Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

How Digital Domain Went Full CG to Create M.O.D.O.K. for...

31/03/2023

Proprietary Masquerade 2.0 Facial Capture System and Neural Networks Help Award-Winning VFX Studio Create a Villain That Won't Soon be Forgotten

Over the course of 31 movies, seven live-action episodic series and a handful of animated and standalone projects, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has introduced some of the most interesting and bizarre villains ever seen on screen. With the arrival of Marvel Studios' Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania and the introduction of its eagerly anticipated Phase Five, the MCU unveils arguably its most unusual villain yet with M.O.D.O.K., a five-foot-tall flying face, brought to life by award-winning VFX studio Digital Domain.

Over our 30-year history, Digital Domain has created some of the most iconic CG characters ever seen on film, including Thanos, Benjamin Button, the Ready Player One cast and more, but this really is a first, said Dave Hodgins, Digital Domain VFX supervisor. Part of the fun of working with Marvel Studios is that they keep coming up with some of the most imaginative characters and environments, which allows us to create something that fans will remember.

The character of M.O.D.O.K. an acronym for Mechanized Organism Designed Only for Killing has been a staple of Marvel Comics since his debut more than 50 years ago. Originally created in a lab by contemporary scientists, M.O.D.O.K. has been reimagined for the MCU and continues the story of the villainous Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) from 2015's Ant-Man. The film explores what happened after he entered the mysterious Quantum Realm and was reborn in a new, monstrous form, leading the Digital Domain team to create a fully CG version of the character driven by the actor's performance.

Digital Domain began by capturing footage of Stoll and testing different looks, starting with various proportions. Multiple iterations were considered as the team sought a balance between a bizarre creature and a photoreal humanoid. The team even tested a version that included the character's comic-accurate bowl haircut, along with other styles. Ultimately, Digital Domain and Marvel Studios decided on a version of the character that resembled Stoll's face and hairstyle but at 5.72x the actual size, measuring 173 centimeters from head-to-toe and 124.77 centimeters from front to back.

To drive the performance, Stoll appeared in a capture volume wearing an HMC (head-mounted camera) and performed his scenes while watching the live-action footage from the set (the production used a large, gray 3D-printed cutout of his face as a stand-in). Stoll's performance was then processed through Digital Domain's proprietary Masquerade 2.0 facial capture system, which uses neural networks to map out the actor's face and create working, photorealistic animation.

Although Masquerade was able to generate a model that accurately conveyed Stoll's performance, the team at Digital Domain still needed to add a few finishing touches by hand, including and perhaps most importantly the eyes. The VFX team studied the human eye in order to determine the best way to expand it and retain a realistic look. Using Maya for design and Mari to texture, artists built the character's eyes by hand, down to the tear ducts and folds within the eye. The team then used V-Ray 5 s Random walk SSS skin shader, which maintains the base forms of the face and lets the fine pore details be more readable.

From there, the team at Digital Domain still had to address the unique movement limitations of the character. During Stoll's performance, the actor frequently used full body mannerisms to convey emphasis. The character of M.O.D.O.K., however, is a face held in place by a metallic chassis that constrains his jaw and limits any gesticulations. Using a custom deformer in Maya, animators removed any additional movements from Stoll's footage while also altering his jaw to reflect the constraints of the character.

Finally, Digital Domain developed a new blood flow pipeline that leverages machine learning and creates a library of data from scanned data of Stoll. Once the team began working on the final version of M.O.D.O.K., the library of data was triggered by Digital Domain's proprietary Weighted Pose Space Deformation (WPSD) system, which calculates edge strain differences to drive the maps so no animator input is necessary. The team capped it all off by adding a heartbeat monitor (that changes in the film as needed), a metal battle mask inspired by the character's comic book roots and a handful of futuristic weapons created to fit the specifications of the film.

Digital Domain's work on Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania marks the latest in a line of collaborations between the VFX studio and Marvel Studios that stretches back more than a decade. It includes blockbuster features such as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home, along with recent episodics including She-Hulk, Ms. Marvel and the upcoming Secret Invasion.

Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania is playing now, exclusively in theaters.
LINK: https://kitplus.com/news/how-digital-domain-went-full-cg-to-create-mod...
See more stories from tvbay

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

21/07/2026

Savannah Bananas Tap Calrec to Expand Banana Ball TV Coverage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

Where Growth Takes Root Viaccess-Orca Showcases the Found...

Across the TV and streaming ecosystem, industry players face mounting pressure to do more with less. They must simplify operations, protect premium content and ...

21/07/2026

Tuxera breaks performance ceilings and brings SMB/NFS mul...

Tuxera, a leading prover of quality-assured file systems and networking technologies, is bringing its latest advances in connectivity performance to the media w...

21/07/2026

COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package

COW Jobs: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP Rigged Graphics Package Brie Clayton July 21, 2026 0 Comments HIRING: Apple Motion Expert for Custom FCP ...

21/07/2026

Cinegy directly addresses the real issues of software-def...

Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, will use its presence at IBC2026 (stand 7.A01, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) to...

21/07/2026

Calrec brings leading audio solutions and long term busin...

Calrec will be located in Hall 8, on Stand C47 Beyond bigger For years, broadcast facilities were built around one assumption: provision for the biggest pro...

21/07/2026

Pebble takes the next step towards the future of media de...

Pebble, the leading automation, content management and integrated channel specialist, will discuss its future-facing developments for the new generation of medi...

21/07/2026

nxtedition Brings Production, AI and Automation Together...

nxtedition returns to IBC2026 with its consolidated production platform, showing how scripting, editing, graphics, AI-assisted tools and automation can work wit...

21/07/2026

Big Blue Marble brings C2PA Content Credentials to Cloud...

C2PA content signing helps broadcasters, public institutions, and publishers give audiences a verifiable record of where their video content came from and how i...

21/07/2026

HDHomeRun Enables Operation During Internet Outages

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

Calif. Federal Judge Pauses Paramount-WBD Merger

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

AWARN Rebuts Weigel Claims of 3.0 EAS Problems

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

FCC Announces Tentative Agenda for August Open Meeting

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/07/2026

VIDA Introduces QC Manager for Collaborative Quality Cont...

New capability centralizes collaboration, feedback, security and status tracking within VIDA, providing a structured, auditable approach to master quality contr...

21/07/2026

Lightcraft Launches Exclusive Spark Story Beta for Filmmakers and Creators at SIGGRAPH 2026

Lightcraft Launches Exclusive Spark Story Beta for Filmmakers and Creators at SI...

21/07/2026

Indie Road Movie Where in the Hell Shot with Pocket Cinema Camera 4K

Indie Road Movie Where in the Hell Shot with Pocket Cinema Camera 4K Brie Clayton July 20, 2026 0 Comments Colorist blends vintage film looks to shape...

21/07/2026

Which USS Defiant Pulse Phaser effect is better?

Which USS Defiant Pulse Phaser effect is better? Graham Quince July 20, 2026 0 Comments Aargh, ever since @DarkRavenProductions posted a comment ask...

21/07/2026

Built for Vera Rubin, NVIDIA Spectrum-6 Arrives in Gigascale AI Factories

AI has entered the gigascale era. The world's most advanced AI factories are bringing together hundreds of thousands of GPUs and CPUs to train frontier mod...

21/07/2026

NVIDIA Vera Rubin Driving Performance Per Watt, Lowest Token Cost for Partners Worldwide

NVIDIA Vera Rubin is here, and it's going gigascale. Vera Rubin NVL72 produ...

21/07/2026

RT announces biggest ever year for new drama

160 hours of Irish storytelling for 2026 KIN and The Walsh Sisters return RT has today unveiled its most ambitious drama slate ever, with a record-breakin...

20/07/2026

SVG All-Stars: Rob Coons, Senior Director, StudentU, Big Ten Network

The former Northwestern broadcast-operations leader is helping train the next generation of live-sports-production talent across the Big Ten The sports-product...

20/07/2026

Give Me the Backstory: Get to Know Stacey Lee, the Filmmaker Behind Murder 101

By Lucy Spicer One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. Whi...

20/07/2026

Graph Tech Guitar Labs open UK Online Store

Product range now readily available in the UK Graph Tech Guitar Labs have just announced the launch of a new UK Online Store that makes it quicker and easie...

