Breakdown & Showreels Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Creating Proximus Caesar’s Encampment by Weta FX By Vincent Frei - 23/04/2025 Enter the heart of Proximus Caesar’s domain. Weta FX reveals how they crafted the brutal beauty of the apes’ camp in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes—a place of power, fear, and survival! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Weta FX: Dedicated page about Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes on Weta FX website.Stephen Unterfranz (Unter) and Phillip Leonhardt: Here’s my interview of Stephen Unterfranz (Unter) and Phillip Leonhardt – (Sequence VFX Supervisors) – Weta FX. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels Marie Antoinette – Season 2: VFX Breakown by Benuts By Vincent Frei - 23/04/2025 Marie Antoinette Season 2 is back with elegance, drama… and invisible VFX by Benuts. From palace extensions to seamless period enhancements, the studio brings 18th-century France to life—without stealing the spotlight! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Benuts: Dedicated page about Marie Antoinette on Benuts website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Interviews Paddington in Peru: Alexis Wajsbrot – Production VFX Supervisor – Framestore By Vincent Frei - 22/04/2025 Back in 2022, Alexis Wajsbrot shared insights into Framestore’s VFX work on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Since then, he’s contributed to The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. Now, he returns to a beloved world—as he discusses his latest journey into the Paddington universe. What was your feeling to be back into this iconic universe? Paddington holds a special place in the UK — and especially at Framestore — so getting the opportunity to return to this iconic universe was truly an honor. Paddington isn’t just a character; he represents excellence in VFX, animation, and storytelling, and he embodies values like kindness and respect. If you walk into Framestore’s HQ in London, you’re greeted by a giant image of Paddington, which speaks volumes about how important he is to us. Personally, I’m always drawn to challenges, and this film pushed the boundaries in so many ways – expanding the world with new bears, new adventures, and a lush, immersive rainforest landscape. It felt like a natural progression of the universe, and it was incredibly exciting to help bring all that to life. But, above all, it’s deeply personal for me. Coming home after helping create Paddington’s journey in Peru, I became a hero to my kids, and that means the world to me. It’s a moment I’ll never forget. How was the collaboration with Director Dougal Wilson? It was fantastic. I truly enjoyed working with Dougal. He’s a very creative and kind director, and he brought such a great energy to the project. He has that classic British sense of humor, which made him a perfect fit for directing Paddington. What really stood out was his openness to ideas and his commitment to making every shot as good as it could be. He’s a wonderful collaborator and always encouraged input from the team. Dougal was incredibly well-prepared – he had a clear vision for the locations he wanted to shoot and was very specific about how he wanted the action framed. One of the funnier things he did was shoot scenes from the film with his collaborators on his iPhone, to help demonstrate his ideas, which led to this hilarious cut of all the heads of department playing different characters. I’m sure it’s a blast to watch! Overall, it was a truly rewarding collaboration. Dougal fully embraced VFX, and he was so appreciative of the team’s hard work. He even made a point of coming to thank everyone personally, which really meant a lot. How did your experience working on Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 influence your approach to animating and rendering Paddington in Paddington in Peru? That’s a great question! Interestingly, both the Paddington and Rocket Raccoon assets were created around the same time at Framestore for Paddington 1 and Guardians of the Galaxy 1, so they share a lot of similarities in terms of their development. For Guardians 3 and Paddington in Peru, we both upgraded the character models significantly — focusing on things like fur density, advancing the technology used for eye shaders, and giving special attention to the meniscus to bring real life to both characters’ expressions. We also used the latest fur simulation technology, which helped make the textures and movement feel more dynamic and realistic. A great example of this is Paddington’s duffle coat. The cloth simulation in Paddington in Peru is a huge leap forward compared to the earlier films, and you can really see the progress when you compare it to how the fabric moved in the first two Paddington movies. It’s amazing to see how far the tech has come. When it comes to animation, I was fortunate enough to work with a team of incredibly talented animators on both projects. On Paddington in Peru, I teamed up with Pablo Grillo, who is one of the best in the industry. While both Paddington and Rocket are characters with a lot of heart, Paddington is definitely a more subtle character. He’s not as animated as Rocket, who is more dynamic and expressive. Paddington’s animation is about those small, subtle movements that make him feel real and relatable — it’s actually more complex in a way because it’s about conveying emotion without it being overly exaggerated. Every project is unique, and the stories we tell are different, but the one thing that’s constant across both films is the passion and dedication of the VFX team. Both projects were fueled by a shared love for the characters, and everyone on the team, whether they were working on Rocket or Paddington, truly gave their best to bring those characters to life in the most compelling way possible. Were there any specific VFX techniques or learnings from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 that you were able to bring into Paddington in Peru, particularly in terms of character realism and performance? Absolutely. As I mentioned in the previous answer, one of the key elements that we focused on for both Rocket and Paddington was the realism in their eyes. A lot of the character’s emotional depth comes through in the eyes, so we paid special attention to the “ping” in the eye and the meniscus, which helps convey life and emotion. In both cases, it was crucial to make sure the eyes felt as realistic and expressive as possible. The subtlety of the animation was another key learning that carried over. The eyes can communicate so much, and getting that right was half the battle. When you have characters like Rocket and Paddington, the audience is naturally drawn to their eyes, and if they’re able to convey the right emotions, it instantly makes the character feel more alive. That attention to detail, particularly in making sure the eyes reflected the right emotion and realism, was a huge part of what made both characters come to life, and we really carried that learning forward from Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 to Paddington in Peru. What were the biggest challenges in making Paddington look as realistic and expressive as possible? The main challenge with Paddington was striking the right balance in his expression. He has a very distinct style of movement and expression, and if we went too big or too exaggerated, we risked losing the essence of who he is. Paddington’s charm lies in his subtlety, so maintaining that delicate balance was key. Another layer of complexity came with the film being rendered in 4K. This introduced a new level of detail that we had to account for. The groom on Paddington’s fur, for instance, had to be absolutely perfect. Transitioning the assets from 2K to 4K was a significant challenge, as even the smallest change to his face could drastically impact how cute and emotionally resonant he appeared on screen. In terms of realism, a lot of attention went into the simulation of Paddington’s fur and duffle coat. We shot a whole day of reference footage with an actor performing the necessary actions while wearing the duffle coat. This helped us understand how the coat should move and react to different conditions in a way that felt believable. Another crucial element was the on-set performance. No matter how much work we put into the VFX, if the rest of the cast didn’t make Paddington feel like he was truly present and interacting with them, it wouldn’t work. To achieve that, we had several key actors on set. For example, we had Lauren, an actress the same height as Paddington, who helped the director and cast members block the scene, and Javier Mazan, a physical comedian who brought a lot of the body comedy to Paddington’s character. We also had actors on set delivering lines in a similar tone to Ben Whishaw, ensuring that the performance matched. Our data wrangler team, led by Aaron Merritt, was instrumental in capturing precise measurements and ensuring the eye-line for the actors interacting with Paddington is always correct. Then, during post-production, we recorded Ben Whishaw’s voice performance with a head-mounted camera to capture reference footage for all the subtleties of his expressions and physical movements, particularly for the more emotional beats. Ben’s talent as an actor was crucial in bringing Paddington’s emotion to life — he’s fantastic at delivering those small, nuanced moments that make Paddington so endearing. How did you ensure that Paddington’s fur and interactions with real-world environments remained believable throughout the film? It really starts on set. For example, when Mary needs to hug Paddington, we shoot reference footage with Lauren, a stand-in, so we can capture the physical performance of the actor as well as a fantastic lighting reference. This helps us ensure the interaction feels natural and realistic. We also use a stand-in bear, which is crucial for getting the right physical interaction between the actors and Paddington. In terms of objects, each one Paddington interacts with has a digital counterpart. For example, in a scene where Mary removes Paddington’s captain’s hat and replaces it with his iconic red one, she physically takes off the captain’s hat and drops the real red hat. We capture her motion on set, then switch over to the CG hat at the right moment. This helps maintain the flow of the scene, making sure everything feels seamless. On set, we often have actors handing props to Paddington, like letters or umbrellas. It can look a little odd on the first take when they “hand” something to him, only for it to fall to the ground. But with practice, it becomes easier — they just need to aim at the right height, and we make it all come