While Batman v Superman still divides fans, most agree cinematographer, Larry Fong, helped create a stunning look for the film. In particular, Fong created some slick looking action set pieces. Most notably the no-holds barred Superman vs Doomsday fight at the film’s climax.
The scene looks fairly complex on screen. However, Larry Fong released a video on his Twitter account, revealing the simplicity of capturing the fight in front of a green screen. In the footage, Henry Cavill’s Superman blasts Doomsday with his heat vision. He tenses his body and focuses his eyes at an actor playing Doomsday in a motion capture outfit. While greenscreen work isn’t much for Cavill to work with, it’s a small price to pay for playing a superhero.
While Cavill was acting to basically nothing around him, Larry Fong and his crew simply rolled a camera on a dolly past Cavill to capture the scene. A red light was shone onto Cavill’s face to mimic the glow from Superman’s heat vision, with the rest done later by VFX. According to Larry Fong, the VFX team at effects company, MPC, did the real heavy lifting. They spent many painstaking hours adding the CGI to the scene.
It's surprising how simple this was (to film, not to finish). We dollied towards Henry as a bright red light was dialed up. Then the camera moved around and away from him. This provided the basic element for the VFX guys (led by DJ DesJardin) who took over from there and voilà! pic.twitter.com/iggyq3G44S
— Larry Fong (@larryfong) June 22, 2018
Not long after Larry Fong posted his video, Twitter user @Stu_FX, who works for MPC, responded. He posted a GIF showing how the various CGI components were added to Fong’s footage. In a matter of seconds you can see the whole process from green screen to the various CGI elements added in the background and foreground to create the world around Henry Cavill.
VFX by @MPC_Film pic.twitter.com/DpFS4Xgeqj
— sᴛᴜ ᴡʜɪᴛᴛᴇɴ (@Stu_FX) June 22, 2018