Blog Post: Iron Man 2
Posted by on June 11th, 2010
As it is a Friday afternoon am taking a break from being politically correct and thoughtful of how modern day economics will affect Third World countries and moving onto something relaxing: such as a summer blockbuster movie!!
Yes, Iron Man 2 (http://ironmanmovie.marvel.com ) from Marvel Studios is out and truly a blast to see!
Is it an “exciting-and-no-holds-barred-thrill-ride?” Well of course it is with a $200 million budget behind it!
At least part of that $200 million was not just on the cast salary, but instead on visual effects and computer interfaces…
But what about the technology involved?
Some visual effects were provided by Perception (http://perceptionnyc.com/our_work ) which was a company whom most tech followers will appreciate: began in 2001 with two computers, 5 employees and a lot of blue paint and spackle!
However the majority of the visual effects were provided by Industrial Light & Magic (http://www.ilm.com/ ) who created the full body suits and the drones, as well as the enormous environments where all the action occurs. In one sequence the main character, Tony Stark (played by Robert Downey Jr.) rebuilds the Stark Expo as a modern day technology expo. In reality, the action actually occurs in a park in New York City which was the site of the 1964 World Trade Fair. Apart from the Unisphere (one of the last original standing buildings from the World Trade Fair) and the freeway, everything else is virtually constructed by ILM!
According to Ben Snow (visual effects supervisor at ILM who received a third Oscar nomination for Iron Man) in an article from Computer Graphic World says, “Building the Stark EXPO relied mostly on Autodesk’s 3D Studio Max, but we mixed in some of our Zenviro tools for fast-moving sequences because we liked the blur better!”
It appears that after re-watching the first Iron Man, that the director Jon Favreau focused on developing the character of Tony Stark and enabling the audience to learn what made him tick, and though there is still quite an amount of character development (particularly in the form of the George Stark love triangle with Pepper Potts and the ‘Black Widow’) in Iron Man 2, the focus is more on the action, and the audience can enjoy the computer graphics which enable it all to be so seamless.
~Trudi Sheridan-Lewis
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