together in post. All of these interactions are essential in making sure Paddington feels truly present and believable in every scene. Did the advancements in VFX technology since Paddington 2 allow you to push Paddington’s animation to new levels? Interestingly, animation itself hasn’t changed all that much over the years. We still use Maya, still keyframe at 24fps, and the process is very much the same in terms of being a labor-intensive, handcrafted craft. It’s still a learning curve for every animator working on Paddington to master how to animate such a subtle character. So, in many ways, it’s the same formula — a team of incredibly talented animators, passionate about their craft, spending months refining every detail to make him look as good as possible. That said, for the rest of the department, technology has definitely helped us push Paddington to new heights. Our rigs have become faster, our renderer is more photo-realistic, and our cloth simulation tools are more accurate than ever. These technological advancements allow us to add a level of realism that wasn’t possible before. Even in departments like lighting, technology plays a crucial role, but it still requires an extremely talented team of lighters to ensure Paddington blends seamlessly into his environment. We always strive to avoid making him look flat, and the key to achieving that is ensuring there’s proper directional lighting, which really helps bring his character to life. Given that Paddington is such a beloved character, how do you balance realism with maintaining his signature charm and warmth? Paddington’s core design stays consistent, but we always strive to integrate him as seamlessly as possible into each scene, especially when it comes to lighting and his interactions with the rest of the cast. While his character doesn’t change, the challenge is ensuring that he feels like a genuine part of the world around him, no matter the setting. We pay a lot of attention to the lighting to make sure Paddington blends naturally with his surroundings, especially considering he’s often in scenes with live-action actors. The way the light falls on him, the way his fur reacts to different environments — it’s all about making him feel like he’s truly present in those moments. The interactions with the cast are key too. When other actors are physically engaging with Paddington, we make sure they’re responding to him in ways that feel real, whether it’s a hug, a handshake, or even just a shared glance. This helps maintain Paddington’s warmth and charm, making sure that while he might be a CG character, he always feels emotionally grounded and connected to the story and the other characters. What were the biggest VFX challenges in creating the boat sequences on the river? Were they mostly practical or CG-heavy? The boat sequences were undoubtedly one of the most complex and challenging aspects of the film. To make the scenes feel seamless, it all started with detailed previsualization, which mapped out the entire sequence. We followed this with tech-viz to define key technical aspects — such as camera height, angle, and the boat’s speed — to ensure that when we went to Colombia to shoot the background plates, we captured everything as accurately as possible. The shoot itself was a complex endeavor. We spent about a week on location, moving back and forth between the river, using a five-camera array setup to capture multiple angles. This allowed us to stitch the background plates together seamlessly. Once back on set, our Director of Photography, Erik Wilson, who was fully involved in the process from the start, helped me pre-selected the background plates for each foreground shoot. This enabled us to light the foreground elements precisely, ensuring they matched the background as closely as possible. We also used standard VFX techniques on set, like the use of a gray ball to ensure the lighting and reflections between foreground and background plates were perfectly aligned. For the more dynamic moments, like the boat moving through rapids, we turned to digital water simulations to create realistic interactions with the boat. Since shooting in actual rapids wasn’t feasible during the background plate shoot, we relied heavily on simulations to capture the correct scale, velocity, and movement of the water. To get this right, we shot a lot of reference material of real river rapids in Colombia, which we then used to match the behavior of the water in Houdini. Thanks to our SFX Supervisor, Mark Holt, we were able to incorporate a gimbal rig on set in the UK that replicated the boat’s movements — including rotations — as it would behave on rough water. This setup helped give the actors the correct physical responses to gravity, wind, and motion, enhancing the realism of their performances. In addition, we integrated practical SFX water splashes on set and shot specific splash elements, which were later composited into the final shots. In terms of the technical challenges, it was really a collaborative effort between our DOP, SFX, and VFX teams that made this sequence work. The integration of live-action plates, digital water simulations, and physical interactions between the actors and the boat was key to making the sequence feel immersive and believable. It required a lot of preparation, precision, and careful coordination, but the end result is something we’re all very proud of. How much of the Peruvian jungle and ruins were shot on location versus created digitally, and what were the key factors in that decision? Our Second Unit actually traveled to Machu Picchu to capture plates directly from the Citadel area. Even though the Citadel in the film isn’t meant to represent Machu Picchu exactly, it was heavily inspired by it, so we knew early on that we wanted real-world photography to ground the climb-up sequence in authenticity. We spent about two weeks on location, and honestly, it was one of the most stunning places I’ve ever worked. Every single angle felt cinematic – the landscape is just spectacular. Using real plates for the climb made a lot of sense, especially because Paddington is alone in those moments and there wasn’t a need to physically integrate live actors on location. For the descent, though (particularly the chase sequence between Antonio Banderas and Paddington), it was much more practical to build partial sets on our backlot at Elstree, thanks to our production designer Andy Kelly. That allowed Antonio to perform and interact naturally with the environment, while the rest of the Citadel was extended digitally. In some shots, especially when Paddington is alone or performing complex actions like gliding down with his umbrella or riding the llama, we leaned more on full CG environments. The timing and precision required for those sequences, especially to sync with animation, made a fully digital approach the most efficient solution. Ultimately, it was a mix of real set builds, location photography from Machu Picchu, and CG extensions — and I believe that blending those techniques helps the environment feel more authentic and natural to the audience, because you can’t quite tell where the real world ends and the digital world begins. Can you talk about how lighting and atmospheric effects were used to enhance the realism and mood of the jungle and ruins? The jungle sequences were mostly grounded in real-world photography. The wide establishing shots were captured on location in Colombia — so when the jungle looks authentic on screen, it’s because it truly is the rainforest. For scenes shot in the UK, we used a location called Berry Bushes — a farm that gave us practical foliage to work with. But since it couldn’t match the scale and depth of a real rainforest, we always replaced the background with plates we had captured in Colombia. The real challenge there wasn’t so much creating the jungle, but rather making sure that the Brown family and Paddington felt like they belonged in that environment. That’s where our DOP, Eric Wilson, was absolutely key. He fully embraced the process of selecting the background plates ahead of time, live compositing them on set, and working with reference tools like the gray ball to ensure the lighting on our actors and sets matched the background as closely as possible. That attention to detail was critical in blending the real and digital elements seamlessly. For the ruins, we also relied on stunning photography from Peru, which gave us a strong base for realism. One thing we were very mindful of was not overusing atmospheric effects. In VFX there’s often a temptation to add a bit too much fog, too many god rays, or heavy lens flares, but we were careful to strike the right balance — enough to enhance the mood and composition, but always aiming for something that felt like it could have been shot entirely for real. And then there’s the bear village inside the caldera, which was fully CG apart from some foreground plates shot at Berry Bushes. That presented a different kind of challenge: most of the time we were dealing with classic British overcast weather on set, but the caldera environment was designed to be bright and sunlit. So we spent a lot of effort finding the right balance in the grade and compositing, to make sure the light direction, exposure, and atmosphere aligned across the foreground and CG background. In the end, it was all about subtlety — using lighting and atmospheric effects to serve the story and the environment, without ever drawing attention to the fact that much of it was created digitally. Were there any unexpected technical or creative challenges encountered during the production? Thanks to a really solid prep phase, there weren’t many surprises — we were very clear from the start about where the challenges would lie. One of the biggest was always going to be how to seamlessly integrate foreground plates shot on a backlot in the UK with background plates captured in Colombia, especially when it came to matching the lighting. Shooting in London often meant dealing with overcast skies or rain, so the real work came later in the compositing stage, where we had to carefully marry both plates to create a convincing and cohesive image. One sequence that did catch us a little off guard was Paddington as a baby on the log, floating in the river. That moment came quite late in the edit, which meant we had to turn it around quickly — and water simulation combined with making Paddington look believably wet on the log turned out to be a lot more work than expected, especially on a tight timeline. Another technically tricky moment was actually the very first shot of the film — a long, continuous shot starting on the sun and revealing the caldera. For a long time, we were locked into using a plate of moving ferns that had been