you may undoubtedly work out how he needed the framing and digicam. In a few circumstances once we had been working via previs, he would take the sequences that had been performed and do a YouTube response video. It was a singular solution to get suggestions. A few of that was on account of scheduling and the place individuals had been.”
Chen went via your entire movie throughout pre-production with Co-Visible Results Supervisor Bruce Jones, evaluating notes on all photographs, not simply these they themselves had been chargeable for. “No matter who was going to ultimately be doing the supervising of the shot, we’d ask one another, ‘What could be your methodology?’ Once we acquired into principal pictures, I coated a variety of the primary unit and Bruce Jones did a lot of the second unit. It wasn’t essentially that the sequence Bruce or I supervised onset we might be accountable in post-production. It was extra of a important and second unit breakdown. We did a good quantity of collaboration.”
Further pictures was wanted for the top battle between Hespera and Shazam. “It was initially deliberate to be largely in digicam stunt heavy wirework sequences with what they thought could be minimal visible results, however our visible results staff didn’t imagine that may essentially be true, which turned out to be the case,” remarks Chen. “You possibly can’t have capes as a result of we’ve wires there. You might have stunt doubles who’re making an attempt to cover their face however often you may see them. You might have head replacements. After all, the sequence grew to become a lot bigger than anticipated.”
Talking of capes, two sorts had been used. “We had the total cape, however we additionally had one thing referred to as the half cape that ended on the shoulder blades,” Chen shares. “It at the least allowed you to have one thing over the entrance of the costume that you can join into the CG model. Relying on the kind of shot and what sort of movement or stunt rigging was concerned, we needed to decide as to which one. CG capes are rather a lot simpler to get motion out of. If in case you have actual capes, it’s onerous to get sufficient wind on them to maneuver.” Complicating issues was the LED equipment constructed into the chest lightning bolts to offer interactive lighting which needed to be built-in into the costumes. “Within the darker scenes it helped fairly a bit as a result of there was a variety of seen mild coming from the chest equipment,” Chen describes. “In a number of the circumstances the place there was much more ambient mild it was fairly refined, so it felt like there was a variety of work for somewhat little bit of element. It wasn’t fairly profitable as we hoped for, however we made it work.”
A mechanical buck was constructed for the unicorn using scenes. In keeping with Chen, “[Special Effects Supervisor] J.D Schwalm and his staff created one thing based mostly off of heavier horses like Clydesdales for the movement reference in regard to how they might run. They customized made the using rig to simulate the gallop and movement. It may very well be tweaked for timing so you can go sooner or slower. I truly tried using it with one of many movement control-camera passes that they wanted individuals to lineup. They turned it as much as 100! For the group using scenes, we had a remote-control base that was on wheels, which might go in any path so you can have the horses transfer forward or drift aside from one another along with the galloping that they’d.”
“You’d assume that making a dragon out of a flammable materials equivalent to wooden could be relatively hazardous for the creature particularly when its fire-breathing,” Chen continues. “If it’s all CG then it doesn’t actually matter! The design of it was supposed to be as if it was in some way associated to the Tree of Life. When it comes to textures the wings had a variety of leaves textures just like the veins and shredding on the perimeters and pulls that poke via. The pores and skin itself was like bark or entwined branches. Then there have been vines and moss added into the crevasses that you just see in closeups. It was a fairly a extremely detailed asset.”
Forcefields are commonplace in fantasy. “It’s onerous to do a forcefield that’s utterly new; it’s tough as a result of it’s one thing it’s essential to see that’s there however can’t obscure what’s behind it,” notes Chen. “What we ended doing for the forcefield that the daughters of Atlas create across the metropolis was to have the refraction solely occurred with contact, equivalent to when Shazam flies up and smashes or punches it.”
Depicting magic visually is sort of subjective. “The primary half of the method is getting everyone onboard, like, ‘Are these the appropriate components?’” says Chen. “And then you definitely resolve upon how a lot of every ingredient to make use of.” The character of Anthea has the flexibility to control and transfer objects round. “In some circumstances, David talked about results by referring to different strikes. For the Energy of Axis for Anthea, he mentioned, ‘It’s sort of like Inception and Physician Unusual however not so.’ Clearly, it’s an identical impact so we took a have a look at the Physician Unusual impact which is much more kaleidoscope and geometric. Anthea’s impact has some geometric foundation to it however much more natural.”
