VFX company Weta has worked on an extensive catalog of big-budget movies, includingGodzilla X Kong: The New EmpireandCaptain America: Brave New World. Its latest work is on display inA Minecraft Movie, the adaptation directed by Jared Hess and starring Jack Black and Jason Momoa. The movie faithfully recreates many elements from the game, from its locations to some of its well-knowncharacters like piglinsand villagers.
Game Rant recently caught up with Weta’s VFX supervisor Sheldon Stopsack and animation supervisor Kevin Estey. They explained the effort that went into crafting two of the iconic areas of the game: the Overworld and the Nether. They also discussed howA Minecraft Moviebalances real-life sets with CGI ones.
How The Overworld and Nether Were Brought to Life
The process of recreatingMinecraft’s Overworld, which is the game’s main area, and the creepy, atmospheric area called the Nether for the movie involved a lot of research, as well as plenty of attention to detail from Weta. Thankfully, they’ve created similar environments for other projects, meaning they were able to draw from a deep well of experience throughout the movie’s production. Estey explained,
‘‘The Nether is the antithesis of the Overworld. The Overworld is a beautiful, sunny environment, the Nether is dark and chaotic, hot and steamy. We have a history of doing dungeons and darker things at Weta, so it was something that we have a lot of experience doing. In terms of the design, there were some basic rules to follow. Take the lava waterfalls, the pillars that were all around, like we had some basic structures that we could then modularly move throughout to sort of build out the deep background.’’
A Minecraft Movie Features a Mixture of CGI and Live-Action Sets
Many modern movies incorporate CGI elements, some more so than others depending on the genre. WithA Minecraft Moviebeing an adaptation of a video game, it was always likely to feature a degree of CGI, but the production team managed to maintain plenty of live-action elements too. When talking about how the movie balanced these elements, Stopsack said,
‘‘It’s probably fair to say there was a true mixture between live-action and digital. So the set design and the production design have done an incredible job. I’ve got to say, when we first stepped on the set, and we saw some of the overall components, we had these big trees and tree trunks. It was pretty extensive, but it really varied because it depended on the scene, on the sequence. Sometimes there was more of a live set, the presence of practical tools etc., and sometimes there was less.’’
Weta certainly made its mark onA Minecraft Moviewith some incredible visual creations. The collaborative effort to ensure the movie was an accurate reflection ofMinecraft’s world and lorewill no doubt please fans of the popular video game. Blending digital and live-action set design allows the movie to keep its stars anchored throughout their adventure.
