VFX Legion delivered all of the visual effects for director Angel Manuel Soto's powerful award-winning coming of age drama, 'Charm City Kings.' Led by VFX Supervisor James David Hattin and VFX Producer Nate Smalley, the pioneering remote company's global team of artists, created over 100 photorealistic visual effects for the film. The winner of the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Prize for Ensemble Cast at this year's Sundance Film Festival, 'Charm City Kings' premiered on HBO Max, the recently launched streaming platform.

Inspired by the dirt-bike culture revealed in the documentary '12 O'Clock Boys,' the film is the story of Mouse (Jahi Di'Allo Winston), a boy who desperately wants to join an infamous clique of bikers that rules the inner-city streets of West Baltimore. It centers on the 14-year old's emotional struggle between a strait and narrow path and the thrill and fast money of a biker's world filled with violence.


Some of the most challenging visual effects created by VFX Legion were for a scene that began with the camera inverted, openning on an upside-down view of a biker driving on a closed-off stretch of road. As the motorcycle passes the camera, we follow the shift in perspective as it rotates to an upright position. VFX Legion's job was to track the sweeping camera move and build out this long shot of the lone dirt-biker with the addition of dozens of photorealist computer-generated cars. Choreographed animation maneuvers the vehicles naturally through the traffic as they change lanes, accelerate and hit the brakes.

The company’s team also removed reflections, camera shadows, and stunt rigging from adrenaline-pumping biking scenes along with building CG elements, adding images to cell phone screens, and compositing shots. The majority of the 100+ shots created for 'Charm City Kings' are invisible, enabling the drama to play out in a flawless real-world environment that defies the viewers' eye.