In this episode of the fxpodcast, our guest is Dan Macarin, VFX supervisor at Wētā FX on Deadpool & Wolverine. Wētā FX played a pivotal role in bringing the latest Deadpool film to life, delivering around 630 visual effects shots.
Dan and his team once again took on the challenge of translating Ryan Reynolds’ performance into the expressive movements of Deadpool’s mask throughout the movie. Their primary focus was to enhance the motion of Deadpool’s mask, ensuring it perfectly captured Ryan Reynolds’ emotions, dialogue, comedic timing, and physicality. The goal was to stay faithful to the original comic book aesthetic while avoiding an overly cartoony look.
Wētā FX also animated Wolverine’s iconic yellow mask, bringing Hugh Jackman’s facial expressions and emotional depth to life, drawing inspiration directly from the comic books. To achieve both of these, Wētā FX employed several techniques to translate the actors’ performances through their otherwise rigid masks.
One key method was a 2D facial system that warps and reconstructs plate footage, a technique first developed for the original Deadpool film and refined over the years. For the latest instalment, this method was used with greater subtlety and complexity so it could be applied to any angle or shot.
Additionally, Wētā FX incorporated a machine learning tool that analyzed the wave patterns and volume of the dialogue, comparing it to finalized shots to estimate how the mask should move. This provided animators with a strong starting point, allowing them to craft the subtle emotional nuances needed to bring the characters to life. As you can hear in this episode, this technique is not like a ‘deepfake’ that would replace the mask, but rather a new specialist in-house tool to aid the animators based on an analysis of all of Ryan’s previous performances.
Daniel Macarin joined Wētā FX in 2008 to work as a Sequence Lead on James Cameron’s Avatar. Dan has a background in Lighting, FX, Sequence Design, and Supervision. He has previously worked on. Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit trilogy, The Planet of the Apes trilogy and Steven Spielberg’s The BFG. His work can also be seen in Marvel Studios’ Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Vol. 3 as well as in James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad. His most recent work has been as Visual Effects Supervisor on Deadpool & Wolverine and Alien: Romulus.