ILM: Behind the Magic in Marvel Studios' The Avengers

We are proud to present this video which showcases some of ILM's Oscar nominated effects work for the 2012 hit film, "Marvel's The Avengers". This reel represents a small fraction of the work created by over 200 ILM artists, scientists, and engineers backed up by a world class production team.

The stop motion animations which open and close the reel were done the old fashioned way - by hand, one frame at a time. They were crafted by ILM's stop motion guru, Erik Dillinger specifically for this reel.

-Enjoy!

[ILMVFX]

The "chrome" balls your referring to are graphical representations of the more that 1, 800 panospheres we shot to create the textures used in virtually all of the New York shots.

[ILMVFX]

It's always helpful for a director to be knowledgeable about the visual effects process. Much of the time, visual effects is one of the first departments on a film and we stay on until the very end. Visual effects supervisors provide a number of services during that time from helping plan the shoots to educating the director to what he/she can expect to see at each stage of the post process, to making suggestions which may help guide the creative. VFX Supervisors have to wear many hats.

[AustinThomasFilms]

CG artists are so underrated... *sigh*

[ILMVFX]

Yes, we've been implementing that type of technology sine Episode I in 1999.

Thanks!

[TakerVC]

Did you see the definition and details on the skin of Hulk??? O_O

[ILMVFX]

Watching the final product of a year (or more) of work is very rewarding. Often it's the first time we see it complete with sound and all of the non-fx shots so it's a very different experience than what we see while working day to day.

Thanks!

[AppleJacksApple]

Thats so crazy! The movie looked so realistic but actually most of it is computer generated. Inconceivable! :0

[AceCosplay]

You guys do such amazing work, I wrote my film studies coursework about how you have grown to be the best visual effects company on the planet. Truly an inspiration, I love what you do.

[phishey]

absolutley amazing. i knew there was CGI, but i didnt think it was this much,
The detail of the models especially blew me away.

[ILMVFX]

Yes, we used both Autodesk Flame/Inferno (as part of our Saber system) and The Foundry's Nuke.

[ILMVFX]

1. It's one of the largest we've built to date.
2. Typically, we simulate the majority (if not all) of our explosions and all of the smoke and debris associate with them. From time to time we might also augment a CG explosion with live action elements.

[ILMVFX]

Yes, we continuously train our artists on the proprietary software we develop.

[EdenNeedsAYoutubeHandle]

3:02 That one continuous camera shot. The best shot of the entire movie in my opinion, I can't even fathom how much work must have gone into it.

[ILMVFX]

The explosions you're referring to are all CG effects created in our Plume simulation & rendering engine.

Thanks!

[metsbears]

this really helps me appreciate the hard work that goes into CG

[ILMVFX]

On the contrary, every shot of Hulk, the Aliens and all of our Iron Man shots are fully CG... And many with Thor, Black Widow and Hawk Eye as well.

[SniperRed]

CGI is pretty. It's done well in this movie.

[ILMVFX]

Yes, we use Maya for our feature animation. It's a mature, powerful and extendable package.

[ManuShapopi]

If I watched this before I had a basic understanding of Editing, editing software, visual effects and special effects, I would never have gotten into film making.

[SuperGorli]

basically, aside from the actual actors everything is just cgi