Describing how the dragon has a concern impact that’s presupposed to induce panic, Chen says, “That makes use of a variety of distortion along with the lighting impact from inside the dragon’s mouth.”
One space expanded upon from the unique film was the Room of Doorways. “It was a tough construct by way of a variety of artwork path shifting doorways round and altering the design of the doorways and the form of the cavern,” states Chen. “The entire metropolis of Philadelphia and its environment had been constructed as a result of there have been a variety of high-flying photographs. We did use a number of the property from the primary movie, nevertheless it was a giant means of sending out a staff to Philadelphia. The helicopter shoots, and a variety of pictures helped each with the stadium which is its personal factor and the town as properly. We had a variety of scenes in Atlanta that had been changed with Philadelphia backgrounds.” Hardly any actual footage was shot of the stadium. “There may be one shot at avenue degree however every part else is 99% CG,” Chen provides. “We despatched a LiDAR and pictures staff with the intent of capturing all of it. As a result of the stadium must be destroyed, you’re not simply constructing the seats and concrete however the sublayers and inside constructions; that was an enormous construct and was one thing that was used fairly a bit which is sweet.”
The look of lightning went via quite a few iterations. “Lightning isn’t simply an impact,” observes Chen. “It’s not till you get it via the comp you can perceive the way it’s going to look and provides correct suggestions. We tried within the animation stage to lockdown the place the lightning goes and customarily the scale and form of it modifications in results. We tried to get the director or editor to focus in on these sorts of questions earlier on nevertheless it’s onerous to have a look at animation and assume, ‘That lightning appears good.’ As a result of it’s essential to add in all the extra stuff just like the glow, and lens artifacts earlier than you may say, ‘That’s the appropriate lightning.’”
The Energy of Axis photographs had been essentially the most complicated as a result of every part is shifting round. “There was one shot with Anthea utilizing her Energy of Axis to get away from lightning being shot by Kalypso; she alters your entire metropolis round her and strikes herself right into a location outdoors of a constructing at avenue degree,” says Chen. “That was one thing the place we did shoot parts for it with a light-weight rig that had shifting lights, however we ultimately needed to change it with a CG model in an effort to get higher integration and likewise to get hair motion as a result of that’s one thing which wasn’t sufficient within the authentic aspect. David needed to have a dolly zoom vertical impact as she will get pulled away. There’s a lens dimension change along with the buildings shifting round and geometry remodeling. That was a variety of parts to maintain up within the air and shifting, readable, and looking out good. It was a difficult shot and had a variety of iterations.”
A few of the most tough visible results work wouldn’t be apparent to the viewer. “We used LED screens on the college rooftop however needed to change a lot of them for numerous causes,” reveals Chen. “Lots of the occasions the attitude didn’t match up as a result of we had been capturing with a number of cameras onset so that you couldn’t get two cameras to have the appropriate perspective, and the colour and look of the sky weren’t essentially proper. We did intensive sky alternative on stuff shot on LED screens. There’s a variety of positive work by way of roto and hair and integration.”
For Chen, the finale between Shazam and Kalypso was a satisfying ending. “The destruction is enjoyable nevertheless it’s additionally visually fairly placing within the nighttime setting and utilizing the lightning to light up issues,” he concludes. “Present the story with out being illuminated. It’s fairly a darkish scene however dramatic. That’s one which I’m excited for individuals to see.” Chen provides, “The extra spectacular stuff is extra enjoyable to observe nevertheless it’s good to have a mixture of labor. There are a variety of totally different set items with numerous issues to resolve inside every one. It’s satisfying that you just get to do visible results work that isn’t meant to be splashy, and it fixes the issue and makes the movie higher.”
Trevor Hogg is a contract video editor and author greatest identified for composing in-depth filmmaker and film profiles for VFX Voice, Animation Journal, and British Cinematographer.
