<I>Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2</I>
Issue: May 1, 2017

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 kicked off the summer movie season with an opening weekend that eclipsed the first film's weekend box-office. Here,  Post reports on the studios that contributed to the Marvel hit, as it approaches $650M in global box-office in just its first two weeks.

LONDON — Rocket returned home to Framestore, where the team created the look and led the animation on the wise-cracking raccoon and that of his new sidekick: the adorable, scene-stealing Baby Groot. Happy to be back in Gunn’s wacky universe, Framestore collaborated with VFX supervisor Christopher Townsend to deliver more than 620 shots ranging from creature work, spaceships, ‘the best opening sequence in the world’ (as dictated in the script) and an exhilarating space chase across the galaxies.

SANTA MONICA — Luma Pictures (www.lumapictures.com), which created visual effects for the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, including the powerhouse villain Thanos, returned to work on the franchise’s follow up, creating VFX for the end tag of the film. The sequence features the entrancing Sovereign world, led by the ruthless high priestess Ayesha. The team created a stunning fully-CG environment, which included hundreds of animated humans in blue and luminous gold pods.

LOS ANGELES — Boutique post production company Shed (https://shed.la), with locations in LA and London, worked on the dailies for Marvel’s latest blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. The studio, which specializes in the art of cinematic color grading and image quality, created the feature’s dailies using a Codex system.

LOS ANGELES — Deluxe’s Method Studios (www.methodstudios.com) served as a primary VFX vendor for Marvel’s new Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 film, having completed work on more than 500 shots, including the final closeup on Rocket. Set to the backdrop of Awesome Mixtape #2, the film continues the adventures of Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Groot and Rocket as they unravel the mystery of Peter’s true parentage. 

The Guardians of the Galaxy just saved the universe from Ronan the Accuser (Lee Pace) and deposited the purple power stone safely into the hands of the Nova Guard on Xandar. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, in theaters now, picks up the story several months later as the Guardians seek out the father of Peter Quill (Chris Pratt).