shot in studio, but the timing and lighting never quite worked for the final composition. In the end, we shifted to a fully CG approach, which gave us much more freedom to craft the shot exactly as we imagined. And the same applied for sequences in Bear Village – sometimes the live-action plates simply weren’t sunny enough, so we had to find creative solutions in compositing to ‘add back the sun’ and make the foreground and background feel unified. But all in all, I’d say it wasn’t so much about unexpected problems. It was more about constant collaboration and problem-solving, and having a team that was incredibly motivated to push for the best possible images. It was a really rewarding production to be part of. Were there any memorable moments or scenes from the film that you found particularly rewarding or challenging to work on from a visual effects standpoint? There were definitely a lot of sequences that were particularly rewarding, especially those involving Paddington. Thanks to the incredible work of our animation team and animation director, Pablo Grillo, these moments were not only technically impressive but also emotionally resonant. One sequence that stands out is when Paddington finds himself in the middle of a full CG rainforest. It’s a pivotal moment in the story — Paddington, high up in the canopy, struggling under a torrential downpour, is at his lowest point. You really feel his isolation and emotional struggle as he climbs the tree, and I think the animation work there perfectly captures that emotion. Another moment that really stood out was towards the end of the film, when Paddington has to choose between staying with his tribe or returning to the UK with the Brown family. The way the animation captured that internal conflict felt deeply moving, and from a visual effects standpoint, it was so rewarding to see that moment come to life. On the more technically challenging side, one sequence that was a bit of a creative and technical leap was the stop-motion-inspired travel sequence. We initially explored working with real stop-motion techniques for the clouds, plane animation, and how we’d rotate the planet, even collaborating with a school to help visualize how we could execute that. Ultimately, we ended up going full CG, but it was a really fun and rewarding creative exercise — almost like a mini short film within the movie, and it added something unique to the overall experience. And then there’s the plane crash sequence, which was a bit of a surprise in terms of how big and intense it got, especially for a Paddington film! It was quite a challenging and fun sequence to work on because we don’t typically have these large VFX-heavy moments. The plane crashes into dense vegetation, and we see vines stretching and sand being simulated as the plane plows through it. It was a technically complex shot, but also so rewarding to see it come together — especially when it culminates in that hilarious moment where the safety manual from Henry Brown ends up hitting Antonio Banderas in a very unfortunate place! It’s a perfect example of how great VFX can support both the action and humor of a scene. Overall, these sequences really highlight the balance between technical innovation and emotional storytelling. Whether it’s the emotional moments with Paddington or the unexpected chaos of the plane crash, each sequence was a unique challenge and a fantastic opportunity to push the boundaries of what we could achieve with VFX. How long have you worked on this show? A bit more than a year and half. What is your next project? I can’t tell you anything – I can only say it’s very exciting and challenging! A big thanks for your time. WANT TO KNOW MORE?Framestore: Dedicated page about Paddington in Peru on Framestore website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels M. Son of the Century: VFX Breakdown by EDI Effetti Digitali Italiani By Vincent Frei - 22/04/2025 Behind the scenes of power and propaganda. Italian VFX studio EDI Effetti Digitali Italiani brings history to life in M. Son of the Century, capturing the rise of Mussolini with haunting realism and period-perfect visuals! WANT TO KNOW MORE?EDI Effetti Digitali Italiani: Dedicated page about M. Son of the Century on EDI Effetti Digitali Italiani website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels Punto Nemo: VFX Breakdown by Onirikal Studio By Vincent Frei - 21/04/2025 Where the ocean stretches endlessly and no land is in sight lies Punto Nemo — the most inaccessible point on Earth. Onirkial Studio crafts surreal and visuals that echo the mystery and allure of this forgotten coordinate! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Onirikal Studio: Dedicated page about Punto Nemo on Onirikal website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Movie & Games Trailers Light & Magic – Season 2 By Vincent Frei - 18/04/2025 YES! Light & Magic is back! Season 2 dives into ILM’s most daring era — the digital revolution. From groundbreaking CG characters to the invention of digital water, witness how the magic was reinvented. Featuring VFX legends like John Knoll and Rob Coleman, and packed with stunning archive footage and directed by legendary filmmaker Joe Johnston. Streaming now on Disney+. Director: Joe Johnston Release Date: April 18, 2025 (Disney+) © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

The legendary director Tsui Hark returns with Legends of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants, a martial arts epic brought to life with stunning visual effects by Dexter Studios in Seoul. Witness the battle for Xiangyang like never before! © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025 The post Legends of the Condor Heroes – The Gallants: VFX Breakdown by Dexter Studios appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Breakdown & Showreels Bref – Season 2: VFX Breakdown by Irrational By Vincent Frei - 17/04/2025 For season 2 of Bref, the Paris-based studio Irrational dives into a surreal playground of visual effects — crafting imaginary worlds and visions, chaotic alien clouds, and clever invisible tricks that serve the comedy, not outshine it! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Irrational: Dedicated page about Bref – Season 2 on Irrational website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels Godzilla x Kong – The New Empire: Skar King’s Arena by Weta FX By Vincent Frei - 16/04/2025 From glowing lava flows to epic creature clashes, Weta FX shares how they built the massive subterranean arena at the core of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Watch the making-of and witness the scale behind the spectacle! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Weta FX: Dedicated page about Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire on Weta FX website.Kevin Smith and Ludovic Chailloleau: Here’s my interview of Kevin Smith (Overall VFX Supervisor) and Ludovic Chailloleau (Animation Supervisor) – Weta FX.Alessandro Ongaro: Here’s my interview of Production VFX Supervisor Alessandro Ongaro. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels The Invisible Art by Framestore By Vincent Frei - 16/04/2025 The Invisible Art series continues with acclaimed directors Alfonso Cuarón (Children of Men) and Paul King (Paddington). Hear them reflect on their collaboration with Framestore and how they craft cinematic worlds beyond the lens! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Framestore: Dedicated page about Directing The Invisible Art on Framestore website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels Lockerbie – A Search for Truth: VFX Breakdown by REALTIME By Vincent Frei - 16/04/2025 The five-part limited series Lockerbie: A Search for Truth, produced by Carnival Films for Sky and Peacock, features visual effects by REALTIME. Starring Colin Firth, the series revisits the 1988 Lockerbie disaster and the Swire family’s search for justice! WANT TO KNOW MORE?REALTIME: Dedicated page about Lockerbie: A Search for Truth on REALTIME website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Interviews The Electric State: Joel Behrens (VFX Supervisor) & Elizabeth “Liz” Bernard (Animation Supervisor) – Digital Domain By Vincent Frei - 15/04/2025 In 2018, Joel Behrens discussed Digital Domain‘s work on Ant-Man and the Wasp. He later contributed to Morbius and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Now, he walks us through a very different kind of project: The Electric State. Back in 2022, Elizabeth “Liz” Bernard told us about Digital Domain’s work on She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. She then worked on Secret Invasion, and today, she returns to discuss her latest project: The Electric State. How did you and Digital Domain get involved on this show? Joel Behrens: Matthew Butler was brought in to talk with the Russo Brothers very early on before the project was with Netflix, and brought me on. We obviously wanted to take on a big part of the show and decided to do some preliminary testing on our mocap stage to show how these characters might interact in the world of the film. From there we got the award and moved forward with character designing and builds. How was the collaboration with the Russo Brothers and VFX Supervisor Matthew Butler? Joel Behrens: Matthew and I have worked together for many years, so working with him was great as usual. This was the first time I worked with the Russo Brothers for me, and I felt like we had a fantastic collaboration on this film. I was able to go into AGBO often for reviews and meetings throughout the entire post-production run. They were always very receptive to ideas, and I enjoyed the experience of reviewing our work with them on a regular basis. Obviously, it was a very large movie in terms of scale and scope, and they always had a pretty clear vision for what they wanted. What are the sequences made by Digital Domain? Joel Behrens: We worked on quite a few throughout the film. Cosmo’s first appearance with Michelle, Fort Hull robot battlefield graveyard, The Mine sequence, The Exclusion zone and traveling through the Ex to the mall, Arriving at the mall and Mr. Peanut’s intro, all of Happyland and the haunted house, and the epilogue back at the mall. Can you walk us through the design process for the main robots such as Cosmo, Herman, The Marshall, and Mr. Peanut? What were the core ideas you wanted to convey through their appearance and movements? Joel Behrens: All the bots had their own sets of challenges and goals that we went through. Cosmo, from an overall design point, was probably the easier of them since his overall look and silhouette was pulled directly from Simon’s book. We still took great care in Cosmo, as well as the rest of the bots, to try to ground them in reality