Imageworks started with the actors’ individual performances, which gave the artists an invaluable foundation for their work even as appearances were transformed to match director Sam Raimi’s vision. “Sam really loves getting the real actor on film and that’s part of my visual-effects philosophy too, to try to get as much on film as you can,” Stokdyk says.

Making a surprise appearance is the new Goblin, this time the alter ego of Harry Osborn (James Franco), soaring through the sky and wreaking havoc with an arsenal of deadly inventions. Two remarkable villains are completely new to the cine matic experience, however.

One is Sandman, a destructive and transmogrifying creature formed entirely from individual grains of sand, who in human form is Flint Marko, played by Thomas Haden Church. The other is Venom, an extraterrestrial symbiote which sometimes appears as an insidious goo but which can also take over the body and mind of humans such as Eddie Brock, played by Topher Grace.

Raimi, Stokdyk and the Imageworks team have set the bar even higher for themselves and the audience with this third film. “This is the first time you’ll see Peter Parker fighting using his superhero powers but not in his Spider-Man suit,” says Stokdyk, who has spent a total of seven years working on all three films. “In fact, there are a few spectacular fights where the adversaries’ faces can be seen throughout the action. That was an incredible challenge, since it required an exceptional blending of CG and live footage in the same shot and meant we had to work even more closely with the stunt people to help them match our previsualization using motion-controlled wire work. But it also meant we could show more of the actors’ performances, capturing more of the reality.”

Wholly believable digital doubles were achieved using multiple approaches to keeping faces visible to the audience. Some were completely computer generated, a capability Imageworks perfected on Superman Returns to the point where they could be used interchangeably with the filmed actor. This preserved as much of the actor as possible using a system based on Paul Debevec’s LightStage technology, which creates a 3D representation of the facial geometry and skin textures. Others entirely retained the actor’s face filmed against a blue screen.

Visual-Effects Supervisor: Scott Stokdyk Digital-Effects Supervisor: Peter Nofz Animation Supervisor for Sony Pictures Imageworks: Spencer Cook