In 2024, Robert Allman gave us an in-depth look at Framestore’s impressive VFX work on Wonka. He then stepped into a completely different universe with Deadpool & Wolverine, bringing his expertise to a much wilder ride.
How was the collaboration with VFX Supervisor Scott Stokdyk?
So good! Scott was a highly collaborative supervisor, very invested in bold ideas and very open to our suggestions. We got through a lot of them and, critically, he was very good with quick, rough treatments that enabled us to try many different things. This process of selection really helped us to arrive at something original.
What are the sequences made by Framestore?
We worked on the destruction of the LHS planet by Galactus’s worldship, from where the Excelsior is in orbit around the earth then jumps into hyperspace, arrives in the new galaxy, narrowly avoids destruction and is then sucked into the worldship by tractor beam. We also did the neutron star escape, from when the Fantastic Four flee the surfer, travelling from the worldship to the neutron star via hyperspace and then back to earth, pausing only to give birth to Franklin. All in a day’s work! Oh, and we did all the scenes between The Thing and Rachel.
Galactus is one of Marvel’s most imposing cosmic entities. How did you and your team approach the design and visual language of a planet-destroying force without making it feel like just another space villain?
Galactus has his own motifs, based on Jack Kirby’s graphic conception of what alien technology looks like. When dealing with huge spaceships like his, there is an obvious danger of echoing Gyger or Star Wars style space cruisers, since they represent scale so well. However, as long as the cues for size are there, it is possible to use different micro scale elements like Kirby’s and still convey the vast scale of the ship.
When creating the devastating destruction sequences for Galactus, what were the main technical and artistic challenges you faced in making them feel both large-scale and physically believable?
Well, the truth is, the scale can be too large! In the physical world, the area of the top end of the worldship is roughly the same as Australia. So a nut and bolt the size of a dinner plate is impossible to see at the distance we see the ship. We tried this kind of real scale but all detail is sub pixel so it resolves to looking like a smooth texture. To give the eye something small to lock onto, we had to scale things up until light and shade on them was visible. Scale details up to make things look bigger! Counter intuitive but it works.
The look of hyperspace travel is a classic sci-fi visual trope. How did Framestore aim to make its version distinctive for The Fantastic Four: First Steps?
We started with two classic space bending looks – the wormhole from Interstellar and “Into the Stargate” from Kubrick’s 2001 and tried to get to something that recalled neither explicitly. From Kubrick we were really trying to distill the retro grading and feel of that kind of cinematography, rather than the content. From interstellar it was that more the feeling of bent space, shown in the wormhole sequence. The theoretical distinction though is that our hyperspace travel is facilitated by an Alcubierre drive, a quantum engine that compresses space in front of the ship and expands it behind, moving space rather than the ship. The method of representing that was to encase the action in a giant pharmaceutical jar shaped object and refracting a rushing volumetric universe on the outside of it. Sounds so simple! However, in imagined form, this is what the Alcubierre drive might look like, something we developed from conversations with Dr. Clifford Johnson, a theoretical physicist at the University of California, who introduced us to the physics of hyperspace.
Silver Surfer’s animation blends an alien elegance with superhuman speed. What kind of performance references and animation techniques did you rely on to capture their unique personality?
We had great photography of a professional surfer who came into the studio and showed us surfing moves and postures, on a board with a couple of grips supporting her. Sounds lo fi, but actually it turned out to be our best reference. After all, what we are looking for is strong key poses and that is what she was great at giving us.
The Thing has such a strong physical presence. How did you handle the interplay between his weighty, rock-like structure and the need for dynamic, expressive movement?
Yes, Ebon is a very expressive actor and this is sometimes in opposition to the less expressive Thing. We always began with a full, Ebon inspired performance but when the face moves too quickly and too much, it begins to have the quality of more elastic flesh, which in turn undermines the look of the rock. In essence, we handled this by dialling back the more extreme facial poses. There was a zone when he would begin to look like The Thing but retain the fundamentals of Ebon.
One of the most intriguing challenges must have been delivering the Invisible Woman’s baby — especially when the character can disappear. How did you conceptually and technically approach that scene?
There was a baby shot on the day and there was some discussion about whether we should comp him as is and paint out his nappy. Trouble was, the baby was about three months and anyone who has ever seen a newborn would probably laugh at the size of him. It’s an emotional moment in the film, so that would have been a big risk. We went the route of replacing the body with more plausible newborn proportions and a subtle amount of birth related substances (nothing too visceral, again, not wanting to distract from the moment). The face was comped from the live action. As for Sue’s invisibility, this was only ever played as a consequence of her stress, and only on Sue in close ups.
Framestore worked across both London and Mumbai for this project. How did you ensure creative consistency and technical cohesion between the two locations?
Cross-site collaboration is our day to day process. We have plenty of dailies and an efficient pipeline.
Were there any surprising R&D breakthroughs during production that significantly improved how you handled effects like Galactus’ destruction or hyperspace travel?
These were mostly creative challenges rather than technical. More technical effort went into the neutron star and the implementation of the Kip Thorne algorithm for Gravitational Lensing. We wanted to use the company’s proprietary renderer (Freak) to benefit from all the nuanced ray tracing that would bring and needed to support lens shading (no relation) to calculate the algorithm per pixel. So it’s a genuinely calculated, gravitationally distorted neutron star.
The Fantastic Four universe has a long visual history in comics and film. How did you balance fan expectations with the need to introduce fresh, cinematic interpretations?
I think there was an intention to stay faithful to the representation of the Fantastic Four in the original Jack Kirby comic book illustration. This is seen in the very characteristic look of Thing, with his monobrow etc. (something not always followed in earlier films). However the film is modern, in spite of its retro look, as mentioned in the way we started with Interstellar with our reference for space. The retro feel of all this, I think, brings these different intentions together.
Were there any memorable moments or scenes from the film that you found particularly rewarding or challenging to work on from a visual effects standpoint?
It was great fun to do space, the neutron star and hyperspace. All unknown things, all requiring different types of abstraction to get a look. A very creative part of the project.
Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of?
Pretty much the above. Also grappling with the enormous scale of the planetary destruction sequence.
How long have you worked on this show?
It was about a year, beginning to end.
What’s the VFX shots count?
417.
What is your next project?
I’m doing some visual development for a really exciting project.
A big thanks for your time.
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WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Framestore: Dedicated page about The Fantastic Four: First Steps on Framestore website.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025