as much as we could. We studied modern day robotics, and how the structure and the joints are put together. We wanted them to have realistic gears, servos, motors, pistons, actuators, etc. We tried to infuse these bots with as much believability as we could from the materials we chose to use, to the structural components that allowed them to move with an acceptable range of motion. Herman had a unique challenge of creating a retro-futuristic domed screen for his head. The desire was to evoke the feeling of old CRT television technology with the RGB pixels under glass, while including some modern touches of being able to essentially use it like a modern LCD screen with the ability to create whatever facial expressions and graphic elements we wanted. The Marshall went through a few design changes. Initially drawn up to have a cowboy aesthetic, he was eventually brought in line with the rest of the “drones” in the film. A big part of that was mirroring the iconic headset that is pulled from the book as the actual heads on the drones to try to reinforce to the audience that these were being controlled by humans. Mr. Peanut obviously has a well-known look and design to work from. The thought behind his build was that he was some sort of mascot robot for the company. He was a somewhat simpler robot that had a sort of latex shell that has not aged well, around an interior robotic structure — like the mid to late 80’s animatronics from Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza that were made to entertain kids. How did you approach the animation of each of these robots to ensure they had distinct personalities? Were there specific inspirations or references that helped guide their animation? Liz Bernard: When you begin with this idea of animating these characters to look “robotic,” that could mean almost anything, and in a show with this many unique characters, it doesn’t even always mean the same thing from ‘bot to ‘bot. I’ve always loved this concept that physicality drives personality, that those two things are irrevocably linked. So, we started out by studying each robot’s body structure to figure out what each bot could and couldn’t do: some of them were on wheels, others were bipedal but had limited joints that could only rotate in one axis, some had faces, some didn’t, others were suspended from the ceiling, etc. A great example of this is that our piano-playing Tacobot was, naturally, shaped like a hardshell taco that came to a sharp point where his butt would be, and thus he couldn’t really sit on a bench at the piano. So we had to have him stand at the piano instead, which meant that it made sense for him to dance and sway as he was playing: a little character detail that added extra sparkle and life to his performance. We also started to think about the timeline of when these characters would have been built: Mr. Peanut and Popfly are more vintage and clunky, whereas Herman is a little more advanced tech with his screen face. That allowed us to make a rough timeline of when each of our characters would have been built, and that impacted how we felt they should move and behave as well. With all of that in mind, in the summer of 2023, we spent some time creating a “four-pack” of different movement styles per main character to pitch to Joe and Anthony. The styles ranged from stiff and clunky to smoother and more natural, so that the directors could choose which style they liked best for each character. That early effort established the hero ‘bots like the Marshall and Cosmo, but we still had dozens of background characters to flesh out for the Exclusion Zone and the Mall. For those, I assigned out two or three robots per animator and asked them to use their imaginations and put their own personality into some longer animation clips that we could use throughout the Mall. What we got out of that was this really organic mix of styles and distinct personalities, and when we put them all together in the mall, it was magic. Cosmo and Herman are very different in terms of function and personality. What unique challenges did you face animating these two characters, and how did you solve them? Liz Bernard: Cosmo is the heart of the film and the book, and he needed to be able to do a lot both physically and emotionally. His feet were huge, and his lollipop head was absolutely enormous, giving him a top- and bottom-heavy silhouette with spindly little limbs, and hands based on the old school white gloves used in classic cartoons. This odd anatomy gave his movements a kind of clown-shoe-shuffling dodder that was quite charming once we worked out the kinks in the mechanics of his boots. His white hands were the brightest part of his body, and naturally drew the eye, so hand posing was critically important. And, of course, it’s tough when you have a character with a giant smiley face permanently painted on to have him emote pathos, sadness, determination, and depth. With a character like this, restraint is important. Context tells a lot of the story, and the audience knows what a character might be thinking about without us knocking them over the head with it. Herman was at the other end of the spectrum in some respects. He is loud, sarcastic, confident, and most importantly, he can talk. His body was built to lift and move things, and we put a lot of time into making sure his joints were functional and could support the weight he was expected to carry around (in all his different size iterations). Because of that contrasting lightness in his humor and personality, we gave Herman a little bit of extra spring in his step (both figuratively and literally), and a touch of swagger. His banter with Keats is often deadpan, so there were also moments when it was important to dial back the movement and let the comic timing play out in stillness. As we developed Herman’s pixelated face, our Rigging department gave us the capability to project images onto it, and although we used that feature very sparingly to ensure that he stayed on model, we got some funny moments out of it. The Marshall has a more humanoid form compared to the others. What considerations did you take into account to make sure it felt both robotic yet expressive in its movements? Liz Bernard: We started with motion capture for most of the Marshall’s performances, and the performer played the character with a touch of cowboy swagger, which suited Giancarlo’s vocal performance. From there, it was up to us in animation to adjust the movements to make his body feel heavier, his joints stiffer, and his range of motion a bit limited by rust and disrepair. Giancarlo played the Marshall’s voice and face with a quiet professionalism and dignity even though his drone was a built-to-task bot-killing machine. When we animated him, we were usually looking for a balance between those two things: the restraint of the man controlling the drone, and the immense strength and ruthless violence his heavy drone body was clearly capable of. Mr. Peanut has such a quirky design. Can you share the creative process behind his look, and how his animations helped to bring out his character traits? Liz Bernard: This character was maybe the most challenging one in our roster of hero characters. We had a clear silhouette to maintain and specific features like the top hat, cane, spats, and monocle because we were basing him on a real corporate mascot that is instantly recognizable in North America. He was one of the older ‘bots in the world of the Electric State, a savvy and inspiring politician, and the founder of this “oasis of safety” in the desert. We realized that if we kept Mr. Peanut as a solid peanut shell (as he is in the corporate mascot), his body would be too stiff, and we would be forced to teeter-totter him around like a child playing with an action figure; not exactly the dignity that this character deserved. To avoid the totter, we separated his head from his body and sliced off his butt so that we could swivel it like hips to help him move around without breaking that all-important peanut shell silhouette. The resulting stiffness in his walk worked perfectly with his iconic cane and with the slightly elderly warble that Woody Harrelson gave to the character in his performance. Mr. Peanut’s face was a unique challenge, too. As they say, “the eyes are the window into the soul,” and we knew from Woody’s voice that this character had a lot of soul. Even though Mr. Peanut’s eyelids and eyebrows were simplified and non-deforming, the eye animation we developed for him was fundamentally human: long gazes, quick darts when he felt threatened, blinks to punctuate dialogue and bump up the humor, etc. The mouth was another matter, however. As Joel mentioned, the shell of Mister Peanut was meant to be a metal endoskeleton covered in a layer of thick rubbery latex, so we started out by making a whole batch of rubbery blend shapes similar to how we would approach a normal fleshy human face. However, too much articulation in his lips while speaking meant that he started to look like a character in an animated feature, and that look didn’t fit into the gritty world we had built with all of the other bots. After some experimentation and research, we settled on the somewhat dilapidated classic animatronics from the 80s/90s, which meant that we kept restricting and removing blend shapes until we were down from about eighty to six. Less is sometimes a whole lot more. Was there a specific moment or sequence in the film where animating the robots felt particularly challenging or rewarding for you and your team? Liz Bernard: One of the most beautiful and understated scenes we animated was an intimate one in the car between Michelle and Cosmo after they escaped from her deadbeat foster dad’s house. Cosmo can only speak in these canned kid Cosmo doll expressions (e.g., “the solar system’s gone haywire!”) when he’s trying to communicate with Michelle. He is not fully used to his new robot form either, and yet he finds a way to overcome his own physical limitations, his weird body, his inability to say what he wants to say, and he manages to tell her what she needs to know. We had good acting reference from Devyn, the stand-in actor who played Cosmo on set with Millie, but editorial changes and other adjustments to the acting beat meant that we started to veer away from that performance in the details. We used pantomime and subtle body language — particularly carefully timed head movements — to steer the conversation and develop the empathy and chemistry with Michelle needed for that scene to work. This film explores themes about humanity and technology, and how those ideas intersect. What’s more relatedly human than figuring out a way to communicate with another person, even when the language is not there? I love that scene because