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A Monster Evolves How the teams in London, New York and Toronto worked together to up the visual ante in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. By Trevor Hogg
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ne of the benefits of producing a sequel is that the filmmakers can build upon what has already has been established, which is exactly what director Andy Serkis (Breathe) and VFX supervisor Sheena Duggal (The Hunger Games, Agent Carter) have accomplished with Venom: Let There be Carnage. “Venom and Eddie Brock [Tom Hardy] are still in a symbiotic relationship, but they’re more of a squabbling couple who get on one another’s nerves,” notes Duggal. “We get to see much more of Venom’s individual personality. For example, there is a scene in which he uses multiple tentacles to cook Eddie breakfast and another where they have a physical fight. We hadn’t developed anything this extensive in the first film, and this time around we leaned much more into the comedy of these moments.” Something that was unforeseen was the lockdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic. “Working from home across multiple time zones was enormously challenging and everyone was using different ways to communicate,” recalls Duggal. “Initially I didn’t
have a server setup in my house, so that, coupled with limited bandwidth internationally, meant it was too hard to download directly from the server in the U.K. I would spend hours downloading Aspera data packages from the visual effects vendors, editorial and concept artists on my laptop!”
additional VFX supervisor Marty Waters, who is based in the U.K. and was our shoot supervisor during principal photography. Tools like QTAKE and Moxian made it possible for me to be connected to the set and give feedback on the visual effects work.”
‘The desire was for Venom to be even more realistic and fierce, so DNEG, led by VFX supervisor Chris McLaughlin, updated his muscle system which makes use of a three-layer muscle/fat/skin simulation.’ — VFX supervisor Sheena Duggal
Duggal says the process required a lot of persistence and practical intelligence to meet the team’s initial goals. “We did some additional photography during the lockdown in the U.K., New York City and Toronto. Our actors were in different countries although sometimes acting in the same scene. We did a lot of previz and tech viz to figure out how best to shoot. I was lucky to have the help of
Tactile Tentacles Among the improvements the VFX team were able to achieve was the cloth interaction with the tentacles coming out of Brock’s body. “The idea is that the Venom symbiote seeps through his pores and increases in bulk. It pushes through the threads of his clothing, creating many small tentacles, which then combine into the creation of the
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full-grown tentacle,” explains Duggal. “Creature effects were devised to create all the tentacle and clothing interaction.” About 1,323 visual effects shots are in the final cut with sharing taking place between an in-house team, DNEG, Framestore, Image Engine and, in some cases, The Third Floor for camera blocking. Duggal notes, “The desire was for Venom to be even more realistic and fierce, so DNEG, led by VFX supervisor Chris McLaughlin, updated his muscle system which makes use of a threelayer muscle/fat/skin simulation. An entirely new facial rig allowed for better lip-sync, dialogue delivery and general performance. More weight was added to his animation. The Wraith Venom appears in many more shots this time around, so the animation rig was rebuilt and new development work had to be undertaken, as well as redesigning Wraith’s connection to its host [which was not visible in the previous film].” Serving as the primary antagonist is the symbiote Carnage, the alter ego of serial killer Cletus Kasady (portrayed by Woody Harrelson). “I decided that it was beneficial
december 21
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