Black Panther VFX artist agrees the CGI was bad, but they had just 6 weeks and “given the time and resources we had this was the best we could do”

When I watched Black Panther, I noticed a lot of the CGI was lacklustre, and visual effects supervisor Daniel Rodrigues das Neves, who worked on the film, agrees.

They’ve got quite the list of credits, working on House of the Dragon, Venom, Avengers Infinity: War, and more. They took to Twitter to share a clip showing a breakdown of the CGI on the final fight between T’Challa and Killmonger, writing “Throwback Thrusday – Black Panther CGi breakdown. This was a tough one”.

Das Neves added a quote tweet, writing, “Black Panther was for us a last minute project with very little time and team allocation. I know there’s a lot of complaints on how bad the CGi looks, and I agree. But given the time and resources we had this was the best we could do. My burnout self post project can vouch for that.”

Black Panther was for us a last minute project with very little time and team allocation.I know there’s a lot of complaints on how bad the CGi looks, and I agree.But given the time and resources we had this was the best we could do.My burnout self post project can vouch for… https://t.co/b9ory6BGqnNovember 7, 2024

According to das Neves, their team only had six weeks “to do it from scratch last minute with very limited time and resources,” so it’s actually a wonder it looks half as good as it does.

A lot of people have noticed that CGI in Disney and MCU movies specifically has gotten worse over the years. As we hear more news about the working conditions those in the VFX industry are subjected to, with series like Stranger Things editing shots even after the show comes out, it seems clear many workers are being overworked and spread too thin.

This is in stark contrast to Arcane. The showrunners told us that the show cost so much partially because they wanted to give artists “time to really be able to put in their touches”.

If it’s been a while since you saw Black Panther and want to check out the CGI for yourself, our guide to the Marvel timeline could give you a new way to watch the MCU in chronological order.

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