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A few days ago, shortly before they won a number of VES Awards for Avengers: Infinity War, I sat down with directors Joe and Anthony Russo, Dan Deleeuw (Visual Effects Supervisor), Russell Earl (VFX Supervisor, ILM), and Kelly Port (VFX Supervisor, Digital Domain) for an extended video interview about the incredible visual effects in 2018's biggest film.

While Marvel has raised the bar on almost every one of their films with their seamless VFX, Infinity War took everything to the next level with Thanos and it explains why the film took home the VES Awards top prize of “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature” along with wins for “Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature” (Titan), “Outstanding Animated Character in a Photoreal Feature” (Thanos), and “Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature” (Titan again). It also explains why the film is up for an Academy Award in the Best Visual Effects category.

During my exclusive interview, the team and the Russo Brothers went into great detail about how the sequence featuring Thanos throwing the Titan moon came about, how they keep track of who is working on which shot, how fourteen VFX houses worked on the film, when they realized they could do Thanos as performance capture and it would look real, how the film only had eighty shots without VFX, if they altered any of the shots for the Infinity War Blu-ray release, how one of the reasons nothing leaks is because all the computers working on the film are air-gaped, how they designed the dusting at the end of the film, and so much more. In addition, at the end of the interview, Joe and Anthony revealed Avengers: Endgame is still running at three hours and they have to be done with the film at the end of March.

Check out what they had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about.

Joe and Anthony Russo, Dan Deleeuw, Russell Earl and Kelly Port:

• How do they keep track of who is working on which shot and how come none of the stuff ever leaks?
• How there were only 80 shots that didn’t have any VFX in it.
• Joe talks about how a lot of the toy leaks are not accurate to the movie.
• They talk about the Thanos scene where he grabs the moon and throws in down. How did the sequence happen?
• When they realized they could do Thanos as a performance capture performance.
• Is there a shot or two that they are super proud of that most people don’t realize have a lot of VFX in it?
• How Wakanda is a horse farm in Atlanta and Titan was a stage.
• How did they design the dusting at the end of the film?

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  Joe and Anthony talk about what it was like filming the dusting.
• Did they change anything for the Blu-ray release?
• Did an earlier cut of the film have a different relationship between Hulk and Bruce Banner?
• When do they have to have Avengers: Endgame completely finished?
• What’s the Endgame runtime and will it have an intermission?

For more on Infinity War:

• Exclusive: Watch The Russo Brothers Dive into ‘Infinity War’ Spoilers in Our Epic 2-Hour Q&A
• The Russos Explain Why ‘Infinity War’ Opened with the Asgard Attack
• Why Thanos Was Able to Defeat Hulk in ‘Infinity War’
• ‘Infinity War’ Directors Explain How Thanos Wields the Soul Stone; Red Skull’s Connection
• Exclusive: Joe Russo Reveals How Thanos Almost Narrated ‘Infinity War’