How Makkari’s Super-Speed Powers In Eternals Work

The VFX artists behind Marvel’s Eternals have discussed the unique visuals that went into bring super-speedster Makkari’s powers to life. Eternals is the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, helmed by Oscar-winning Nomadland director Chloe Zhao. The film, which features an all-star cast of actors from Game of Thrones’ Richard Madden to Hollywood royalty Angelina Jolie, follows a tight-knit group of immortal super-beings sent to watch over the Earth for thousands of years and protect humanity from the evil Deviants.

One of the standout action heroes of the film is Lauren Ridloff’s Makkari, the Eternal gifted with super-speed. Makkari’s impossible pace was brought to life through special visual effects, courtesy of Weta Digital. Weta, which was first founded by Peter Jackson and friends working on The Lord of The Rings trilogy, have since become the go-to specialists for massive computer-generated achievements. The team at Weta have worked with Marvel Studios several times, dating back to The Avengers in 2012. For Eternals, they had the challenge of bringing ten vastly different power-sets to life; from Ikaris’ laser-eyes to Phastos’ weapon-constructs. Compared to previous speedy superheroes on screen such as DC’s The Flash or Marvel’s own Quicksilver, Makkari’s speed sequences were completely computer-generated and involved an intricate digital-double.

Speaking to Comicbook, Weta’s Matt Aitken and Sidney Kombo-Kinombo discussed the unique ways they made Makkari standout as a cinematic speedster. Aitken explains that animating the character without it looking like “kind of a ridiculous Road Runner kind of circular motion” was an art achieved by Sidney and his team. Kombo-Kinombo then expanded, saying that the “visual persistence” of Makkari’s presence in one place is “something that you see, but she’s already actually there,” referring to moments where Makkari moves so fast it appears as if she’s in two places at once. This is noticeable during the action scenes of Eternals‘ third act, particularly in a one-on-one fight where Kombo-Kinombo explains “the printing of Makarri’s here, but she’s already punching you from the left.” The artist goes on to explain how enjoyable it was to bring the concept to life, saying they had a lot of fun with the effects. Read their full comments below:

Aitken: “Animating a character so that it can look like it is moving at thousands of miles per her hour, without her legs just doing a kind of a ridiculous Road Runner kind of circular motion is an art that Sidney and his team, obviously, surpassed at.”

Kimbo-Kinombo: “Having that idea that, ‘Okay, the visual persistence of her presence in one place is something that you see, but she’s already actually there,’ that’s what we tried to put a little bit here … Ikaris is shooting at her in a direction and he doesn’t even see that she’s right on his face already. So he’s just shooting at an overall impression of Makkari in the distance. So the impression—the printing of Makkari’s here, but she’s already punching you from the left. When you look from the left, she’s already behind you, and just leaving Makkari in frame as the other Makkari’s appearing, that was something that we wanted to play with and have fun with.”

In the end, Makkari became one of the standout characters of the new Marvel film, with fans particularly warming to her close relationship with Barry Keoghan’s Druig. Ridloff’s portrayal of Makkari in Eternals also marked the debut of Marvel’s first deaf superhero, as Ridloff is a deaf actress and communicates through sign language. The actress and her on-set ASL specialists even helped create a special sign for the name Makkari, along with signs for other Eternals characters, to maintain realism in the movie.

Weta’s work on Makkari’s powers was one of the biggest elements that made her unique to on-screen speedsters of the past, and helped to create some the most memorable action moments of the film. The VFX company continues to work on some of the biggest blockbusters around, with their next Marvel collaboration set to be James Gunn’s Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 3. After the team’s visually stunning work bringing Makkari’s incredible speed to the screen, fans of the character are keen to see her return in a possible sequel to Eternals. The ever-expanding Marvel universe is in need of someone with speed, and with her lightning-quick jaunts across the globe, Makkari has more than proven that she’s up to the task.

Source: Comicbook

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