Avengers: Infinity War VFX Breakdowns Reveal The Elaborate Tech Behind The Movie
It's only been eight weeks since Avengers: Infinity War touched down in theaters, but the aftershocks of its arrival can still be felt.
Now that we're halfway in between the movie's theatrical premiere and its home media release, some behind-the-scenes VFX breakdowns from the movie are beginning to emerge on the internet — and wherever they came from, they're glorious to behold.
It's unclear what the source is for the elaborate behind-the-scenes clips, which appear to have leaked out from some sort of official source, but they turned up on our radar via the It's Amazing YouTube channel. They certainly don't seem like the sort of thing that's supposed to be out in the wild, so get 'em while they're hot.
Much has been made of Josh Brolin's chilling and impressively emotional performance as the villainous Thanos, which was photographed with motion-capture technology in order to turn the man into the Mad Titan.
It's one thing to know on an intellectual level that Brolin is somewhere inside that CGI creation, but it's an entirely different thing to actually see him in action, interacting with the rest of the actors on set and striking fear into their hearts, as these clips convey.
The clips segue back and forth between the final movie and work-in-progress footage, seamlessly showing just how much of Brolin's performance was realized through the CGI. Every little emotion in his face was painstakingly recreated by the movie's many animators, and you can see the proof of their skills right here.
The VFX breakdown clips aren't just Thanos-centric either. They also partly show how the filmmakers put together the massive battle in Wakanda at the end of the movie, with every moving piece of elaborate alien battle tech being put on display for your perusal.
The clips also show some bits of Mark Ruffalo doing green screen work for his Hulkbuster helmet-cam, Benedict Cumberbatch making his sexy sorcerer jazz hands, and a fantastic clip of Brolin going mano a mano against Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark.
For a movie that many watched and rewatched, with at least one guy reportedly seeing the thing 100 dang old times, it's undeniably thrilling to see the on-set versions of the fantastical scenes we got on screen. It's surprising how much of the movie's raw emotion is still there in the clips before the special effects come into play; The movie is just that finely crafted and well-performed.
Check out the VFX breakdown clips below, and enjoy them while you still can.
Thanos and Gamora talk on Vormir:
Thanos battles Iron Man and Dr. Strange on Titan:
Bruce Banner tears up Wakanda in the Hulkbuster:
Hulk vs. Thanos in outer space:
Avengers: Infinity War will be released digitally on July 31, with a physical media release to follow on August 14.