The most recent visual effects studio revealed that contributed to special effects of Marvel's The Avengers summer blockbuster is Luma Pictures. Reuniting with Marvel Studios, Luma worked on the movie's Helicarrier bridge, Thor donning his armor and summoning a tornado, and various exterior environments.
Executive VFX Supervisor Payam Shohadai says, "For us, the most artistically engaging scene was the wide shot of Thor and Coulson on the Helicarrier bridge at night. This shot encompassed every little detail of the bridge, and required a lot of rigorous lighting and look development to capture a realistic look. The asset was heavy and contained a lot of metallic materials with blurry reflections, which are notoriously difficult to render clean."
"This was the third full show for us using Arnold [rendering software], and we continued to develop our tools and techniques around this exciting renderer," added CG Supervisor Richard Sutherland. "To speed workflow during our look development phase, we developed an illumination caching system for preview renders, and tweaked the translation of large numbers of objects. For the exterior shots, with large-scale volumetric clouds, we rebuilt and enhanced a cloud building system based on Maya fluids. There were several shots of Thor summoning a Thor-nado, which gave us a chance to brush off and improve some of our FumeFX to Maya pipeline."
In addition to updating their visual effects reel, embedded below, with brief footage from the movie, Luma Pictures also provided high-res still photos showcasing their work. Check them out below!
The last two images pictured above are a conceptual illustration by Adi Granov, showing two of many initial designs for the Chitauri aliens. These concepts in particular were not included in
Marvel's The Avengers 270-page art book.
Marvel Studios presents in association with Paramount Pictures “Marvel’s The Avengers”--the super hero team up of a lifetime, featuring iconic Marvel super heroes Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Captain America, Hawkeye and Black Widow. When an unexpected enemy emerges that threatens global safety and security, Nick Fury, Director of the international peacekeeping agency known as S.H.I.E.L.D., finds himself in need of a team to pull the world back from the brink of disaster. Spanning the globe, a daring recruitment effort begins.
Starring Robert Downey, Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner and Samuel L. Jackson, & directed by Joss Whedon from a screenplay by Joss Whedon, “Marvel’s The Avengers” is based on the ever-popular Marvel comic book series “The Avengers,” first published in 1963 and a comics institution ever since. Prepare yourself for an exciting event movie, packed with action and spectacular special effects, when “Marvel’s The Avengers” assemble on May 4, 2012. The film is distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. In addition to "Marvel's The Avengers," Marvel Studios will release a slate of films based on the Marvel characters including "Iron Man 3" on May 3, 2013!; and “Thor 2” on November 15, 2013.