By Randi Altman

Ever sit around as a kid with friends and argue about who would win a fight between Batman and Superman? Well, I’m pretty sure the creators of Godzilla vs. Kong did. This Adam Wingard-directed action film is the fourth movie in the franchise’s MonsterVerse, which includes Godzilla: King of Monsters and Kong: Skull Island.

Bryan Hirota

Scanline VFX was the lead house on the film, with its LA, Vancouver and Montreal offices providing 390 shots over 17 sequences, including some epic battle scenes on the ocean and throughout Hong Kong. They were responsible for the overall design and build of both Kong and Mechagodzilla.

Here, Scanline VFX supervisor Bryan Hirota answers questions about workflow, being on set in Hawaii and Australia, and collaborating with the director and the film’s VFX supervisor, John “DJ” Des Jardin.

How early were you brought onto the film? And what benefit did that have (assuming it was early)?
We were brought onto the project while it was still in preproduction. As Scanline hadn’t done a lot of big-creature work of this type previously, we did a few test shots from the ocean battle sequence as well as a shot of sad Kong in the rain to demonstrate our ability to deliver emotional character performances. Everyone was highly confident in our ability to handle the large-scale destruction and FX simulations required throughout the battle sequences, but how much character work we should take on was still an open question.

We took this opportunity to do a first pass on aging the Skull Island Kong asset we received from Legendary, and our team really put their heart into the tests. Adam Wingard, John “DJ” Des Jardin (the film’s overall VFX supervisor) and the folks at Legendary were so pleased with the results of our tests that not only did they award us a large amount of hero-battle work, but they also asked us to carry on the work we started with Kong and create the hero “old man Kong” asset for the film to share with the other vendors.

Can you share some of the things you learned or how your game plan developed from being brought on so early?
Being on the show early and doing the test shots allowed us to get a good understanding of the size and scope of what would be required in these large battle sequences. It also gave us the time to prepare our pipeline to accommodate the sheer amount of data we would be using and decide how we were going to efficiently approach the layered simulations required.

You were the lead vendor on this. Do you know how many other VFX studios were on the film?
Weta Digital, MPC and Luma Pictures were the other primary vendors on the show.

You supplied almost 400 shots? Can you break down what those sequences were?
Our 390 shots spanned across 17 sequences, with work including the design, build and creation of both Kong and Mechagodzilla; the build and destruction of Hong Kong city; and a huge amount of FX simulation work to pull off the numerous battle sequences between our hero characters.

Main sequences included the initial attack by Godzilla on Pensacola; Kong on the transport ship, including Jia’s visit at night; the fight between Kong and Godzilla, both on top of and underneath the water; Mecha’s training exercise against the Skullcrawler; the plethora of fight sequences in Hong Kong that take place between Kong, Godzilla and Mecha; and the post-fight sequence.

Can you talk about the design of Kong and Mechagodzilla? These are iconic characters. Did you feel any pressure while working on them? Did you get inspiration from past iterations?
Scanline VFX was entirely responsible for the design, build and creation of the hero Kong asset, which was then shared with Weta Digital and MPC. As Godzilla vs. Kong takes place 50 years after Skull Island, we explored aging Kong relative to the number of years that had elapsed. We received concept art from the client as a starting point and, along with real-world references, we developed a final “old man” look for Kong, who was more aged, muscular and bigger while still maintaining continuity from Skull Island in relation to any past wounds and battle scars.

Our creature-build developments included:

• • We developed our body muscle system in Maya to include a real-time, procedural fat-jiggle rig, which was used on shots where characters weren’t as close to camera to increase efficiency.
  • For shots that required fine muscle and tissue details, we used Ziva’s FEM Solver. However, we could also mix the results from Ziva with our real-time Maya jiggle rig on a shot by shot basis.
• • We also developed an auto-simulation process for the muscles, jiggle and hair which could be run over a series of shots to increase our efficiency further.
  • We rebuilt our eye model for Kong’s eye, introducing the conjunctiva on the eyeball within our rigging and lookdev workflow. Introducing this extra layer to the surface of the eye meant we were able to get proper coloration and more realism to our eye model. We also accurately replicated the shape of the cornea, how it refracts light and interacts with the iris so the iris appeared correctly. We had full control of the meniscus and therefore we were able to control the mix of oil and water that sits on the surface of the eye.

Kong goes through a wide range of emotional states throughout the film, from tender moments with Jia to epic moments of rage. We carried out facial and motion capture for Kong, particularly for those shots that had extreme closeups or an intense emotional state that needed to be portrayed.

We implemented a new facial motion-capture workflow using Faceware and harnessing machine learning, and we referenced FACS primate studies from the University of Portsmouth to achieve certain face shapes.

Kong has an array of different groom states throughout the film, such as dry, wet, oily and burnt, which we needed to track for continuity. Due to his scale, Kong’s individual fur also needed to be huge, so we referenced cornfields blowing in the wind to achieve the right look. Kong had 6,358,381 hairs that were simmed into every Kong shot.

We received an approved design for Mecha from the client, however the challenge lay in taking this design and translating it into a functional 3D model that was agile. We started by developing the geometry and all the mechanisms for how his joints would function and how to avoid interpenetration. This involved creating gimbaling surfaces, sliding metal panels as well as bespoke mechanisms.

We also had to research and design all the weaponry and defense systems that Mecha needed to use throughout the film and implement those devices to work within the established Mecha model. We used a system called Manifest that connected all the parts of Mecha together in one master asset, much like a puzzle.

What were some of the challenges of the battle sequences?
The ocean sequences were challenging for FX as they had to account for the reflection and refraction of the light on the ocean, along with the scale of the creatures in the water and all the fur and water interaction.

Due to the scale of the characters, the ships in the sequence were aircraft carriers and big transport ships, which resulted in challenges when simming the boat wakes, splashes and sprays as they moved through the water and became overturned. We made improvements to our height field tech, which we use to calculate rolling waves. This made it faster and more realistic to calculate the surfaces of curling waves.

What about Hong Kong scenes?
The shots in the Hong Kong city sequences are full CG shots. We used helicopter/drone footage along with photography as a reference when building out the city. All buildings were built with full interiors, and building materials (glass, concrete, floors, walls) were tagged so destruction sims could be run accurately. Furniture was also added in for FX where necessary. Creatures were scaled relative to the buildings, as they had to be a lot bigger to clear the height of the skyscrapers. FX worked with our animation and layout teams to ensure the layout was protected when it came time for FX destructions to be run. That is, buildings that were set for destruction were tagged by FX in the layout so that animation could take this into account when driving the creature movements.

What was the most challenging part of the effects for this film?
The most challenging part was the sheer size and scope of the creatures, the destruction they caused and creating believable simulations and secondary interactions relative to their physicality and the world around them.

Is there a scene or character that you are most proud of and why?
I’m quite proud of all the work the team did on the project. If I had to narrow it down to one specific moment, I think the way Kong finishes Mecha is a satisfying and fun way to end that character’s rampage.

How were you sharing scenes for approval?
We would submit shots for review and then typically would have cineSync sesssions to discuss client feedback with DJ, which is fairly standard procedure these days.

Was any of this done remotely during COVID?
We started the show pre-COVID but had to switch to being able to work from home. Thankfully, due to the hard work and foresight from the company, the switch from in office to remote work went remarkable smoothly given the challenge.

Randi Altman is the founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective. She has been covering production and post production for more than 20 years.