I can't imagine anyone caught this "mistake" watching Avengers: Endgame in the theater last year, and I'm still shocked anyone noticed it from the home release or streaming on Disney+. But VFX master Matt Aitken wishes his team had caught it before Endgame hit theaters and became the highest-grossing movie of all time.
Visual Effects Supervisor Matt Aitken from Weta Digital was part of the team that earned a 2020 Oscar nomination for Best Visual Effects for Avengers: Endgame. It was the movie's only nomination and it didn't win (setting a sad new record).
Matt Aitken talked to us last year about taking a lot of lessons from The Lord of the Rings for Avengers: Endgame. Recently, he talked to Wren and Niko of Corridor Crew in a lengthy video, breaking down the VFX work for Avengers 4. Aitken didn't bring up the little Thanos' "clipping" error, but Niko asked about it and Wren gasped when he saw the mistake in the video (which you can watch below).
Niko: People pointed out to us, in this one shot of his glove you can see his finger bits clip through the ...Matt: I know, we missed that.Wren: Oh no!Niko: That's something that just -- nobody happened to see it until it was out in theaters?Wren: Yeah. I wish we caught it at the time. It just goes to show there's always a little bit more that you could do. But yeah, we were doing a lot of work on the armor. You don't want to constrain what [Thanos actor] Josh [Brolin] was doing on set, you want him to be able to perform and you just have to make the armor work to that.
As Matt Aitken added, it truly takes an artist's hand to craft the suit. But I'm with some of the commenters on the video, squinting hard to even see the problem:
• Them: THE FINGERS CLIPPED THROUGH THE GLOVE!!Me: pausing the vid and squinting to see what the heck they are talking about• I never in a millions years would have noticed that clipping issue with thanos' glove if it wasn't pointed out.• Bet someone in the internet would go "oh yeah I totally saw that in the first viewing"• Even knowing it, it took me 3 or 4 attempts to spot it. It's very subtle.• Keep a very close eye on the base of the middle finger that as he is closing his hand for the snap, the finger goes into his palm. Very subtle and hard to notice if you don't know exactly what you're looking for, I initially thought it was one of his fingers slightly poking through of the glove.• Barely noticeable• Oh it’s so minor you couldn’t even see it in iMAX.• Oof that look of pain on his face when they bring up the gauntlet clipping.
Only a true artist would be so pained at such a minor error! It was tough for a lot of people to spot, and despite Niko saying "finger bits," it's not the top of his fingers. As some pointed out, you can see the base of his fingers pass through the top of the palm of the gauntlet.
Watch that moment (repeatedly) at the 5:25 mark of the video:
Can you see what they're talking about? It's definitely not worthy of an "oh no," to me. If that's the mistake he's asked about most -- or at all -- he's doing well. I can't believe anyone noticed that enough to even mention it, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe is jam-packed with eagle-eyed fans who spot every easter egg and every error. Fans were surprised by all of Endgame's CGI hair shots and maybe even more surprised by one character who didn't need CGI.
