DESTRUCTION OF THE LEXUS

getting cars to look great on screen is almost impossible. then they had to smash them

Lexus donated the Lexus gsf and LC-500 for scanning, building and location reference, and Marvel supplied the studios with CAD builds of all the vehicles. Along with the

CAD and LIDAR data, Marvel contributed thorough reference photography that was used to extract textures for shading as well as to digitally re-create light rigs for look development and shader balancing. “These three vehicles were our hero cars and used anytime we needed to digitally replace and/ or augment them in any way,” says Zink.

“There were multiple digital versions of the same car, so they could have crashes and do various stunts with them and Luma could replace them or augment them when necessary,” says Kevin souls, Los Angeles VFX supervisor for Luma Pictures.

The vehicles were filmed in different applied lighting environments and their parts were modelled individually so they could break apart convincingly. “We were supplied initial LIDAR scans and CAD data of the vehicles, and went to work rebuilding each one of them to accommodate the various amounts of damage they receive throughout the sequence. Luma went as far as to rebuild the exterior and interior of these vehicles, and even build out the entire drivetrain – the engine, engine bay, engine bay components, transmission and so forth – suspension and parts of the underbody like the brake systems, cross members, exhaust systems, even down to the spare tire and brake lines of these cars. We knew they would be receiving a significant amount of damage, so we didn’t want to limit ourselves to what could be shown on screen.”

There were eight additional supporting vehicles used throughout the sequence: four of them were used to propagate additional traffic on the streets of Busan, and the other four vehicles were digitally created for the ‘Claw Drag’ sequence. These four created the wall of cars that crash, pile up and block the intersection that causes Black Panther to pull the Lexus LC 500 up onto two wheels. Throughout this portion of the sequence, all of the cars (including the Lexus and Black Panther) are full Cg.

“And just for kicks,” adds Zink, “we built four Cg scooters which were used to digitally enhance a crash scene. The Cg scooters were demolished and their parts scattered across the streets of Busan.”