Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is nominated for “Action Movie of the Year” at the approaching 2024 People’s Choice Awards. While this film features such huge on-screen talent as Oscar Award–Winner Michael Douglas, Primetime Emmy Award–Nominee Paul Rudd, Golden Globe Award–Nominee Evangeline Lilly, and Oscar Nominee Michelle Pfeiffer, there is no confusion that the major draw of this production is definitely the world building that Marvel has become so known for. At the genesis of many of the most awe-inspiring moments of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is Tze Ming Yong or “Bob” as he is known by many of his peers. Bob handled the previsualization and postvisualization of cinematic sequences containing elements of visual effects that include animation, camera staging, and movement which laid the foundation for scenes which could only be manifested by the most imaginative and skilled artists of today.
Bob’s work can be seen throughout the film but one specific early scene testifies to how varied it can be. When Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) brings both Hope (Evangeline Lilly) and Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) along with her to meet an old friend, Lord Krylar (Bill Murray) at the Quantum Realm restaurant in the city of Axia, Bob’s contributions are the perfect pairing of visual creativity and psychological filmmaking. Before Bill Murray was cast as Krylar, the scene was being set up. There was ambiguity about whether the character’s appearance would be human or that of some extra-terrestrial creature. Even so, the storyline dictated that his charm at the beginning of the scene would decline to reveal the character to be threatening. Bob informs, “Krylar’s characterization and personality had gone through multiple iterations. At one point he needed to feel intimidating and powerful, and so the cameras were set up in ways to reinforce this idea. Ultimately in the end, we had the task of creating a facade of a character that seems to be an ally at first but ends up being evil by the end of the scene. This was all tricky in the sense that I needed to balance how much information I was revealing to the audience. I didn’t want to blatantly suggest the character’s true intentions too early on with the camera staging but it was still important to hint at it a little. I was able to reflect that progression through the camera staging where the camera made him feel more and more intimidating as the scene progressed. In the beginning of the scene, I used eye-level shots to make Krylar feel personable and safe. Eventually, I progressed to low angle shots to make him look more imposing in frame.”
The melee sequence towards the end of this same scene features Hope in some of her most tactful fighting moments, carefully crafted to perfection by Bob. He adjusted the staging shot by shot to make Hope’s miniscule size be more intuitive to follow for the audience. Bob also made lens choices that accentuated her scale difference compared to the soldiers she was in combat with while altering the depth of field to emphasize the size difference. This “miniature effect” as it’s called by photographers and cinematographers, uses the interpretation of surroundings by the human mind to cause it to accept the unbelievable as fact. Later, in the third act when a supersized Ant-Man takes on Kang’s army, the challenge for Bob was the inverse of the miniature Hope’s fight sequence. As the pivotal clash of the entire film, this sequence provided numerous opportunities for Bob’s well displayed creativity.
Animating creatures such as the mantis creature bartender with multiple sets of legs performing different actions or the “floating rock” creatures shows the incredible skill and imagination Bob utilized on Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Though other animators finalized these creatures, Bob’s work was essential in defining them. He describes, “I had the task of animating a family of these rock creatures at a dining table where we see an adult alien interacting with their children. This may seem simple at first but these aliens had no facial features to help suggest emotion. With that in mind, I focused on gestural movements and body language to communicate to viewers what these aliens might be thinking or saying. With the previs animation that I created, it helped inform the final animators on what direction we were going for with these characters. The animation needed to be believable to create the immersiveness of this fantastical world while staying subtle so as to not draw too much attention away from the main story beats that were happening with Krylar.”
As a vital part of the postvisualization team, Bob was part of the final look of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. From the interior shots aboard Krylar’s ship where elephant trunks seemingly made of greenish goo steer the vessel to the shots of the skyline of Axia in all its wonderment, every visual component of this film features some aspect of Bob’s skill and influence. This creativity has been inside him for quite some time as Bob tells, “Like so many other visual artists working in visual effects and film today, I’ve always gravitated towards comic books, cartoons, and movies. There’s certainly a profound inspiration I derived from Pokémon anime, Tim Burton’s Batman Returns, and Pixar’s A Bug’s Life. I loved art as a young child, specifically moving art, such as animation and movies, fascinated me to no end. It enthralled me since my early childhood where it became my primary source of entertainment. I was so in love with the art form that I would imagine animated scenes in my head or picture the world around me as animated. It’s interesting to me that even though I didn’t know how animation was created or how filmmaking worked, I already knew what I wanted to see in my head. Where other young boys ran around and pretended to be superheroes, I sat and daydreamed about them in my head instead.” Hoping to aid those who would follow in his footsteps, Bob is presently enabling the next generation as an instructor at Chapman University where he teaches a Previsualization for Motion Pictures course that he designed. The course covers the pre-visualization workflow utilizing 3D software including Maya and Unreal Engine while also teaching students about cinematography and camera techniques.
Writer : Basil Thomson
Punit