CGSociety

An enormous number of people contributed to the VFX extravaganza director Jon Favreau serves up in 'Iron Man 2.' For this story, we talked with two visual effects houses that worked on the film: New York City-based Perception and Venice, California-based Pixel Liberation Front (PLF). Both explained how they used MAXON’s CINEMA 4D and After Effects to create some of the techy gadgets and other visual effects that made Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) visual world feel futuristic yet believably realistic at the same time.

Many of the monitor displays seen is Stark?s home and lab were created by Perception.

Perception’s involvement with 'Iron Man 2' began during principal photography when Marvel Studios asked them to deliver a fully animated video sequence. Projected on a 70-foot screen, the video plays in the background as Tony Stark gives the keynote address at the Stark Expo, which the genius billionaire hosts to celebrate Iron Man’s triumph over evil in the world. To create the transitions between different parts of the video artists built a metal sheet in C4D and animated the squares to rotate in different ways.
 
The video made clear Perception’s intrinsic understanding of Stark’s world and Marvel quickly asked them to take on a bigger role in the film. “It was a dream project,” says Danny Gonzalez, Perception’s founder and creative director along with Jeremy Lasky. “Number one, it’s Marvel, and number two, it’s one of the biggest movies they’ve done to date.”

Tony Stark?s phone and other techy tools were created using both CINEMA 4D and After Effects. At director Jon Favreau's direction, artists worked to create gadgets that looked futuristic yet believable.

Perception’s creative team delivered more than 125 shots in four months ranging from vintage logo animations and mock broadcast packages to futuristic designs and interfaces for Stark’s smart phone, glass coffee table, bedroom mirror and TV screens.
 
Stark’s phone is a blend of 2D elements made in After Effects and 3D animation created in Cinema 4D. “The actual navigational device Robert Downey Jr. spins with his thumb all the time was created in CINEMA because we felt it should appear complex, but also have flexibility in the way it animates and moves around,” says John LePore, Perception’s associate creative director.

Perception used C4D to create the transitions between different parts of the video playing behind Stark at the Stark Expo.

About 80 percent of the work Perception does relies on an integrated workflow between C4D and After Effects, LePore says, adding that 'Iron Man 2' is no exception. “We worked on so many elements for the film and, for most part, we would be rendering specific elements out of C4D and using external compositing information from C4D in After Effects,” he continues.
 
While After Effects was used to make the 2D, Google-based interface on Stark’s glass coffee table, the main video sequence for the Stark Expo consists of many 3D elements created in C4D. “All the glass tiles you see laid over the Stark Industries logo were created with the Mograph Cloner object and we used an effector to make the tiles rotate and flip over in a choreographed manner,” LePore says.

PLF?s HUD animations were made in After Effects and the HUD data was projected onto a sphere in CINEMA 4D to get the curvature.

Designing and animating the HUDs
Creating believable and attention-grabbing views from inside the masks of Iron Man and other characters was Pixel Liberation Front’s job. Stephen Lawes, creative director of Pixel Liberation Front, supervised a team of artists who created close to 100 head up displays (HUDs) over several months, as well as about 30 monitor displays that are seen in the film.

Perception used CINEMA 4D to create the navigational device on Stark's PDA to give it enough flexibility to move around believably.

Lawes, who worked on 'Avatar' and 'Terminator: Salvation,' prior to heading up PLF’s artistic team for 'Iron Man 2,' says he wanted to push the film’s visual effects “as far as we could go design wise, creatively and technically.” The real challenge was coming up with HUD and monitor designs that looked futuristic but didn’t go beyond the bounds of what could be believed. “The director wanted a look that took into consideration what we have now and then pushed those boundaries,” he explains, adding that the team started by looking at military aircraft and HUDs. “You want to take something that physically works into the next believable step.”

Stephen Lawes, creative director of Pixel Liberation Front, led the team of artists who created close to 100 head up displays (HUDs) for 'Iron Man 2.'

To get the 3D graphics in the interior of the helmets right, PLF tried several test approaches using combinations of C4D and After Effects. Ultimately, the HUD animations were made in After Effects and the HUD data was projected onto a sphere in CINEMA 4D to get the curvature. That animation was then overlayed onto the actor’s face in After Effects so the face and the display could be visible at the same time. Artists who worked on the HUDs often used models gathered from Industrial Light and Magic that were rendered out in CINEMA 4D using shaders and Sketch and Tune.
 
Historic Monaco Grand Prix
It was Perception who created the graphics package for the Historic Monaco Grand Prix action sequence in which Russian physicist Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke) turns up at the track wearing his 'whiplash' armor to smack down Stark.

Broadcast packages for the film's Historic Monaco Grand Prix were created by Perception.

Perception’s experience creating real broadcast sports packages came in handy when they were asked for on-screen graphics that would make the Historic Monaco Grand Prix look authentic when was televised as part of the film. “It was a no-brainer that we could execute a traditional-looking broadcast within a movie using C4D,” says LePore.

Meleah Maynard is a Minneapolis-based freelance writer and editor. Contact her at her website: www.slowdog.com