Cantina Creative, the Los Angeles-based design studio with a reputation for providing high-end design and creative VFX solutions, is pleased to announce it designed, animated, and composited a wide range of compelling time-travel story point graphics for its seventeenth MCU title, “Loki.”

“Loki'' features the God of Mischief in a new Marvel Studios Disney+ series. Tom Hiddleston returns as the title character and is joined by Owen Wilson, Wunmi Mosaku, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sophia Di Martino, and other A-list talents. Kate Herron directs “Loki,” and Michael Waldron is head writer.

The series sees Loki recruited by the Minutemen of the Time Variance Authority (TVA). Branded as a “variant”—someone who disrupts the flow of the “Sacred Timeline”—Loki embarks on a mission that pits him against various versions of himself in a time-hopping adventure across the universe.

Cantina Creative Design Supervisor Andrew Hawryluk, VFX Supervisor Tony Lupoi, and Producer Donna Cullen worked directly with Marvel Studios VFX Supervisors Dan DeLeeuw and David Allen, and VFX Producer, Allison Paul, to deliver 172 shots in 33 sequences over six episodes of “Loki.” Cantina also recently provided story-driven VFX sequences for “WandaVision” and “The Falcon and The Winter Soldier”, which aired earlier this year on Disney+.

“Herron had a specific visual aesthetic in mind for 'Loki'," says Stephen Lawes, Cantina Creative co-owner and creative director. “We explored the gamut of what technology could realistically convey, designing production-ready assets that could cohesively propagate across multiple timelines.”

Highlights of Cantina Creative’s VFX contributions to “Loki’ included:

  • TemPad handheld devices used to detect deviations from the Sacred Timeline that display critical graphical and diagnostic information;
  • Graphical content for the many monitors and Chronomonitors situated throughout the TVA command center that visually display the actual timeline;
  • Hologram designs for advertisements that appear on monitors throughout the Roxxcart superstore and on its CCTV security feeds;
  • Elaborate holographic projections showing variations of Loki to illustrate different periods of the character’s history;
  • Animated display graphics for futuristic quantum ore shovels that help date timeline investigations;
  • A series of transitional montages of amorphous sculptures that reveal the origins of the TVA.

“Cantina enjoys a longtime creative collaboration with Marvel providing VFX problem-solving skills for numerous big-screen titles,” states Sean Cushing, Cantina Creative co-owner and executive producer. “As Marvel makes such high-quality shows on Disney+ it’s been a thrill to leverage our collective MCU experiences to help them tell stories for the smaller screen.”

More information about “Loki” is available here.

About Cantina Creative
Cantina Creative is a Los Angeles-based design and visual effects studio of bold creators launched in 2010 by Stephen Lawes, creative director, and Sean Cushing, executive producer. Leveraging visual effects and design expertise, Cantina’s clients benefit from a state-of-the-art production pipeline and experienced global talent who deliver an innovative, nimble and creative approach to problem-solving.

Cantina continues to earn an enviable reputation for contributing story-driven onscreen user interface graphics and technology design seen in blockbuster feature films such as: “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” Avengers: End Game,” “Iron Man 3,” “The Hunger Games,” “Blood Shot,” “Spider-Man Homecoming,” and popular episodic television series including “Loki,” “WandaVision,” and “The Falcon and Winter Soldier”.  The studio also offers creative technology expertise to virtual production and mixed reality experiences and real-world applications.

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Cantina Creative “Loki” Credit List

Visual Effects

Executive Producer – Sean Cushing, Senior Creative – Stephen Lawes, VFX Supervisor – Tony Lupoi, VFX Producer – Donna Cullen, Design Supervisor – Andrew Hawryluk, Systems Engineer – Douglas Renn, Office Manager – Eliet Flores  

Artists

Kristoffer Brady, Wes C. Caefer, Matt Collorafice, Rafael Echegaray, Harry Eisenstein, Darby Faccinto, Danny Garcia, Justin Hemsley, Federico Janni, Trevor Kerr, Sang Yup Kim, Zachary Kinney, Alejandro Robledo Mejia, Matthew Mullarkey, Jesse Siglow, Cameron Walser, and Daniel Zhang

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