20/07/2026

Audeze launch the Maxwell 2 ANC

Popular headset gains active noise cancellation The Maxwell headet was Audeze's first foray into the gaming world, and thanks to its Dolby Atmos compati...

20/07/2026

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) Call for Public Screening funding applications for Cycle 1, 2026/27 financial year is Open

The NFVF, an agency of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, has released t...

20/07/2026

Telemundo Inks Another Major U.S. Spanish-Language Soccer Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/07/2026

HDHomeRun Enables Operation During An Internet Outage

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/07/2026

Starfish highlights flexible, scalable transport stream p...

Starfish Technologies will use IBC2026 to showcase the flexibility of its transport stream processing software, including the latest versions of TS Splicer (Win...

20/07/2026

Bitfocus makes the connections at IBC2026

Bitfocus, the specialist in media control and monitoring, will show at IBC2026 (Elgato stand 8.D31, Amsterdam RAI, 11 14 September) how its Buttons control la...

20/07/2026

Mediagenix Introduces Trusted Agentic AI Operating Model...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, today announced new AI capabilities that e...

20/07/2026

Big Blue Marble Cloud DRM nominated for Streaming Media R...

Big Blue Marble's Cloud DRM has been nominated in the DRM/Content Protection category of the 2026 Streaming Media Readers' Choice Awards. Only four pro...

20/07/2026

Sky brings free global roaming to millions of loyal customers when they choose Sky Mobile

Monday 20 July 2026 Sky brings free global roaming to millions of loyal custome...

20/07/2026

Red Seat Ventures Announces Introduction of Premium Creator and Podcast Communities to Amazon DSP

Red Seat Ventures Announces Introduction of Premium Creator and Podcast Communit...

20/07/2026

RT secures exclusive free-to-air Irish rights to the 2030 FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup Final sets new RT Player record as the most-streamed single event in the platform's history Over 1 million viewers watched live on RT 2 as ...

20/07/2026

At SIGGRAPH, NVIDIA Advances Graphics and Simulation With Agentic and Physical AI

At this year's SIGGRAPH conference, running through Thursday, July 23, in Lo...

20/07/2026

Bristol Myers Squibb Building Life Science Industry's Most Advanced AI Factory on NVIDIA Vera Rubin

Erin Davis calls it the SuperDuperPOD. That's two things in one name: phar...

19/07/2026

Halftime Show at FIFA World Cup Final Joins a Litany of Firsts for the Quadrennial Event

Justin Bieber, Madonna, Shakira, BTS make for a diverse lineup, and the venue ad...

19/07/2026

More Than Just a Game: FIFA World Cup's Lance Brass Breaks Down Stadium Production and Entertainment

The stage is set: three-time champion Argentina will defend its World Cup title ...

19/07/2026

Acustica reveal Mystic 2

Channel strip plug-in gets upgraded Acustica Audio's vintage-inspired channel strip plug-in has just been treated to an update that expands its tonal ra...

18/07/2026

More Than Just a Game: FIFA World Cups Lance Brass Breaks Down Stadium Production & Entertainment

Topics include pre-match ceremonies, live performances, the tournament's fir...

18/07/2026

As the Final Approaches, FIFA and HBS Take Stock of a World Cup That Rewrote the Production Playbook

When FIFA and HBS set out to produce the 2026 FIFA World Cup, the numbers alone ...

18/07/2026

IK Multimedia add Brown Panel Signature Collection to TONEX

Captures nine sought-after Fender amps IK Multimedia's latest TONEX expansion captures a selection of nine rare Brown Panel' Fender amps that were ...

18/07/2026

Frap Tools update the Magnolia

Latest batch ships alongside firmware update Since being unveiled at Superbooth 2025, Frap Tools' debut polysynth has been met with widespread praise, a...

18/07/2026

Netflix Viewing Hit Record 97 Billion Hours in First Half of 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

18/07/2026

YouTube's Creative Ecosystem Contributed $60 Billion to U.S. GDP

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

17/07/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 24: Mercedes-Benz Stadiums Cole Gallagher - Supporting Shows in the ATL

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...