Fully Assembled: The Making of The Avengers
“There are probably around 2200 ‘real’ VFX shots in the final picture,” states Janek Sirrs. “But the stereo conversion also meant that we had to pre-render all the traditional optical [digital these days] effects – dissolves, re-times – as well, so they also ended going through the VFX pipeline. Ultimately, it felt like the majority of the movie had some sort of VFX component to it.” The cinematic predecessors featuring Avenger team members Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and Black Widow influenced the look of the epic comic book movie. “It was more important that the characters had some sort of continuity with those seen in the previous movies than the VFX work per se. Marvel has very definite plans for their superheroes, both in their own individual movies, and in the ensemble pieces such asThe Avengers that we need to make sure that we’re supporting. That said it was invaluable being able to use the earlier movies as glorified ‘test material’ for The Avengers, and being able to discuss pros and cons of various techniques with their respective supervisors; this meant we didn’t waste precious time and resources reinventing the wheel, or choosing approaches that ultimately wouldn’t prove fruitful. For myself, my time onIron Man 2 was a great help in understanding stylistically what could be achieved successfully with the Iron Man suit.”
