Working with Marvel visual effects supervisor, Stefane Ceretti, ILM visual effects supervisors Richard Bluff and Mark Bakowski along with their teams in Vancouver, San Francisco, and London, were primarily responsible for contributing 300 shots for two key set pieces of the film: a mind bending kaleidoscopic New York sequence done in Vancouver and San Francisco, and the destruction and subsequent time reversal rebuilding of Hong Kong done in London.
Both sequences had unique artistic and technical challenges. For New York, it was taking the concept of fractals and designs depicted in M.C. Esher’s artwork and twisting and bending a photoreal city to fit. For Hong Kong it was reengineering our entire destruction pipeline so the destruction of the buildings could be reversed on camera, something we’ve never been asked to do before.
Doctor Strange was nominated for both a BAFTA and an Academy Award for Outstanding Visual Effects as well as 5 VES Awards. The film won the VES Award for Outstanding Created Environment, the Annie Award for Outstanding Achievement in Animated Effects in a Live Action Production and the Hollywood Award for Visual Effects.