Cosmo shows that he can be interpretive and creative; he is so human in that moment. Tricky question, out of all the robots in The Electric State, which one is your personal favorite, and why? Joel Behrens: That’s a hard one, there are so many. I think, for me, it’s Cosmo. I was a big fan of the book before, and I was fortunate enough to be involved in bringing him to life on the screen. I love the character that Simon created in the book, and I think the life and soul that Liz and her team put into his performance really cements him as my favorite. Liz Bernard: I’m going to do a top three because it’s too hard to choose: Herman for his sarcasm, Cosmo for his charm, and Perplexo for his bombast (plus, it was a geeky childhood dream come true to work on a character voiced by the great Hank Azaria). The Haunted Amusement Park has such a unique and eerie feel. How did you approach the design and VFX work to make the park come to life, especially with the blend of horror and nostalgia? Joel Behrens: Happyland was a pretty incredible set to go to every day for a couple weeks. The production design team did an amazing job of turning an Atlanta water park parking lot into this retro fun fair environment. Honestly, we didn’t have to do much. The set was pretty much fully built and for the exteriors we did some minor environment extensions, some fx fog and smoke, and added all of our scavenger bots, of course. For the interior of the haunted house, the set was built for principal photography with full scale tesla coils with LED’s in the core of them to give us our interactive light on the environment and actors, which we later replaced with the crackling blue lightning. However, new choreography and a revised scene was created during additional photography that necessitated us building the whole environment in cg to complete the Mister Peanut and Marshall fight. The Mall Sequence appears to be a huge moment in the film. What were the key elements you focused on to ensure the mall’s scale and its deserted nature were effectively conveyed through VFX? Joel Behrens: The interiors of the mall were, once again, some brilliant production design from Dennis Gassner and his team. We took over a large portion of an essentially abandoned mall in Atlanta. The interior was decorated beautifully, so we had to augment very, very little. For the exterior, we used the footprint of the actual Atlanta mall as a base which had a partially dressed facade and parking lot, and did a lot of environment extension and matte painting combined with footage that was shot in Utah by our splinter unit for the deeper bg mesas and desert. For wider establishing shots of the mall when our heroes first come upon it, we placed a 3D version of our mall and surroundings along with digital matte painting extension from our outstanding environment department led by Juan Pablo Allgeier into the bg plates shot in and around Moab, Utah. The Walk Across the Exclusion Zone desert feels like a desolate yet fascinating location. What kind of challenges did you face in creating such a barren, expansive environment, and how did you use VFX to enhance its storytelling potential? Joel Behrens: That was a fun environment to build out. It was a great mix of practical plates, re-projected photography on geometry, digital matte painting, and full cg builds of terrain. We shot the VW bus with our actors on a large gimbal since they were being carried by Herman 20 on his shoulder. We would end up replacing the VW to add reflections/shadows/light interaction, and went full CG for everything on some of the wider shots we couldn’t get on the bluescreen stage. JP and his enviro team then built various pieces of desert terrain and background mesas along with the incredible giant dead robot skeleton we walk through at the beginning of the scene. How did you collaborate with the director and production team to ensure the environments felt cohesive with the tone and emotional beats of the story? Joel Behrens: The directors and production designer had a pretty clear vision for the design from the start, which stayed very true to the original source material. The practical set builds that Dennis and his team built were really beautiful and helped ground us in that world. We took our cues from that and really tried to maintain the look that Simon had created for the book. Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of? Joel Behrens: Looking back, I’m most proud of how our visual effects helped create such a compelling and immersive world that truly brought the unique, dystopian atmosphere of Simon’s book to life. I’m very proud of our team for managing that many assets so well and all the work that was put into the characters. I think our characters played a pivotal role in communicating the emotional weight of the story, holding their own with the human actors, and that’s something I’m really proud of. How long have you worked on this show? Joel Behrens: It ended up being a little over 2.5 years for me from pre-production, shoot, and through post. What’s the VFX shots count? Joel Behrens: 857 shots finaled, and worked on a little over 1000. What is your next project? Joel Behrens: Onto another exciting project, but unfortunately can’t share what it is yet. Liz Bernard: Joel and I are keeping the party going and working together again on the next one, a sci-fi feature film. We can’t say more right now. A big thanks for your time. WANT TO KNOW MORE?Digital Domain: Dedicated page about The Electric State in Digital Domain website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels Captain America – Brave New World: VFX Breakdown by Outpost VFX By Vincent Frei - 15/04/2025 Sam Wilson’s wings and armor take center stage in Captain America: Brave New World, thanks to the artistry of Outpost VFX, who brought detail and realism to Marvel’s new era of flight! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Outpost VFX: Dedicated page about Captain America: Brave New World on Outpost VFX website.Alessandro Ongaro: Here’s my interview of Production VFX Supervisor Alessandro Ongaro. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels Dune – Prophecy: Breaking Down the Breakdown – The Imperial Palace by Rodeo FX By Vincent Frei - 15/04/2025 How do you bring an Imperial Palace to life in the world of Dune: Prophecy? In this new Breaking Down the Breakdown, Julien Hery (VFX Supervisor) and Scott Coates (Environment Supervisor) at Rodeo FX reveal the creative process and technical magic behind one of the show’s most ambitious environments! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Rodeo FX: Dedicated page about Dune: Prophecy on Rodeo FX website.Mike Enriquez & Terron Pratt: Here’s my interview of Production VFX Supervisor Mike Enriquez and VFX Producer Terron Pratt. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Oslo-based Storm Studios crafted the epic “robot war” prologue for The Electric State – a stunning series of one-off shots featuring unique bots, wild environments, and mind-bending VR visuals! © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025 The post The Electric State: VFX Breakdown by Storm Studios appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Breakdown & Showreels The Electric State: VFX Breakdown by Digital Domain By Vincent Frei - 11/04/2025 A Journey Through Steel and Sand! Digital Domain delivers unforgettable VFX in The Electric State, blending emotional robot characters like Cosmo and Herman with breathtaking environments — from a haunted amusement park to the vast Exclusion Zone desert. A perfect way to kick off the weekend! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Digital Domain: Dedicated page about The Electric State in Digital Domain website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels Secret Level: Crossfire – Environment by Platige Image By Vincent Frei - 11/04/2025 The city is a character of its own! In Crossfire, an episode of the animated anthology Secret Level, Platige Image brings an entire CGI metropolis to life. From intricate architecture to dynamic traffic, every detail fuels the high-stakes action. Watch the making-of now! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Platige Image: Dedicated page about Secret Level: Crossfire on Platige Image website.Tim Miller: Here’s my interview of Tim Miller, Creator & Executive Producer of Secret Level. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Movie & Games Trailers Murderbot By Vincent Frei - 10/04/2025 Meet Murderbot. A self-aware security droid who just wants to binge soap operas and be left alone. Too bad saving humans keeps getting in the way. Watch the trailer for Apple TV+’s new sci-fi series, based on Martha Wells’ award-winning books! The VFX are made by:DNEGImage Engine (VFX Supervisor: Thomas Schelesny)FOLKSFin Design + EffectsSupervixen Studios (Graphics work)Pixomondo (VFX Supervisor: Tristan Zerafa)Island VFX PANCCBS VFXThe Production VFX Supervisor is Sean Andrew Faden. The Production VFX Producer is Danny McNair.Directors: Release Date: May 16, 2025 (Apple TV+) © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels Sonic the Hedgehog 3: VFX Breakdown by Rising Sun Pictures By Vincent Frei - 10/04/2025 From a fully CG Shibuya Crossing with rain, fire, and glowing embers, to a high-stakes London heist featuring Big Ben and a CG Thames, Rising Sun Pictures delivered over 200 VFX shots for Sonic the Hedgehog 3, blending vibrant animation with photoreal action! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Rising Sun Pictures: Dedicated page about Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on Rising Sun Pictures website.Ged Wright: Here’s my interview of Production VFX Supervisor Ged Wright. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels Nice Girls: VFX Breakdown by CGEV and Benuts By Vincent Frei - 10/04/2025 Comedy, action… and VFX. CGEV and Benuts deliver sleek invisible visual effects for Nice Girls, Netflix’s new action-comedy. Whether enhancing backgrounds or explosions, their work ensures a smooth ride through murder, mystery, and mischief! © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Movie & Games Trailers Predator: Killer of Killers By Vincent Frei - 09/04/2025 From previs to full animation – The Third Floor steps into the spotlight with its first-ever animated film: Predator: Killer of Killers. Three warriors. One hunter. A bold, bloody tale of vengeance, honor, and survival. The trailer is here — and it’s fierce!The Animation and VFX are made by:The Third Floor Directors: Dan Trachtenberg, Joshua Wassung Release Date: June 6, 2025 (Hulu) © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels The Substance: VFX Breakdown by Noid By Vincent Frei - 09/04/2025 Metamorphosis meets madness. For Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, the Paris-based studio Noid crafted over 40 creature shots where digital and practical effects collide. The result? Transformations as disturbing as they are mesmerizing! