Digital Domain Creates ‘Electrifying’ VFX for ‘Black Adam’

12.27.22Visual effects supervisor Nikos Kalaitzidis discusses the studio’s work helping create incredible lightning effects for Dwayne Johnson’s titular Teth-Adam character, along with other powers, such as the zip effect, and an ‘electrocuted baddie,’ in the Warner Bros. DCEU action-adventure.

As the newest antihero to join the DC Universe, Dwayne Johnson finally fulfilled his cinematic ambition to play an ancient Egyptian slave, empowered and imprisoned by a wizard and subsequently released a millennia later to cause havoc in modern times. Black Adam, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who previously collaborated with Johnson on Jungle Cruise, relied on the expertise of Visual Effects Supervisor Bill Westenhofer (Life of Pi) and the talents of digital artists working for vendors such as Digital Domain.

One of the film’s most daunting tasks was making Shiruta, capital city of the fictional country of Kahndaq, a reality. “I remember reading the script and talking to Bill Westenhofer early on about the sheer scale of the environments, where we were shooting something in a city that doesn’t exist,” recalls Digital Domain VFX Supervisor Nikos Kalaitzidis. “Everything was more or less bluescreen and we had to change it out with this city that is somewhat Middle Eastern. Production designer Tom Meyer helped and educated us on what the streets, cars, and props should look like.” Since pandemic travel restrictions meant limited plate photography, Kalaitzidis notes that “our environment department was able to kitbash and come up with procedural ways to recreate buildings and put props, facades, and windows on in different ways quite quickly.”

Read the full article here: https://www.awn.com/vfxworld/digital-domain-creates-electrifying-vfx-black-adam