Black Panther 2 Hired Someone Full-Time Just For Poop
Black Panther 2 had a full-time VFX artist whose entire job was to make sure that the “fish poop” floating in the water in the Marvel movie’s many aquatic scenes was realistic. According to an interview with Wētā VFX supervisor Chris White at ComicBook.com, one VFX specialist exclusively worked to make sure that the digital floating fish poop (or “marine snow”) moved in a way that made it appear as though the scene was underwater. Although this might sound like a literal crappy job, it actually was vitally important to the authenticity of Namor’s underwater world.
As Chris White puts it, his company (which did much of the digital VFX for Black Panther 2) focused to a surprising degree on marine snow, including having full charts of the different shapes the poop can take, the density at which it collects, and how it actually moves in the water. While this kind of VFX work is not as flashy as, say, turning a shrimpy Steve Rogers into a hunky Captain America (even if you don’t snag a Succession star), the background details of a scene are what makes the audience able to suspend disbelief.
Black Panther 2 is full of scenes in the underwater kingdom of Talokan, which meant that VFX artists had their hands full making it seem like Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía) and his people were actually floating undersea. In this case, giving the ocean depth and body by realistically rendering the marine snow (or, yes, fish poop) provides a visual aid to Talokan and all the other underwater scenes.
According to White, it was also not just as simple as populating the water with floating specks. The designated (and unnamed) VFX artist had to go over every underwater scene, monitoring for direction, density, and speed, and modify them according to notes. In short, poop duty on Black Panther 2 was not an easy gig.
It is also proper to say that the VFX artist in charge of Black Panther 2’s marine snow was not just dealing with fish poop. Marine snow is actually a near-omnipresent, continuous shower of organic particles in all of the world’s oceans, made up of things like phytoplankton, protists, dead animals and their decomposing matter, and, yes, fecal matter. It is a vitally important part of the planet’s biosphere, transferring energy and mass through different levels of the ocean and acting as a food source for many underwater organisms.
And just like marine snow is important for the actual oceans, it was extremely important to give a sense of realism to Black Panther 2’s gorgeous aquatic scenes. Most likely, the behind-the-scenes VFX crews will never get the full recognition they should for their tireless (and allegedly extremely underpaid) work, but they truly are the ones that create these worlds for Marvel. Sometimes, that means you get put on digital poop patrol, but as the nameless artist proves here, there are no small parts, just small VFX workers.