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Noid: Dedicated page about The Substance on Noid website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Interviews Black Doves: Peter Eszenyi (On Set VFX Supervisor) & Jonathan Harris (VFX Supervisor & Founder – dupe) By Vincent Frei - 08/04/2025 In 2019, Peter Eszenyi spoke to us about his work on The Dark Crystal: The Age of Resistance. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of projects including Hawkeye, Dance Monsters, Renegade Nell, and Rivals. Back in 2020, Jonathan Harris broke down the visual effects work behind Gangs of London. Since then, he has contributed to several other productions, including Liaison. How did you get involved on this series? Peter Eszenyi (PE): I had worked with Jono (Jonathan Harris) and dupe on Renegade Nell, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a challenging show, but the way the dupe team handled it was proof that there is capability there to handle anything VFX wise on any show. Jono asked me to get involved with the show and introduced me to Harry (Munday – producer) and Alex (Gabassi – director). Jonathan Harris (JH): We had worked with Harry Munday on Sister and HBO’s Landscapers and so he phoned us up to get quotes and it evolved from there. How was the collaboration with the Creator Joe Barton and the directors? PE: I have not worked with Joe directly, although I am a great admirer of his work. Loved Giri/Haji! I loved working with both directors, Alex (Alex Gabassi) and Lisa (Lisa Gunning) have different directing styles, but both of them were laser focused on telling the story of Black Doves as well as possible, and put a great effort into developing the characters. I believe the human element, the undercurrent of the personal backstories of Helen and Sam (and the supporting cast) is the element that sets this show apart from similar ones. JH: dupe doesn’t have a direct relationship with Joe Barton but we had previously worked with Alex Gabassi. It was one of the first jobs for dupe back in 2017 I believe and it was one of Alex’s first gigs in the UK so it was really nice to work together again and catchup on how the journey had been for each other. How did you organize the work with your VFX Producer? PE: I would say that the show for me is divided into two distinctive segments, the on-set part and the post bit. I was mostly involved with the on-set part, which meant dealing with script changes, budget changes, schedule changes and sometimes with the changing scope, and doing this in a way that protected the post segment as much as possible. With the second part mostly dealt with by the dupe team, my job in that period was limited to dealing with specific aspects of the show and helping the team as much as possible. In this process I had great help from Rachel Webb and Viola Asztalos who handled the production at dupe and were instrumental in making sure all is looking as good as possible whilst staying the course budget wise. On set I had a great relationship with Harry Munday, Emma Downes and Georgette Mason and the production managing team, and we talked a lot about what can be done to make the show look as good as possible without breaking the bank. Lots of chat about snow for sure! JH: dupe’s production team led by Rachel Webb worked with Harry and Tara Bhoola (Post Supervisor) to gauge the volume of work and key stages and how it held up against the post schedule. There were some delays here and there on both sides but the communication was candid and easy with the client so we easily found the way through any bottlenecks or tricky creative moments. Could you start by giving us an overview of your role as VFX Supervisor on Black Doves and how you approached the visual effects for this espionage series? PE: The post part of the show was handled at dupe by Luke Butler and Jack Hennigan. I have worked with Luke on Renegade Nell, and with him and Jack on board I was a hundred percent sure the show is going to look as good as it can, so my job was to make sure they have everything at their disposal to do their parts well. Black Doves was always meant to be a show where visual effects are purely in the service of the story, and stay in the background, almost always invisible whilst being precisely what they need to be. We used VFX where doing something practically was not possible, too dangerous or too expensive. My job was to reassure the directors and producers on set that everything they want to tell will be told, and that the post team will always have a couple of tricks up their sleeve to do the invisible work regardless of potential last minute changes on set or in the edit. We shot a huge amount of the show on locations, quite often outside and mostly during winter,- not always the most favourable experience. I needed to make sure none of this is hindering what we planned to do in post. There were a few key moments, the so called big VFX moments where I needed to plan way ahead of what will happen months after the show was shot, so I consulted the dupe team, making sure they are on board with my plans. This meant creating models and using AR to plan camera angles and suggesting focal lengths to Mark Patten and Giulio Bicarri, understanding what kind of reflections would be captured if we did the shot on a real location (we shot a lot of the driving scenes in a Volume), and creating previz for some of the more action based scenes and tweaking them to fit the actual shooting locations and camera positions. As for the usual bread and butter tasks I made sure the dupe team has all the relevant information available from the set, HDRIs, lighting plans and scans where needed was provided by me. JH: Jack Supervised most of block 1, which was Alex’s episodes and Luke took over for Lisa’s episodes. Both supervisors built good relationships with the Directors as well as Harry who helped keep the continuity and budget in check across the season. Early on a key part of the creative conversation was around gore levels and what we were aiming for. With heads exploding and such like an fairly untamed element of gore was going to be necessary. These were fast moments though and not gratuituous. Additionally the screen inserts were a large point of debate and the teams spent time getting the balance of keeping things realistic to what we all know and expect but creatively different and interesting for the show and time period. What are the challenges of creating invisible visual effects, and how do you ensure they seamlessly blend into the real-world environments? PE: I think the key is to base as much as possible on real elements, That you either capture or have some references for. I think a lot of visual effects when it comes to invisible effects are things we saw already, either in person or through some sort of medium. We all know how fire and snow looks like. What we need to do is make sure the familiar element is believable in their new context in the specific show. With these covered I think it is a somewhat easier task, from time to time you have to step back and ask yourself whether this passes as realistic or not. Then you have to factor in the aesthetics of the show, the directors’ and DOPs’ personal taste that needs to shape your output and with all these combined you should have something that works for that specific shot or sequence whilst maintaining the idea of what we think of it. For the flat explosion, on top of the recces I went to the location before and after the shoot several times to make sure everything we planned is achievable, created detailed scans of the entire marina, measured every aspect of it, so I could confidently answer any questions that might come up. I believe you have to have deep knowledge of the locations you want to put the “invisible effects” in so you can prepare in advance. In practical terms it means, lidar, photogrammetry, panoramas, HDRIs, sometimes consulting building plans sourced from to the local council. Besides all that, communicating with the other departments is a must, on this show we had a few large sets in the studio where I have had a lot of help from the art department, and reciprocally I tried to help them as much as I could with their planning – we had lots of fun conversations around viewing angles and translights! Another huge challenge was the snow, narratively an important part of the last episode, practically a beast that needs a lot for coordination between SFX, art department, production, locations, basically all departments to work around the constraints. It is really difficult to have as much snow on set in London as you want, so we had to be economical with where we put the effort, I think everybody understood that is is sometimes more beneficial to move the camera closer or turn it away a bit to be able to afford putting snow into shots where it mattered the most. How did you approach the creation and enhancement of the environments in Black Doves, and what were some of the most complex scenes to tackle? PE: I think you could say that London played a huge part in the series, so we wanted to make sure it is celebrated when it comes to extending environments. I believe the biggest challenges were the huge snowy vista at the end of the last episode and making sure some distant shooting locations feel as one cohesive element in the show. The snowy vista stemmed from a drone recce I did at Helen’s house, I had done some rough passes trying to find some great looking angles for the last shot, and Lisa and Giuilo liked one where the camera pulled back as it flew up and backwards revealing the wider environment with Helen and Sam having a Christmas drink on the balcony. The move in the show executed by the drone team was great, but it meant that the team had to prepare a huge, super detailed DMP as we reveal a snowy London whilst trying to not give away the real location of the house we shot in – I believe as this was the end of the show it was all worth the effort! The flat explosion scene was also a great challenge, as we we shot it in a real location, but production built the flat and filmed in it on a soundstage. This needed a lot of planning and precision in order to make sure all lines up – the stunts, the time it takes for Helen and Sam to fall into the water below, the angles we need to see this from – it took us a while to get it all worked out. In terms of action and stunt scenes, what were some of the key contributions of your VFX team? Can you share an example where visual effects made a significant difference? PE: I believe a fair few of the fight