How Imagine Engine Built Spider-Man’s Suit
Spider-man: Far From Home gave us a great scene where Peter Parker uses Tony Stark’s tech to make a new Spidey suit. Imagine Engine visual effects supervisor Joern Grosshans, explained how the VFX studio showed the suit being built in the jet lab before Parker’s final showdown with Mysterio.
“It was a core story beat and a turning point for Peter’s character,” said Grosshans. “The production knew that there would be a lab in the back of the jet and there would be an Iron Man suit-building montage. Beyond that, the scene was primarily up to us!”
The brief first came from the film’s production visual effects supervisor Janek Sirrs to use a 3D printer as inspiration. “We started with that and in parallel we also looked for other references and came up with this big weaving machine,” he told Befores & Afters.
The robotic arms were based on medical robot arms. But they were careful to make sure it had the look of Stark tech that audiences are familiar with.
“That’s very important. You can’t introduce another design language, so you have to stay in the design language, which is established over the last 20-plus movies.”
Marvel Studios
Imagine Engine also gave us a glimspe at the different layers of Spidey’s suit as it was being built. “Though there was a scan of the suit, the challenge was that we had to show what was under the main black and red layer as well as the mechanics that put it together,” Grosshans told Animation World Network. “The first stage is the white suit, which is made out of wet fibers. For that, we looked at some big industrial weaving machines that have a distinct pattern. There was also a visual connection to spiderwebs with regards to how the threads come together. In the second stage, which happens on top of the white suit, there is another layer of fabric detail going on for the red and black suit. The last step is where the robot arms build all of the hard surfaces stuff like the eye and chest patches.”
Other full CG shots were developed showing close-ups the suits eyes and the iconic Spider-man logo on his chest being built.
All the CG elements work perfectly to create an emotive scene. It’s the penultimate scene before the climax where Peter Parker puts his own ingenuity into Tony Stark’s machine to build the suit he wants.
