Behind the billions of dollars collected at the box office by Marvel superheroes lies many talented VFX artists who make these out-of-this-world adventures seem possible on-screen. Being a pretty action-packed show, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier naturally involved some serious VFX work.

Funnily enough, WandaVision ran up the special effects bill even higher than The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, although that probably has a lot to do with the former using them more frequently and in more scenes, rather than going all out in certain segments as the Captain America spin-off does. Regardless of that, what’s even more impressive is getting to see how all this CGI magic is implemented to fully bring the MCU to life.

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In a new Marvel Entertainment exclusive, VFX Supervisor Eric Leven provided some very detailed explanations about how special CGI effects were used in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, using Sam Wilson’s high-flying stunts in the first and final episodes as prime examples of this. According to Leven, this process starts off by taking a look at the storyboard and creating some video game-like sequences (Nintendo 64 era to be precise) that help the entire team figure out what’s feasible to achieve in real life and what’s going to require a blue screen and extra computer power.

Roughly speaking, about 75-80% of what audiences see happening in the scenes is achieved by talented VFX artists, although some clever camera tricks are used to give each Avenger their unique personality and ultimately make Iron Man and the new Captain America fly so distinctively. Usually, directors, the stunt crew, and the VFX team will work together to shoot as much real footage as possible and they actually had Anthony Mackie fly onto a plane, even if it’s a grounded one because it's not like he's Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible.

The real goal with any MCU production and other movies is to blend the real film footage with CGI perfectly so they become truly indistinguishable from one another, thus creating that immersive experience that ends up driving viewers to watch so many Marvel films. While superhero films have become the most profitable film genre out there, it never hurts to remember that they only became possible thanks to the continued advances in graphics processing and rapidly evolving hardware.

Luckily, the studios and creators behind The Falcon and the Winter Soldier or the upcoming Loki don’t have to deal with the hardware shortages that will make high-end GPUs and the PS5 rare finds well into 2022. Because those Star Wars Mark Hamill Deepfakes and putting Henry Cavill's mustache back into Justice League will always require the newest tech out there.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is now available on Disney Plus.

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Source: Marvel Entertainment/YouTube