Helping to build the world of Resident Evil

Aside from Pokémon, Resident Evil is the video game franchise that has seen the most adaptations to the screen. A series of six films ran from 2002 to 2016, raking in a total of around $1.2 billion which once made it the most profitable horror film series. A reboot followed in 2021, followed by Netflix’s live-action TV series in 2022.

In total, MPC has contributed to 5 of the 6 films in the franchise, was the lead vendor for the reboot, and most recently delivered over 200 shots for the Netflix TV series.

Let’s take a look at how we helped to bring the Resident Evil universe to screens over the past 20 years.

RESIDENT EVIL (2022)

With a primary focus on building the digital creatures and futuristic “Blackhawk-style” helicopters, the MPC team led by VFX Supervisor David M. V. Jones and VFX Producer Adnan Ahmed worked with a team of over 170 artists to build the survival thriller sequences. From a 3D version of post-apocalyptic London, with animated 3D helicopters above, to the Brighton Freehold sequence, the team was tasked with a myriad of VFX directives from the client. Subsequently, they also created a muzzle flash, pyro-technical effects, and several blood and gore effects throughout the episodes.

“MPC is deeply embedded into the Resident Evil universe, so it feels great to work on this brand-new interpretation in the franchise,” says David Jones, VFX Supervisor. “As an established IP, there were pre-defined looks for the creatures that the filmmakers wished to avoid directly duplicating – so our main focus was to improve, refine, and creatively re-invent the characters and environments.” The artists were asked to explore creative artistry through all the sequences while staying grounded in the vision of the dystopian future that felt familiar but also unique to the show itself, which posed an exciting challenge throughout the project.

Among the other biggest challenges for the team was building the crowd of zombies at the Brighton Freehold. The MPC team conquered the complexity and render challenges of creating large crowds that had to appear in the daytime and night-time lighting conditions. The Licker creatures were also a challenge as they attacked characters with long prehensile tongues, which provided a unique challenge for rigging and animation. “Our previous work on Resident Evil properties provided some good starting points for handling these challenges,” adds David.

Take a closer look at our work in the VFX breakdown below!

RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY

Returning to the origins of the massively popular Resident Evil franchise, fan and filmmaker Johannes Roberts brings the games to life for a new generation of fans in Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Once the booming home of pharmaceutical giant Umbrella Corporation, Raccoon City is now a dying Midwestern town. The company’s exodus left the city a wasteland…with great evil brewing below the surface. When that evil is unleashed, a group of survivors must work together to uncover the truth behind Umbrella and make it through the night.

427 visual effects shots in total were created by the MPC teams in Toronto and Bangalore. Led by VFX Supervisor Jo Hughes, MPC was tasked with bringing to life a host of iconic, gruesome, and mutated creatures in addition to a host of explosive FX destruction, and recreating the iconic locations of the video game in precise details, and retro tone.

RESIDENT EVIL: THE FINAL CHAPTER

Alice returns to where the nightmare began: The Hive in Raccoon City, where the Umbrella Corporation is gathering its forces for a final strike against the only remaining survivors of the apocalypse.

MPC/ MR. X was the lead vendor for the final installment in Paul W. S. Anderson’s movie franchise.

Find out more about the VFX in this Art of VFX interview here.

RESIDENT EVIL: RETRIBUTION

The Umbrella Corporation’s deadly T-virus is spreading across the globe, transforming ordinary people into legions of undead. Headed for extinction, the human race has just one hope: Alice (Milla Jovovich). She’s on a mission, fighting her way through cities and across continents, all inside Umbrella’s prime research facility. Old friends become new enemies as she battles to escape and discovers that everything that she believes may not even be true.

Find out more about the VFX in this Art of VFX interview here.

RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE

The fourth installment of the hugely successful RESIDENT EVIL franchise, RESIDENT EVIL: AFTERLIFE is again based on the wildly popular video game series, and will this time be presented in 3-D. In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, ALICE (Milla Jovovich), continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead takes them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead – and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap.

Find out more about the VFX in this Animation World Network Article here.

RESIDENT EVIL: EXTINCTION

Like its predecessors, the third installment of the Resident Evil trilogy is rife with zombies, survivalists, Milla Jovovich, villains, and zombies.

MPC/ MR. X completed over 500 shots for the show. Find out more about the work in this FX Guide article here.

RESIDENT EVIL: APOCOLYPSE

RESIDENT EVIL: APOCALYPSE continues the intelligent suspense of the original film, picking up the story right where it left off. After narrowly surviving the laboratory horrors she endured in Resident Evil, the film’s sequel finds Alice (Milla Jovovich) waking up in the middle of Raccoon City, which is now a city of the dead. Alice must escape Raccoon City before the evil Umbrella Corp.’s newest creation Nemesis finds her — and Nemesis is on the hunt.

Find out more about MPC / MR. X’s work in this Animation World Network article here.