“We solved this by having them able to execute only one command at a time. “We needed to balance this so that the drones were smart, but not so smart that they could catch the people they’re after!” continues Mesana. They needed to exhibit complex programming that enables them to make decisions. “The production wanted this intelligence to shine through in drone performance. “The drones are Stark Industries tech, so they’re sophisticated,” says Jeremy Mesana, Animation Supervisor. It was in the movement of these swarming, killer robots that Image Engine exhibited its performance know-how.

(Although the team did have some influence on the different stages of the drone’s destruction, in addition to the design of the “sonic” weapon effect that appears in the film’s third act – itself a callback to the sonic technology used in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk.) Droning on Modelled by Sony Pictures Imageworks, Image Engine took over the assets for animation, integration, and rendering. The perpetrators of this destruction are Beck’s reconfigured Stark drones. “The main body of that work took place during the pursuit of Happy and Peter’s classmates through a London under siege.” “These drones comprised a large amount of our work on Spider-Man: Homecoming,” says Joern Grosshans, VFX Supervisor. Using a combination of Stark’s Binarily Augmented Retro-Framing (B.A.R.F.) system and a fleet of drones, Beck summons illusory elemental creatures that only he is capable of stopping, or so he would have our heroes believe. A disgruntled ex-Stark scientist, Beck is eager to secure the Iron Man mantle for himself. Yet, as would any 16-year-old, he’d prefer to do away with responsibility and spend time with his high school crush on a European field trip. The world needs an Iron Man successor, and all eyes are on the young hero. Peter Parker has big boots to fill in Spider-Man: Far From Home. Previously responsible for a Norwegian coastline in Thor: Ragnarok and the Wakandan post-credits tease in Captain America: Civil War, the studio took on a new challenge for Spider-Man: Far From Home: building an arsenal of Stark tech both friendly and hostile across some 215 shots.

Image Engine swung into the MCU for a third time to help tell the story. It’s the perfect end to one adventure and a tantalizing jumping-off point into the next. Marvel’s Spider-Man sequel contrasts the operatic grandeur of Endgame with Peter Parker’s more intimate coming of age story. Spider-Man: Far From Home needed to cap off the final chapter in the Infinity Stones saga while detailing the emotional impact of the post-Iron Man fallout.Īnd it did so magnificently. Avengers: Endgame was a tough act to follow.

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