In the new Sony Pictures and Marvel Entertainment film Morbius, the filmmakers called upon VFX studio Digital Domain to transform Jared Leto into the antihero Michael Morbius. Sick with a rare blood disorder and determined to save others who are suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts to find a cure. While at first it seems to be a radical success, a darkness inside him is unleashed. His existence is both extraordinary and tortured, which led both the filmmakers and star to consider new ways to express those emotions while remaining true to the inhuman, vampiric look of the character. That’s where Digital Domain’s expertise in digital humans came in. In total, Digital Domain contributed more than 500 VFX shots to the film.
Digital Domain began its work on Morbius by designing the final look for each character’s vampiric forms, with the goal of creating photorealistic, monstrous looks without using prosthetics or requiring talent to sit in a makeup chair for hours each day. Despite having a rough idea of what the character Morbius should look like (thanks to its comic book origins), the final look still required countless tweaks to ensure everything fit the filmmakers’ vision — from the jagged teeth to the exact pigmentation in the skin. The vampiric form of the character Milo (Matt Smith) was also an original design created by Digital Domain.
In Morbius, the advances to Digital Domain’s facial capture software allowed the team to record nearly double the geometry resolution and details of Thanos from the Avengers films, another character created by Digital Domain. With the final look of each vampire determined, the stars performed their scenes live on-set wearing facial capture markers. Each performer also recorded a full range of facial expressions and movements in order to create a complete facial geometry for each subject. Following principal photography, several scenes were then later refilmed on a motion capture stage, giving director Daniel Espinosa the ability to adjust and fine-tune the monster performances as needed.
With the facial data secured, Digital Domain then employed its Masquerade facial capture system, a proprietary tool designed to produce the highest-fidelity facial animation possible without limiting the performer’s on-set movements. From there, artists were able to turn the high-resolution face model into a high-resolution, photorealistic digital character. Artists then made the necessary adjustments to ensure that the CG version of the character was an exact match to the original subject’s performance, including all the nuance conveyed by the cast. The VFX house also altered the CG faces as needed to adjust the proportions. That included digitally removing and replacing the performers’ cheek bones as needed to highlight the more sunken look.
Along with the core look of the vampiric characters, Digital Domain also created multiple variations of the character Morbius, highlighting his evolution throughout the film. The film showed the audience five separate versions of the character — from the earliest moments, when just hints of the coming transformation are present, to a final form, in which Morbius gives in to his rage and unleashes a truly monstrous look at the character. The filmmakers were also able to introduce another unique story element, known as the “bloom,” which shows the characters momentarily morph from their human visages to their vampiric alter egos.
To complement the design of the vampires, Digital Domain also developed the look of the superpowered effects throughout the film. This included the speed and fighting sequences, which primarily used animated digidoubles of the characters, which were created after a two-week motion capture session featuring the main performers and stunt people. Digital Domain also developed the look of Morbius’ echolocation power.
Each movement at super speed included a wispy, almost smokelike trail added by Digital Domain’s artists, with the colors changing based on the clothes the character was wearing. Specific actions from the characters, including hitting others, initiated a “shedding” effect that diminished the speed trails. Characters were initially rendered for animation and review in Redshift, while the speed effects went through Houdini/Mantra. The final renders and lighting were then done in V-Ray.
Along with the work on the vampires, Digital Domain oversaw several action sequences throughout the film, including the container ship sequence that introduces audiences to Morbius’ vampiric nature for the first time, the subway chase that saw Morbius use air pressure to glide through a tunnel ahead of a CG train, Morbius’ prison escape and the final battle at the construction site. Each sequence utilized a combination of practical and visual effects, blending real sets with CG extensions and additions.
The construction site, for instance, was nearly 95% CG, leading to a physical set that made up the top floor. The design for the underground portion of the set was a collaboration between the VFX house and the filmmakers, with the artists basing their designs on existing, real-world underground sites.
To complete the final sequence, Digital Domain also employed virtual production to unite the filmmakers despite being physically separated. With the general look of the final scene complete, Digital Domain took the CG assets, including the complete environments, and loaded them into Unreal Engine. Using a custom internal pipeline, the VFX team was then able to grant the filmmakers — including the film’s director — the ability to scout the virtual set in VR. Live sessions were conducted at Digital Domain’s mocap stage in LA, with a performer acting as a stand-in. The performer’s body capture and the virtual camera data were then streamed into Unreal Engine while Espinosa directed remotely. The filmmakers could then examine the scene from multiple views, select camera angles and block out key moments before shooting, allowing for several iterations in a short amount of time. The data was then passed from Digital Domain’s visualization team to the VFX team, and from there they became the final shots in the movie.
