[MUSIC PLAYING]
Marvel Studios Loki has introduced us
to all kinds of wild characters, which
is why I'm speaking with VFX Supervisor Brad Parker.
Hey, Brad.
Hey there.
Now, there are a ton of incredible characters
that you and your team got to work on for the series,
but I want to talk about one of my favorites, Miss Minutes.
How would you describe her on the show?
Sure.
So Miss Minutes is this digital mascot
who appears to kind of provide story exposition,
to talk to characters, to give them information that they
might not normally have who kind of pops up any time she's sort
of needed or wanted, or not wanted,
as it can turn out to be from time to time.
She was a really interesting creation in that she wanted
to look almost hand animated.
She has almost a retro style.
But she's fully three dimensional,
like a contemporary hologram.
The visual artists that we worked with on this
created a series of tests of what
this clock person could look like dimensionalized into 3D.
And then we also did a series of tests of what her overall look
or patina might be.
You know, she's got these sort of scan lines
that travel through her body.
She's semi-transparent.
All of those little elements and decisions
were things that were painstakingly tested and tested
again until we arrived at sort of a recipe
for what it is that Miss Minutes looks like.
So once you have that recipe, how
do you take the scene filled with real actors
and add a digital character?
When you're working with real actors who are interacting
with characters that aren't there,
you generally want to make sure that the real actors
know where to look and where the other character is going to be.
In that case, we provide what's called eyelines.
That could be as simple as a tennis ball on a stick
that the actors look at.
In the case of Miss Minutes, this was often a little LED
lamp that would create a little bit of a kick of light
that she emanates from herself onto the walls.
The actors were able to look at that lamp
and know that's where Miss Minutes
would be at any given moment.
Well, speaking of blending the real and the fantastic,
let's talk about the Time-Keepers, who are
also very important to the TVA.
Could you talk us through that scene
where we first get to see the Time-Keepers in action?
Sure.
So the Time-Keepers were particularly interesting
in that they're all digital.
They're meant to be these sort of lizard-like anthropomorphic
creatures that control the flow of time
and protect the sacred timeline.
Now they're entirely digitally created.
They're hand animated.
And they're based on a vocal performance
by a single actor, which is pretty impressive.
We soon discover that they actually
are in fact robots or androids and not
living, breathing things.
So it was an interesting challenge
to kind of create performances that felt like robots
pretending to be lizard creatures that were
ultimately kind of found out.
All right.
That is layers on layers on layers.
But once you have all of that, how
do you take them from being more humanoid
and making them more robotic?
In order to create the Time-Keepers,
digital sculptors will create a version
of a digital [INAUDIBLE] or, you know, small
sculpture in the computer.
We take it to the next step, which is adding texture.
Making sure the cloth looks real,
that the material flows nicely and has the proper amount
of shine, and that their skin looks the way that it needs to,
and their eyes.
And all of those things are developed
by talented visual artists in the computer.
We then animate their performance.
This was a case where we didn't do performance capture.
Animators hand animate all the movements of the Time-Keepers.
Ultimately, everything is rendered into the scene,
and compositors piece it all together
and create one seamless effect.
Well, it's all been such a sight to behold.
Now, looking back at the entire series, what does it
mean to you as an artist to be a part of the Marvel
Cinematic Universe?
It means a lot as a digital artist to kind of contribute
to the Marvel Universe and introduce new characters,
like Miss Minutes and the Time-Keepers.
And to be able to identify what they look like
and how they behave and basically who they are
is really exciting because you know that that work is
going to live on in the future.
Thank you so much, Brad.
And of course, everyone, go experience Marvel Studios'
Loki, only on Disney Plus.