Forum Series The Houdini Series
ON SITE ROOM H brought to you by HOUDINI Thursday, May 06, 13:30
SideFX

The FX behind Godzilla vs. Kong

Weta Digital Presents Godzilla v Kong Weta Digital was responsible for Hollow Earth and the spectacular sci-fi effects created by the ships as they travel in pursuit of Kong. FX Lead Mike Chrobak will discuss why Houdini is the principal tool for FX artists at Weta Digital. He'll talk about the specific techniques for Kong v Godzilla—including the environment build for the Nozuki fight and the portal scenes that blend old-school FX with the new.

Mike Chrobak

Mike Chrobak, Lead Effects Technical Director, Wētā FX

Mike was recently Lead Effects Technical Director on Godzilla vs. Kong. He worked closely with Weta Digital’s artists and developers to evolve the tools his team later used to populate the movie’s massive environments with a huge variety of plants and large-scale hero plant destruction. 

Mike joined Weta Digital to create visual effects for Avengers: Infinity War. He worked on the extensive destruction and volumetric shots for the epic showdown, which won Weta Digital a VES Award for Outstanding Effects Simulation. He then worked on Mortal Engines and key shots for Avengers: Endgame’s climactic final battle, including the destruction of the Avenger’s Compound, Thor’s lightning and hero mortar explosions, amongst many others. 

Having launched his VFX career in 2014 at MPC, Mike gained experience working across multiple films. An early highlight was contributing to the development of the water simulations which featured extensively in The Finest Hours.