The special effects behind Loki’s doomed planet, Lamentis

When special effects studio Digital Domain was approached by Marvel to work on an episode of Loki, there was one streak in particular that was exciting: the chance to destroy an entire planet.

The third episode of the series takes place on the moon of a planet called Lamentis, which is about to collapse on itself, dragging the moon with it. As Loki and Sylvie roam the desolate purple landscape, meteors pound the ground around them. All of this leads to a crescendo when they reach a small town, which is battered by debris as the planet tears apart.

Before even getting a feel for the rest of the series or how the story would play out, VFX Supervisor Jean-Luc Dinsdale knew this would be an important moment for Loki. “It was pretty clear from the start that this was a huge streak and a milestone for the series,” he said. The edge. “Technically it’s a really difficult streak.

Before this point, most Loki was placed in the retro-futuristic corridors of the Time Variance Authority, which made the move to Lamentis all the more shocking. When Loki and Sylvie first step out on the moon, viewers are greeted by a dark, grungy landscape unlike anything else on the show – although that wasn’t always the plan. According to Dinsdale, the Marvel Studios and Digital Domain teams have played around with a few ideas for the planet and its moon, including a lush world covered in greenery and one dominated by massive oceans. At one point, they considered having a planet with a molten core that would create quite a spectacle when it finally imploded.

“We explored this a bit, but after a while the decision was made to make it a dead planet, a planet that had been mined to an insane extent and was essentially dead during the entire operation,” explains Dinsdale. “So we literally ended up with this dead shell of a planet, which as you can see in the final footage has mining holes all over the place and has really been ravaged to the point where none are left.” nothing. Which, I think, explains why it imploded; the core of the planet has been mined, and there is no structural integrity, so it is collapsing.

This decision has to do with how Dinsdale likes to approach visual effects, which is to base them on reality. Of course, none of us have ever seen a planet explode and take a populated moon with it, but the idea is that with a real physics base, this weird visual can be more believable. In addition to reviewing numerous background documents, the team used software called Houdini to simulate how the explosion would occur, down to the amount of dust and debris that would appear. “In my experience, the best way to approach visual effects is to base them on reality,” says Dinsdale. “What is the reason this planet is blowing up?” We always walk that fine line of what makes sense and what looks really cool. “

It also ties into some of the world-building going on in the episode. Lamentis’ purple moon isn’t a very welcoming place, and viewers learn much of that through the visuals. The miners left on the planet wear shabby clothes, and the few buildings appear weathered and battered. The Digital Domain team was able to develop this not only across the landscape, which is largely barren, but also the equipment seen in the background.

“The production [team] really wanted to look like they had been mining for a while, ”says Dinsdale. “The mining equipment on this planet is run down, it’s been in use for a very long time, and it’s not like it’s super high tech. For me it was similar to that of James Cameron Aliens, the design aesthetic where there is nothing fancy about this planet, so it’s dirty and worn and dusty. Much of this involved the painstaking process of adding a lot of extra detail to everything from bumps in a spaceship to layers of dirt on some mining equipment. “You don’t necessarily see all of these individual details, but just this accumulation of details creates the feeling that this thing looks real.”

The effects studio worked on the series for about a year and a half and ultimately contributed over 300 VFX shots. One of the challenges was that, although it was only 43 minutes long, the episode goes through many different and varied tones. At first, it’s like a chase streak, as Loki and Sylvie run to escape the meteors raining down on the surface. Later, things are much more subdued as the couple have calm and heartfelt conversations as the world collapses around them. It all culminates in this grand finale sequence when the city is destroyed. And all of those moments needed something different in terms of special effects.

“We need the meteors to be scary, we need them to have a lot of speed and huge impacts, debris flying all over the place, to create that sense of danger,” Dinsdale said of that first chase streak. . “But later on in the show, as they made their way to the mining town, the filmmakers wanted the threat of meteors to still be there, which is why you always see them in the background. But a different look was created to make it feel like, yes the meteors are still there, there is still a little bit of danger, but it’s not the big Michael Bay moment where they’re about to go. be crushed.

These sections also proved difficult on the visual effects side because of the way they were filmed. During the action sequences, real debris was thrown onto the set in order to give the actors something to respond to. It made acting more realistic, but as Dinsdale explains, “it makes our job a lot harder because we have to go in and remove the stuff that was dropped on the set, replace the backgrounds, then layer them in the debris to bring back that sense of danger. Even though it’s more work for us on the backend, the results are way more satisfying. You end up with a pretty amazing look. He adds that “the amount of cleaning that had to be done on the images was considerable “.

The amount of work involved was similar to that of a feature film, and the result is arguably the most visually striking of Lokiis six episodes. From its harsh color scheme to its desolate vibe, Lamentis is truly unlike anything else on the show – that’s what makes it so memorable. “We basically have to create our own little world separate from the rest of the show,” Dinsdale explains.