Spider-Man: No Way Home FOLKS VFX Supervisor Breaks Down Work on Suits and Team-Up Scenes

By Adam Barnhardt - March 22, 2022 04:05 pm EDT

With superhero cinema advancing at a rapid pace, visual effects vendors take an increasingly large workload with each passing blockbuster. Whether it be de-aging an actor's face to match how they may have looked a decade or so ago to building an entire island from scratch, there's always plenty to do when it comes to visual effects.

When it comes to Spider-Man: No Way Home, that means making sure the suits of each of the three web-slingers match from one scene and vendor to the next. According to FOLKS visual effects supervisor Mihaela Orzea, it's like putting together a puzzle. Despite Sony Imageworks sharing the model and textures for Tom Holland's suit, there are still adjustments the FOLKS team needed to make in order for the scene to appear right in the movie.

"We used different proprietary tools and built our own shaders. It is a complex process, a bit like a puzzle. We were trying to get the exact look assembling hundreds of texture files we were provided," Orzea tells us. "However, we had to create a near-perfect match while working against the clock."

During the production of the film, Holland was wearing a black and red suit that looked an awful lot like the one sported by Miles Morales in the Marvel source material. Because of that, FOLKS had to alter it to match the Integrated design. That's the only one out of the main trio that needed a major face-lift. Both Andrew Garfield and Tobey Maguire were wearing practical suits, even while standing around at the school laboratory.

Furthermore, Holland's new suit comes at one of the most heartbreaking moments of the film, but Orzea says it only adds to the film.

"I can only express my opinion – the suit is symbolic – it is beautiful and damaged, just like Peter at this moment of the film. So, it adds more emotion and depth to the sequence; as subtle as it may play, it's like his emotion is literally peeking through his suit. He's hurt and maybe a little broken. But he must rise, be the hero we know he is and live up to the responsibility that comes with great power," she adds. "We knew these scenes would be pivotal and an iconic moment for those watching the films, and we really wanted to play our part. It was a true pleasure working on it, and our artists loved every moment of it."

Spider-Man: No Way Home is now available for purchase through digital marketplaces.

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