Superman has proven to be a critical and commercial success, with impressive box office numbers and audience reviews alike helping the new DC Universe land with a bang. Written and directed by Guardians of the Galaxy’s James Gunn, Superman is a promising start for the Gunn-led DC-studios.

ScreenRant’s Superman review dubbed the movie’s leading trio of David Corenswet (Superman), Nicholas Hoult (Lex Luthor), and Rachel Brosnahan (Lois Lane) as “pitch-perfect” casting, but while their performances anchor the film, there’s much more that goes into making Superman’s exploits captivate on the big screen.

Below the line, people like Superman’s composers and Wētā VFX supervisor Guy Williams help the movie land in the hearts of audiences without taking them out of the story at hand. In Williams’ case, that work extends far beyond any giant FX-dependant kaiju battle to include details as small as making sure Superman’s cape and hair look camera-ready.

ScreenRant’s Joe Deckelmeier interviewed Superman VFX supervisor Guy Williams about his work on the movie (which just reached an impressive box office milestone.) Williams discussed bringing multiple DC Comics heroes to life, the process of building epic action sequences, and more.

Guy Williams Reveals The Hardest Superman VFX SH๏τs

Superman is well-known for his near-invincibility and his ability to fly, or, in Guy William’s words, “he doesn’t really have too many garish powers.” Which tracks; while the powers of characters like Green Lantern and Metamorpho call for plenty of skill and imagination in their realization, Superman’s are a little more straightforward.

But then there’s Superman’s breath. “The breath was hard,” Williams shared, “because it’s almost like a treadmill sH๏τ.”

So, with the breath, Williams, said, “It’s like, ‘How are you ever going to make that look pᴀssable?’” The answer was that they “came up with all sorts of things,” but “at the end of the day, you make it subtle enough that it doesn’t distract, so it’s not like, ‘Oh, look, he’s breathing.’”

Another of Superman’s tougher powers to realize was his heat vision. “James was very specific,” Williams shared.

That approach was even determined in the pre-vis stage, Williams revealed. “The animation team–the animation puppet that they use is a long, thin, cone, but still a cone, not a line. And then you work the effects team and say, ‘You’ve got to fill that cone with some really cool stuff, and it has to look a little bit chaotic.’”

There were also plenty of references used for the effect, although they were often employed as examples of what not to do: “They had some references from work that other vendors were doing, but also from other shows that had been done in the past, trying to get it looking a little more interesting and a little less obvious.”

Superman’s Kaiju Sequence Was A Monster Challenge

One of the biggest action sequences in Superman centered on the hero’s attempt to save bystanders from a rampaging kaiju. The sequence not only contrasted Superman’s approach to heroism with that of the much more cynical Justice Gang, but also included the now-infamous sH๏τ in which Superman takes an extra beat to save a squirrel from certain doom.

Unsurprisingly, that scene was the result of a huge effort from Superman’s VFX vendors, and Williams detailed some of the specific challenges they faced. “Everything we did in the whole kaiju fight,” he said, “[had] all these considerations … he can never kill anybody. He has to do everything he can to try to protect people.”

That nobility is shown in ways that moviegoers would likely only subconsciously pick up on. Williams acknowledged the obvious examples, “like saving a squirrel,” but also pointed out a very subtle detail: “We kept property damage to a minimum.”

In fact, the design of Superman’s kaiju was even tweaked to minimize collateral damage. “We redesigned the kaiju at one point,” Williams revealed, “because it had this big spikes sticking off its back. The problem was that, when it fell into the building, the spikes would have crashed part of the building.”

Flight In The World Of Superman