Rodeo FX completed close to 230 VFX shots for Deadpool, Tim Miller's R-rated depiction of the Marvel Comics anti-superhero. The studio, led by VFX supervisor Wayne Brinton, worked on complex sequences that required fire and embers, grotesque skin alterations, and set extensions. Rodeo FX brought its unique skills to this collaborative VFX effort, ensuring that the finished product was much more than the sum of its parts.
I really appreciated the passion and artistry that Wayne and the Rodeo FX team brought to the show, said Jonathan Rothbart, VFX supervisor on Deadpool. Rodeo became one of my favorite facilities. They consistently did more than was asked, bringing their own sensibility and finish to the shots. I always felt like I was dealing with true artists who loved their craft.
Directed by Tim Miller, Deadpool delivers the horrific backstory of Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), a Special Forces fighter who, while ostensibly undergoing an experiment to cure him of terminal cancer, is mutated to become a slave warrior. As portrayed by Reynolds, the indestructible antihero has a mordant sense of humor, the ability to heal spontaneously, and a burning desire for revenge on bad guys. As Deadpool says, This is a different kind of superhero story.
Brinton is a huge fan of Deadpool and brought his love and knowledge of the comics to the project. Everyone at Rodeo FX was very excited to work on this movie, he said. Deadpool has amazing action sequences and still makes fun of the idea of superheroes.
Wayne knows this story inside and out and was able to propose ideas from the comics, which Jonathan took to the director, said Jordan Soles, executive VFX producer at Rodeo FX. Wayne's insight into the canon and his enthusiasm were a huge asset for the team.
Rodeo FX began working on the movie before production, helping to produce an amusing promo for April Fool's last year, when the studio announced that Deadpool was going to have an R rating. Once shooting began, Rodeo FX was tasked with 100 shots, which grew to be almost 230 shots on two scenes over the course of postproduction.
Repulsive skin transformation
The mutation introduced into Wilson's body changes the structure of his skin and, once he becomes Deadpool, he is hideous to look at without his tight red Spandex. Brinton and his team did concepts for skin decomposition at different stages, using time-lapse photography of rotting vegetables and meat for inspiration. They found that the production plates were too dark to show the subtleties of what they wanted to do, so they added more detail and shape to the skin, modeling with ZBrush, doing lighting passes, and finally compositing in the textures.
This was my favorite sequence to work on and the most satisfying, said Brinton. I knew we'd nailed it when the people around me in the theater gasped in disgust when they saw Deadpool's skin mutation.
Wilson is held in a torture chamber during this transformation, then escapes as the room burns to the ground. This scene was shot continually in one room that had been fitted with gas pipes emitting flames, making the usual practice of submitting individual shots for approval inefficient and awkward. Instead, Rodeo FX asked to submit the finished sequence in its entirety to Rothbart. This meant that every shot in the submitted sequence had to be final, with all shots at the same level of quality.
At first this was nerve wracking for us and, I imagine, for the production team, Brinton said. But we knew that this was the most efficient way to complete this scene and it worked perfectly.
Helicarrier crash sequence
The other main sequence that Rodeo FX worked on was a post-disaster scene in which a ship crashes, creating a junkyard of smoldering parts. The scene was shot against a greenscreen and then Rodeo FX generated set extensions for the junkyard, composited a matte painting that Blur Studio shared with them, and added smoke and ashes. Rodeo FX produced additional matte paintings based on photos of the set taken during production. The studio added lots of smoke and ashes at the beginning of the scene when everything is crumbling down, then reduced the intensity as the scene progressed.
We aimed for a choreography of simulated ash, falling in 3D space, said Martin Lipmann, compositing supervisor at Rodeo FX. It's seemingly minor elements like this that ensure the continuity and believability of a scene like this.
It's great when we get a magical production like Deadpool, Soles said. The project flew through the facility, with overall excitement among the whole team. It was like that from day one. We're proud to be a collaborative team that delivers without drama. Even toward the end, when deadlines could have got overwhelming, we were still having fun and getting it done.
Distributed by 20th Century Fox, Deadpool was directed by Tim Miller and stars Ryan Reynolds, Brianna Hildebrand, and Ed Skrein. The film saw theatrical release on Feb. 12.
About Rodeo FX
Founded in 2006 by S bastien Moreau, Rodeo FX has grown to over 350 accomplished artists and professionals with studios in Montreal, Los Angeles, and Quebec City. The company has delivered award-winning visual effects for more than 70 feature films, including The Walk, the Academy Award -winning Birdman, Furious 7, Tomorrowland, Unbroken, Lucy, Edge of Tomorrow, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Pacific Rim, and Now You See Me. The studio won VES awards for its visual effects work on Game of Thrones , as well as two Emmy Awards for its work on Game of Thrones . Rodeo FX's advertising division created the opening sequence for NBC's Sunday Night Football and this year's NFL Super Bowl. For more information, visit www.rodeofx.com.
###
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
23/10/2025
A deadline is looming for a new carriage deal between Verizon's Fios TV and Nexstar, with both Verizon and the pay TV-backed American Television Alliance bl...
23/10/2025
NEW YORK During a high-profile session at NAB Show New York, new survey data was shared that revealed significant public concern over artificial intelligence (A...
23/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. and NEW YORK Fox Weather has tapped T-Mobile has as its preferred communications provider and announced that all Fox Weather reporters are being...
23/10/2025
PBS and Amazon Web Services have announced the network is using generative AI to provide enhanced search results to viewers on the PBS App and PBS LearningMedia...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
Rodeo FX completed close to 230 VFX shots for Deadpool, Tim Miller's R-rated depiction of the Marvel Comics anti-superhero. The studio, led by VFX supervisor Wayne Brinton, worked on complex sequences that required fire and embers, grotesque skin alterations, and set extensions. Rodeo FX brought its unique skills to this collaborative VFX effort, ensuring that the finished product was much more than the sum of its parts.
