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...

24/07/2026

ESPN Adds New Production Features for NFL FLAG Championships

Referee hat cameras, player/coach mics, and virtual graphics will be deployed at the three-day event for the first time The NFL FLAG Championships return to ES...

24/07/2026

Qvest, Ateme and Scaleway Deliver Sovereign OTT Platforms for European Broadcasters

Qvest, Ateme, and Scaleway have partnered to offer broadcasters, media organizat...

24/07/2026

LTN Reaches 3,000 Satellite-to-IP Migrations as FCC Votes on C-Band Auction

LTN has completed satellite-to-IP migrations for more than 3,000 broadcaster, MVPD (Multi-Channel Video Programming Distributor), head-end, and content owner si...

24/07/2026

Chyron Releases Virtual Placement 8.1

Chyron has released Virtual Placement 8.1, an update to its live sports virtual graphics platform. The release adds workflow and graphics changes across chroma ...

24/07/2026

Riedel Deploys RefCam and Easy5G at International Soccer Match

Riedel's RefCam Live was used for the first time at an international soccer match during a friendly between the German men's national team and Ghana in ...

24/07/2026

USSI Global Offers Services for Next Phase of C-Band Spectrum Transition

USSI Global said it is prepared to help broadcasters, satellite network operators, and media organizations manage the next phase of C-band spectrum clearing, fo...

24/07/2026

Fubo Launches The Athletic Video Hub on CTV

FuboTV and The Athletic have launched The Athletic Video Hub on Fubo, bringing The Athletic's sports video content to connected TV (CTV) for the first time....

24/07/2026

Tagboard Integrates With Momento To Display Fan Reaction Photos on Venue Screens

Tagboard and Momento have partnered to bring Momento's fan reaction photos to venue videoboards in real time following big plays. The Seattle Mariners will ...

24/07/2026

Stephen Arnold Music Creates Anthem for Fox Television Stations FIFA World Cup Coverage

Stephen Arnold Music (SAM) created an anthem called The World Is Here for Fox ...

24/07/2026

CazTV Acquires Exclusive Brazilian WTA Tour Rights Through 2030

Caz TV has acquired Brazilian broadcast rights to the entire WTA Tour driven by Mercedes-Benz, covering all WTA 250, WTA 500, and WTA 1000 tournaments. The agre...

24/07/2026

SiriusXM and WWE Launch WWE Radio on Channel 156

SiriusXM and WWE have launched WWE Radio on SiriusXM channel 156, beginning Monday, July 27. The channel will carry live audio of WWE Premium Live Events, audio...

24/07/2026

Harvard Athletics Uses AJA Equipment for Collegiate Sports Production

Harvard Athletics produces more than 325 live NCAA Division 1 sports events and 500 edited videos per year. To manage video capture, streaming, recording, and s...

24/07/2026

Chyrons PRIME 5 Supported Telemundos FIFA World Cup 2026 Graphics Production

Chyron's PRIME 5 graphics platform supported live graphics workflows for NBCUniversal Telemundo's FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage across Telemundo, Univers...

24/07/2026

NBC Sports Prioritizes Data in Presentation of 113th Tour de France

Wearable tech returns to the coverage, and a brand-new mobile unit is rolled out for the 2026 edition The 21-stage Tour de France is nearing its conclusion. Th...

24/07/2026

ESPN Leans Into Player Access, Referee Cam for WNBA All-Star Weekend in Chicago

More than 20 cameras, extensive player and coach audio, and a REMCO production model will power coverage of the league's showcase For an event designed to ...

24/07/2026

F1 Unveils Strategy Insight Graphic Powered by AWS at Hungarian Grand Prix

New broadcast tool uses live timing, telemetry, and predictive analysis to decode real-time team decision-making for fans at home...

24/07/2026

Ratings Roundup: World Cup Final Draws Largest Non-NFL U.S. TV Audience in Nearly 30 Years

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...

24/07/2026

SRM Sounds introduce Max Richter Strings

First string library captured at Studio Richter Mahr The latest sample library to be created at Max Richter's Studio Richter Mahr facility captures the ...

24/07/2026

KIT Plugins release BB Chamber D

Official emulation of Blackbird Studios reverb chamber In their latest collaboration with Blackbird Studios, KIT Plugins have captured the sound of the Stud...

24/07/2026

Behind Netflix's Emmy-nominated Monster: Bind Studio and FileRunner on the VFX pipeline

Sohonet's partners at BIND Studio have published a great case study on the V...

24/07/2026

Calrec Craft Interview with Sound Engineer Angela Gomez

Angela Gomez brings over 14 years of experience in broadcast communications and audio engineering, specialising in live outside broadcasts, live sports and larg...

24/07/2026

Harvard Athletics Transforms Collegiate Sports Storytelli...

