The Falcon and The Winter Soldier soar with ftrack Studio and cineSync

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier’s visual effects are hugely impressive from episode one. Whether that’s Falcon taking on helicopters over a sprawling desert canyon or the multitude of invisible visual effects serving to create a consistent and believable world, the visuals are as breathtaking as any of the MCU’s big-screen counterparts.

Twelve visual effects vendors delivered sequences across the six-part show, including Germany’s TRIXTER—a studio that’s now contributed to 17 Marvel projects since the team first created Stark tech for Iron Man 2 in 2010. TRIXTER is well-versed in creating MCU-level visual effects, from crashing alien ships in Spider-Man to creepy death god crypts in Thor: Ragnarok. As such, the challenge on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier wasn’t creating effects; it was the television timeline. TRIXTER needed to produce 56 feature film-quality shots in just nine weeks.

Despite these challenges, the final nightmare scene results were extraordinarily effective. “We loved the Bucky nightmare sequence because it was mystical and dark; it wasn’t a typical fight scene,” continues Lange. “The finished look was great. We were particularly proud given we were the sole vendor on the scene—we managed high-quality work on a tricky sequence and all within a short timeline.”

Other key shots included 2 face replacements: Firstly during the fight outside the Super Soldier lab in Madripoor. “There’s a big fight between shipping containers in a dock—we superimposed the face of an actress onto a stunt double so the shot ran more smoothly,” explains Anita Grau, VFX Coordinator on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

“The 2nd, more challenging face replacement shot involved reconstructing character Sharon Carter’s face in 3D for a scene in which she is wearing a complex disguise facilitated by a highly technical veil,” continues Grau. “The real test here was bringing together numerous visual effects elements across all departments to replace her face under the mask.”

Discussion of visual effects with the Marvel team took place via cineSync. TRIXTER would jump into cineSync sessions with clients in different time zones and discuss iterations and feedback on shots. Internal review sessions, meanwhile, were completed within ftrack Studio.

“ftrack Studio was immensely helpful in many ways, both for review sessions and tracking our work on The Falcon and The Winter Soldier overall,” says Grau. “When working on shots, ftrack Studio was our central database. Artists used the ftrack Studio platform every day to see the status of tasks, update notes, and publish new versions for review.”

Adding notes to versions proved especially useful in the era of lockdown. Grau continues, “Using the notes functionality, artists could share updates and ideas with the whole studio via ftrack. As we were all working from home and couldn’t communicate as easily as we would in-studio, the notes in ftrack went a long way to supporting more organic discussions. The coordinators and artists relied heavily on notes to keep interdepartmental communication flowing.”

ftrack Studio’s time tracking functionality also proved valuable, especially when a freelancer or new team member would join the show. “We could see where time was spent and make decisions about optimizing resources within the 10-week timeframe,” says Grau. “Time tracking was a great help in that regard.”