3D World

FEATURE
Black Panther

extensive visual effects shots

before. “Geoffrey Baumann,

our production visual effects

supervisor, focused on the previs

in the early days and showed

Rachel plates versus the final shot

from previous Marvel movies. The

previs continued throughout the

show because there were changes

to the design and story. We had

quite a big reshoot for part of the

third act as they wanted to amp up

the action for the battle sequence.”

Black Panther tackles Erik

Killmonger causing them to fall

into the mineshaft. “It couldn’t

be dark, dank and grimy,”

notes Perry. “It had to look like

somewhere people would work

because Wakanda is an advanced

civilization. The animators

went for an approach where the

cameraman skydives at the same

time as they are falling.”

Vibranium in its raw form is

a dark colour like the outfits of

the two adversaries. “We were

lack Panther has
become the fifth
Marvel Studios movie
to cross the $1 billion
global box office
mark. “It’s unbelievable that the
world has such a huge reaction to a
film and I can’t help but feel proud
to be part of it,” remarks Method
Studios associate VFX supervisor
Todd Perry. “It was clear that Black
Panther was going to be different
just by reading the screenplay.
You have the African side of
things but also the component
of strong women. There are no
women on the sidelines who are
strictly love interests. We knew
that it was going to affect certain
demographics harder than others
but when the first trailer came out
the world went bonkers; that was
the first indication of how big this
thing was going to be.” Serving as
one of the main vendors for Black
Panther, Method Studios was
responsible for 410 shots with the
bulk of work taking place during
the third-act battle as well as
creating digital doubles for the title
character and Erik Killmonger.
A reference bible was assembled
by the film production team and
presented to the visual effects
companies. “We used that as a go-
to manual,” notes Method Studios
VFX supervisor Andy Brown. “It
gave us an overview of Wakandan
culture, from architecture to a
map of the country to the history
of the vibranium mine, how Mount
Bashenga was created and what
vibranium would look like in its
different states.” Neither director
Ryan Coogler nor cinematographer
Rachel Morrison had dealt with

B

The Border Tribe

that protects

Wakanda wear

blankets that have

vibranium threads

in them and can

generate holograms

The panther

sculpture on Mount

Bashenga went

through several

iterations in an

effort not to make

it look too fierce,

stoic or old

playing with silhouettes of Black

Panther and Killmonger a lot so

had this vibranium river seam

at the bottom of the mine that

emitted a blue light, and used the

idea of another shaft that daylight

would come through from the top,”

explains Brown. “Then we had

more localised light sources from

this vibranium train station which

gave us the opportunity to put in

some bright, warm tungsten lights

to give it a bit of contrast. We used

a lot of atmospherics to pick out the

silhouettes as well.”

Digital doubles were created

from a daily routine. “When an

actor wrapped he or she went to

the photogrammetry booth and

got scanned,” notes Perry. “We had

all of this reference for different

outfits in various states such as

Okoye, W’Kabi and Shuri. Marvel

sent us the costumes so that we

could take more photography

and it also gave the modellers

something tangible to work with.”

“each trIBe had a dIfferent

style of fIghtIng that Was all

Worked out By the stunt team”

Todd Perry, associate VFX supervisor, Method Studios