Between the maturation of IP and remote production workflows, collegiate sports production is advancing rapidly. For an Ivy League institution like Harvard, kee...

24/07/2026

iWedia announces the launch of Teatro Factory - A groundb...

iWedia, a global provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announces the launch of Teatro Factory, a new operator-facing software factory o...

24/07/2026

Record-breaking World Cup has advertisers cheering

Yospace, the trusted leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), stitched 11.57 billion one-to-one addressable advertisements into live video streams during the 2026 ...

24/07/2026

Mediagenix To Feature 'Real-Time Media Enterprise Platform At IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

24/07/2026

Peacock Posts First Profits, Adds 2 Million Subs in Q2 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

24/07/2026

Edward F. OKeefe Named President and CEO of The WNET Group

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

24/07/2026

TiVo Ads, OpenGlass Launch Programmatic Access to the TV Homescreen

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

24/07/2026

Digital Alert Systems DASDEC Platform Supports FCCs New P...

Current DASDEC software enables customers to comply with the FCC's new 15-character password mandate without requiring updates LYNDONVILLE, N.Y. July 23,...

24/07/2026

SDVI to Showcase Next-Generation Rally Platform and New T...

At the IBC2026 Show, SDVI will give European media organizations their first hands-on look at the next-generation Rally media supply chain management platform f...

24/07/2026

Sonnet Technologies at IBC2026

Sonnet Technologies at IBC2026 Brie Clayton July 23, 2026 0 Comments Hero image: Sonnet Twin25G T5 Thunderbolt 5 Adapter At this year's IBC Sho...

24/07/2026

Musora Enhances Online Music Lessons with Blackmagic Design

Musora Enhances Online Music Lessons with Blackmagic Design Brie Clayton July 23, 2026 0 Comments Director of Production Josh Holliday details workflo...

24/07/2026

The Future of Live Production: How DMC Is Combining Traditional OB with Software-Defined Remote Production

Interview with Production 360. Original article published here The theme of thi...

24/07/2026

From postPerspective: Pixar Colorist Susan Brunig Talks Pre-Grading, More for Toy Story 5

Article courtesy of postPerspective Read the article While Toy Story 5 maintai...

24/07/2026

Kerry and Mayo fans Up For The Match as excitement builds in Croke Park on the eve of the football final

Kerry and Mayo fans Up For The Match as excitement builds in Croke Park on the e...

23/07/2026

Record-breaking World Cup has advertisers cheering

Staines-upon-Thames, UK, 23rd, JULY, 2026 - Yospace, the trusted leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), stitched 11.57 billion one-to-one addressable advertisem...

23/07/2026

SVG Students To Watch: Shansley Glenn, University of Oklahoma

This Spring 2026 graduate from Honolulu found a home at SoonerVision as a live-production star and is ready to enter the industry as a replay op on Prime Video&...

23/07/2026

Miked Up Is an Everyday Deal for the Athletes Unlimited Softball League

As the AUSL postseason begins tonight, listening in to players during games enhances fan engagement for the young organization Ballplayers chatting with announ...

23/07/2026

Snap Announces AR and Creator Activations at Esports World Cup 2026 in Paris

Snap Inc. and the Esports Foundation have announced Snap's activations at the Esports World Cup 2026 in Paris, running July 6 through August 23. For the fir...

23/07/2026

Sony Introduces FX5 Full-Frame Cinema Line Camera

Sony has announced the FX5, a full-frame Cinema Line camera built around a newly developed fully stacked Exmor RS CMOS image sensor and BIONZ XR2 image processi...

23/07/2026

TNDV Powers Pickleball Slam 4 Broadcast for Ohlmeyer Kusserow Group

TNDV (a division of Live Media Group) provided technical production support for the Pickleball Slam 4 live broadcast from Seminole Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, ...

23/07/2026

LTN Surpasses 3,000 Satellite-to-IP Migrations as FCC Approves Upper C-Band Auction Rules

LTN has announced it has completed satellite-to-IP migrations for more than 3,00...

23/07/2026

Daktronics Announces 2026 DakClassroom Student Showcase Winners

Daktronics has announced the winners of the 2026 DakClassroom Student Showcase, a national competition recognizing student work in media production, storytellin...

23/07/2026

beIN Sports Extends Exclusive Roland-Garros Rights Across 10 Asian Markets Through 2031

The French Tennis Federation (FFT) and beIN Media Group have announced a five-ye...

23/07/2026

Clear-Com Provides Intercom System for Fryderyk Awards Gala at Tauron Arena Krakw

Clear-Com provided the communications infrastructure for the Fryderyk Awards Gal...

23/07/2026

How the FIFA World Cup's Record Revenue Masks a Structural Market Contraction

The 2026 FIFA World Cup is, on paper, an unparalleled financial success. Total t...