scenes had some VFX augmentation, or cleanup. Jo McLaren and her stunt team did a fantastic job, and their stuntvis was extremely valuable as a tool to help all involved to understand the scene and the relationship between the action and the locations. They did the heavy lifting with the sfx team and the weapons team. For those scenes we contributed with secondary elements like muzzle flashes, bullet hits and similar, as well as cleaning some of the issues that are inevitable when it comes to film high energy stunt scenes. JH: As Peter says a lot of great work was caught in camera and made our job easier to do. The shotgun head explosion in the flat with the two assassins was a fun one to enhance. The series features bullet impacts and explosions. What techniques or tools did you use to achieve a realistic look while maintaining the safety of the cast and crew? PE: We had a great weapons team on the show – the guys from Bapty and Co were a pleasure to work with. We had a day where we had the luxury of filming all the guns and weapons used in the show with a high speed camera from various angles in a little tent and we used these elements to augment the shots. As always, using muzzle flashes was a creative decision, In reality quite often you won’t able to see any muzzle flashes captured by cameras, so when the decision was made to do that for the show we were able to do our work with the filmed elements. How closely did you work with the stunt team and cinematographers to ensure the VFX complemented the physical action on set? PE: I always had a ton of respect for Jo Mclaren and her stunt team – they are a pleasure to work with and they were able to share their stuntviz work with the team, I believe that was instrumental for us to understand what sort of ways we need to contribute to the shots. I loved Mark and Giulio’s previous work so for me it was really exciting to work with them and their camera operators, James and Kat and the rest of the camera team, and I think we all had a lot of very important conversations around how we can help each other’s work. We had a fair few interesting challenges whether that is underwater shots or a mirror that needs to break but seen from a specific angle – I’d like to think we have managed to figure things out well! I am always very grateful for the camera team’s help on sets, it is reassuring to know that we can rely on one another on set. Were there any technical challenges you faced during the production, and how did you overcome them? PE: It was cold! Is that a technical challenge? I think as usual time is the biggest challenge and anything that helps with speeding up the way we do things is extremely helpful. I used an iPad with AR overlays for some sets to make sure everybody is on the same page, and all departments have the relevant info about what needs to be done and how we envisaged it. I did a lot of that on Renegade Nell, to show everybody where the cameras are located and that makes a lot of difference for turning around and setting up. There were some locations that were not easy to access, and sometimes the interiors and the exteriors were in places far away from one another – making sure they mesh seamlessly was an big task – for example their geographical differences meant the sun moved differently and similar seemingly little things can build up to be a much bigger problem later on if you let your guard down. Espionage series often require a balance between realism and heightened drama. How did you strike that balance in your visual effects work? PE: We absolutely wanted to make sure whatever we do ends up being realistic, therefore the audience does not lose their immersion into the world of Black Doves. In this case we tried to do the exact opposite of the bigger the better – tried to stay as grounded as possible. Even with elements like blood splatters and such, if not treated with a bit of restraint, can end up being too much. Invisible effects often need to stay within strict budgetary limits. How did you manage resources while maintaining high-quality visuals? PE: Trying to underpromise and over deliver. I had to be realistic with the directors and producers on what it means if we do things in a certain way, and if there is any other, sometimes cheaper but not necessarily worse solution we can offer. A lot of issues that seem like big things in the heat of shooting can become less of a problem, especially if you are confident that there is an alternative way of dealing with them. In the recent years keeping costs manageable has become the main driving factor with regards to VFX and I firmly believe that there is a way where we can do high quality work with limited budgets, and the key element for that is planning. And when things start to stray away from the plans you need to have the confidence that the new situation can be dealt with whilst respecting the original creative intent and budget. This needs open and honest communication between the stakeholders – we all want to make a great show! JH: This follows through into the editorial decisions too. Shot counts have an obvious impact on budgets so working with Harry and Tara on shot counts and creative approaches to certain scenes to make sure we were successful in realising the directors vision in a way that didn’t get carried away with the process was something we all kept an eye on. The handover from Peter to Jack and Luke was also key in understanding the intent on set and what first versions of shots and scenes would be so as to get to the solution fast and reduce iterations. Could you highlight the contributions of specific departments or artists on your team who were instrumental in achieving the final look? PE: Love to give a big shoutout to Yordan Ivanov who was instrumental in keeping the high quality and creative consistency of all the fight scenes. His understanding of our elements library and finding quick solutions to give shots high impact was second to none. Thank you Yordan! Invisible effects are most successful when audiences don’t notice them. How do you measure the success of your work in such cases? JH: We’ve delivered a lot of work across ‘invisible vfx’ type shows over the years and the best compliment is always when someone says they didn’t think there were any VFX. Internally though the success is the balance of having fun with the work and pleasing the Directors and the producers together. We enjoyed this show and we are excited to see where Season 2 goes. Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of? PE: That we achieved a lot with the resources we had, and contributed to telling a fantastic story whilst not drawing too much attention to the fact that visual effects were required. Which sequence or shot was the most challenging? PE: Funnily enough not necessarily the ones we originally flagged up as problematic. Some seemingly small and innocent things, like art directing vape smoke was an interesting challenge because it needed to behave in a specific way and stay believable, whilst matching exactly the intent of the directors. But as always, there are things when you know it will be challenging, but if you are prepared and do your due diligence they usually stay on this side of problematic. The fight scene in the club was a fun challenge with all the mirrors! Is there something specific that gives you some really short nights? PE: Not really, knowing that the dupe team had my back, and I am doing what I can to give them what they need helped to alleviate some, if not all of the anxiety. JH: Thanks Peter! – dito. There is always a crunch towards the end that keeps you on your toes but again fair play to Harry and Tara who were a joy to work with and made communication a brease when solving problems. What is your favorite shot or sequence? PE: I have to say I love the shootout inside the Newmans hideout in Ep4 and the big explosion in EP2. Great to see all the individual elements aligning and supporting the moment. What is your best memory on this show? PE: I was in awe of how beautiful the sets built by the art department were – Elmore’s flat and the Jewellery shop looked amazing. And having fantastic and creative conversations with everybody on set, sorting problems out whilst enjoying glimpses into someone else’s creative process. How long have you worked on this show? PE: From November 2023 to March 2024, and a few weeks during the summer. What’s the VFX shots count? PE: 396 shots. What is your next project? PE: Not confirmed yet – but looking forward to it! We are working on season 2 of Buccaneers for Apple and Forge Entertainment. A big thanks for your time. Click on the picture to watch the reel. // TRAILERS WANT TO KNOW MORE?dupe: Dedicated page about Black Doves on dupe website. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Movie & Games Trailers The Naked Gun By Vincent Frei - 08/04/2025 Only one man has the particular set of skills… to completely mess things up and still save the day! Liam Neeson is Lt. Frank Drebin Jr. in The Naked Gun. Watch the teaser for this hilariously absurd new version! The VFX are made by:Outpost VFX (VFX Supervisor: Robin Lamontagne)PFX (VFX Supervisor: Javier Menéndez) RebelsThe Production VFX Supervisor & Producer is Ashley Bettini. Director: Akiva Schaffer Release Date: August 1st, 2025 (USA) © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Breakdown & Showreels Secret Level – The Queen’s Cradle: Making of by Unit Image By Vincent Frei - 08/04/2025 What does it take to create a truly terrifying dragon? Unit Image reveals the secrets behind their spectacular work for The Queen’s Cradle, part of the animated anthology Secret Level. Don’t miss this really cool making-of! WANT TO KNOW MORE?Unit Image: Dedicated page about Secret Level: Dungeon & Dragons on Unit Image website.Tim Miller: Here’s my interview of Tim Miller – Creator and Executive Producer – Blur Studio. © Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2025

Movie & Games TrailersTron: AresBy Vincent Frei - 07/04/2025 First look at Tron: Ares! An advanced Program, Ares, is sent on a high-stakes mission from the Grid into our world. The digital revolution begins now check out the epic trailer!The VFX are made by:ILM (VFX Supervisors: Jeff Capogreco, Abishek Nair, Vincent Papaix)The Production VFX Supervisor is David Seager.Director: Joachim RnningRelease Date: October 10, 2025 (USA) Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025

The Substance delivers body horror like youve never seen before and CGEV is behind some of its wildest, most visceral visual effects. From skin-tearing transformations to impossible regenerations, this is VFX with bite! Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025The post The Substance: VFX Breakdown by CGEV appeared first on The Art of VFX.

