VOTD: 'Agents Of SHIELD' VFX Breakdown Shows Off Impressive Comic Book TV Magic

It's easy to brush off some of the visual effects we see on television because they're done with a lower budget and not quite as polished as what is possible on the big screen. However, we've gotten to a point where the visual effects in every episode of a network television series can occasionally be more impressive than visual effects on some blockbuster movies, especially when it comes to TV shows from the world of comic books.

Agents of SHIELD is ABC's TV series that takes place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even though the connection between the show and the movies is tangential at best. While the show doesn't quite have visual effects that measure up to what we see in the MCU, the fact that these visual effects are done in a much shorter post-production window with significantly less money should not be overlooked.

Check out the Agents of SHIELD VFX breakdown after the jump to see what we're talking about.

Here's the Agents of SHIELD VFX breakdown from the visual effects company CoSA:

This isn't quite as detailed of a breakdown as we see from visual effects companies who have worked on feature films, but there are a few sequences in here where the extent of the visual effects used is rather surprising. In particular, that shot of traffic on the suspension bridge being entirely created with visual effects is quite surprising.

The one visual effect that isn't always convincing though is that of Ghost Rider's flaming skull face. There's just something about it that doesn't look anywhere near as good as any of the other effects on the show. At the same time, it's not as if the visual effects for Ghost Rider in either of the feature films starring Nicolas Cage looked all that great either. Maybe a person's body with a flaming skull on it never looks natural, so seeing it in visual effects form will always look wonky.