14 photos that show how 'Avengers: Endgame' looks without visual effects
Marvel Studios
"Avengers: Endgame" is one of five movies competing at the 2020 Oscars for best visual effects.
The movie contains nearly 2,500 visual effects shots from VFX houses, including Framestore, Weta Digital, Industrial Light & Magic, and DNEG that were worked on for three years.
We rounded up before-and-after images shared with Insider from Disney and from videos released by the three VFX houses and Marvel to show how much work went into creating the highest-grossing movie of all time.
A lot of motion capture suits were worn, even in scenes that you think don't have them.
There were also plenty of digital extras added into the climactic fight sequence.
"Endgame" moved forward five years to introduce us to Smart Hulk.
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When the Hulk was speaking with Ant-Man, Paul Rudd had to keep a straight face.
Mark Ruffalo wore a motion capture suit to film his scenes in the movie.
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It's quite delightful to see scenes of Mark Ruffalo in his mo-cap suit next to the regular actors in scenes.
In this moment by visual effects house Framestore, Tony, Natasha, and Bruce are trying to figure out the most efficient times to travel back to the past to retrieve Infinity stones.
Even simple scenes where Hawkeye and the Avengers were seen wearing suits had heavy visual effects.
Jeremy Renner wasn't actually wearing that white suit to travel back in time.
Renner wasn't really wearing a suit! It's fake.
Instead, Renner wore a motion capture suit that was replaced with the suit we saw in the final film. Framestore worked on over 300 shots of VFX for the film in total.
A lot of the suits seen in the movie were added with visual effects.
Marvel Studios/Framestore
When the heroes did their valiant walk together before they went back in time, some of them were actually wearing versions of their usual hero costumes. The special white Avengers costumes came later.
When Captain America was fighting his younger self, they weren't really fighting on a bridge.
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Chris Evans was fighting against a stunt double.
Read more: How Howard the Duck ended up in a nearly blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment in 'Avengers: Endgame'
Evans and a stunt double fought in a large room surrounded by green screens.
Marvel Studios/DNEG
VFX house DNEG put together the fight sequence.
You probably think the visual effects in this scene are just limited to space and Captain Marvel's suit, but that's not the case.
Marvel Studios/DNEG
Can you guess which unexpected part of the above image is a visual effect?
We weren't even looking at Captain Marvel's real hair.
Marvel Studios/DNEG
Brie Larson had a cap on to tuck away her real hair.
Heroes returned through tens of portals for the big climatic battle.
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The scene showed thousands of heroes and villains getting ready to do battle.
All of the portals were created using special effects.
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In addition, most of that army you're looking at is digital.
When the heroes storm towards the enemy in a powerful moment...
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Anyone who's flying and many of the background people were added after the fact.
... there weren't nearly as many people running.
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The VFX team told Insider there are upwards of 10,000 people and aliens on the battlefield in the scene.
According to a video released by Marvel Entertainment in August, Marvel VFX supervisor Dan DeeLeeuw estimated the heroes were only charging about six people.
Characters like Scarlett Witch, Doctor Strange, Valkyrie, and Spider-Man were added in later.
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Above is a progression image of the scene in progress.
Any time you saw Valkyrie riding on the pegasus, she really was on a contraption.
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Actress Tessa Thompson had something to hold onto while flying in the skies.
It just didn't look like a flying horse.
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A few extras were needed in the background to help move it around. Elizabeth Olsen's Scarlett Witch, meanwhile, needed some wires to help her fly.
When Scarlett Witch rose high up into the sky to confront Thanos...
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Read more: 65 details and Marvel references you may have missed while watching "Avengers: Endgame."
... not only was she on wires, but there was someone there to make sure she was OK.
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We'll see more of Scarlett Witch on the upcoming Disney Plus series "WandaVision."
Drax wasn't really stabbing an alien.
Marvel Studios/Weta Digital
He was really lifted off the ground though.
Dave Bautista was on a giant green item propped up by a man in a green suit.
Marvel Studios/Weta Digital
Bautista did really have a little knife, but as you can see, the pointed end was removed.
When Captain America dove at Thanos, he wasn't really leaping at Josh Brolin.
Chris Evans was in the suit, but we're not looking at Thanos himself.
He was diving at another man in a motion-capture suit.
The same goes for when Brie Larson fought Thanos to get the gauntlet off of his hand.
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Brie Larson was really in this shot and in her Captain Marvel suit.
A double stood in for Josh Brolin right here with a bodysuit on.
Marvel Studios
Read more: 32 times 'Avengers' stars have costarred outside of the Marvel Universe
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