Netflix unveils the trailer for The Eternaut, the highly anticipated adaptation of the graphic novel by Hctor G. Oesterheld and Francisco Solano Lpez. As a mysterious snowfall wipes out millions, a group of survivors must battle an invisible force controlling their fate!The VFX are made by:Bitt Animation StudioBoat Media (VFX Supervisor: Bruno Fauceglia)Control StudioImportant Looking Pirates (VFX Supervisor: Martin Hernblad)K&S FilmsMalditomausPlanet X (VFX Supervisor: Janneke van der Wel)ReDefine (VFX Supervisor: Carlos Miras Sepulveda)Scanline VFXUnbound HubThe Production VFX Supervisor is Bruno Fauceglia.Director: Bruno StagnaroRelease Date: April 30, 2025 (Netflix) Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025The post The Eternaut appeared first on The Art of VFX.

History, mystery, and high-stakes adventure collide in Fountain of Youth. John Krasinski and Natalie Portman lead the charge in Guy Ritchies latest action-packed film. Will they unlock the secret to eternal life?The VFX are made by:Digital DomainDNEG (VFX Supervisor: Bryan Litson)Outpost VFX (VFX Supervisor: Laurent Gillet)Weta FXThe Production VFX Supervisor is Pete Bebb.Director: Guy RitchieRelease Date: May 23, 2025 (Apple TV+) Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025The post Fountain of Youth appeared first on The Art of VFX.

In 2013, Erik Nordby discussed MPCs work on Elysium. Since then, he has contributed to numerous films, including The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Passengers, Pokmon: Detective Pikachu, and The School for Good and Evil.How did you get involved in this show?While I was in the final month of production on The School for Good and Evil with Paul Feig, my agent informed me that Skydance was seeking a supervisor for a movie. Later that week, we scheduled a call with Scott Derrickson. I read the script and was immediately captivated by its uniqueness in fundamental ways. It perfectly aligned with my preferred approach to visual effects, incorporating numerous environments, invisible effects, and an exciting array of animation. This combination felt like an ideal fit. Additionally, the scope of world-building presented a significant challenge, and fortunately, Scott shared a similar perspective on it. We had an engaging discussion exploring various methodologies, and by the end of our call, there was a palpable sense of excitement. A few days later, we commenced early prep meetings.How did you collaborate with the director and other departments, such as cinematography and production design, to organically integrate VFX into the story?On every movie, I build a rapport with the following team members as soon as possible: Director, First AD, DOP, and Prod designer, in that order. Building trust among the heads of departments is crucial, especially for a grounded yet multi-faceted movie like The Gorge. There were a number of significant decisions that needed to be made upfront to establish a balance between each department. We started working well before we arrived at Leavesden.The most important initial decision that required extensive discussion was how we would approach the two vastly different worlds of UPPER Gorge and LOWER Gorge. Each required a unique approach that didnt share much in common. Upper Gorge needed a significant amount of photo-realism, while Lower Gorge was much more stylized. Upper Gorge needed to blend well with location shooting, while Lower Gorge was ideally suited for stages with small build-outs. Upper Gorge needed to showcase seasonal changes, while Lower Gorge showcased changes primarily tied to color and interactive mist.We also spent two months actively investigating the possibility of shooting the Upper Gorge as a Bigature on stage. We even commissioned a test shoot and attempted to secure the necessary resources. However, considering that we could only shoot roughly 4 setups per day, to achieve the roughly 300 shots that were required, the time commitment proved too extensive. It would have locked us into too many lighting scenarios ahead of Dans schedule as well.Once we decided that the Upper Gorge would consist of a hybrid between real-world locations and extensive CG extensions, a solid approach was established. We identified a series of excellent forest locations that existed on a small hillock outside London, playing as the edge of the Gorge. We would then flip the photography so that these locations could serve as both the east and west perimeters. With this approach solidified, production designer Rick Heinrichs, DOP Dan Lausten, and I could reasonably collaborate on dividing the heavy lifting among our respective disciplines.The tops of the 2 towers werent appropriate for outdoor filming. We briefly considered building them on the backlot, but Dan was concerned about lighting and environment control for good reason. So, we built the corresponding East and West tower tops on stage. Each set consisted of the front exterior (essentially the balcony) and the full single-floor interior. Since so many shots required long lenses (through military tech binoculars and scopes), we tested opening the large doors of the stages and shooting lenses up to 1000mm (500mm doubled) from outside. Scott and Dan didnt think the compression was worth the loss of 2 stops and exposure to the elements, so all photography was confined to the dimensions of a single stage.The tower bases were built outdoors, however. We constructed Levis Tower on the Leavesden backlot and Drasas East Tower in the woods near the rest of the forest work. We used these locations resourcefully, but they were restricted to the confines of appropriate blue screens and negative fill. Shooting in the rainy spring was challenging, but it greatly enhanced the exterior look.The lower gorge took longer to establish an approach. Initially, it wasnt clear how stylized Scott wanted the look to be. So, we conducted numerous rounds of tests during prep to help establish a look. These tests primarily involved manipulating levels of lights, fog, mist, and color. The positive outcome was that we locked in an in-camera set look that Scott and Dan could reference as the desired end goal throughout the rest of the shoot. We also used this as a bible to establish the correct levels in post, which was highly valuable.However, there were still challenges. In many instances, it became evident that VFX needed to own the fog. This created a dilemma. Adding practical mist and fog to the stage would obviously affect the shape of the light, primarily making it softer. There was no effective way to add significant extensions within the fog using VFX unless it could be controlled. This was especially true on our largest stage full of trees with a lot of branch complexity. Additionally, we were limiting our photographic visibility by locking into practical mist, which made Scott slightly anxious. Consequently, for most scenes shot in the lower gorge, we added a subtle level of base mist, set the overall color, and with Dans eventual approval, we pushed the addition of the art-directed Fog to VFX.How did you choose the various vendors and split the work amongst them?The primary vendors we selected upfront for The Gorge were Framestore, DNEG, and Image Engine.One always strives to find an effective way to divide the workload, and fortunately, the overall structure of this movie presented a remarkably straightforward breakdown upfront. DNEG was assigned the Upper Gorge, Framestore was given the Lower Gorge and the creatures therein, and Image Engine was tasked with capturing specific, confined scenes that didnt necessitate significant overlap with other lower gorge work (such as the Skull Spiders and the Body Web). The sole scene that required the majority of shared resources was the Attack on the Wall scene near the beginning of the second act. This is where we first encountered the Hollowmen from the lower gorge as they attempted to scale the gorge walls. It was simpler to share DNEGs gorge environment with Framestore, rather than trying to bundle up the two dozen creatures and share them with DNEG. So in the end, DNEG packaged that asset, and Framestore executed the entire sequence.How did the collaboration between you evolve throughout the production process to ensure a cohesive visual effects vision?Pete Dionne, the overall supervisor at Framestore (based out of Vancouver), was also my second unit supervisor on the shoot. Weve been working together for several years and have collaborated on many films. He was instrumental in developing the approach for physically acquiring the Gorge environment. He led a team that traveled to Norway and scanned massive rock faces and other unique geographic locations. He also helped isolate a good, straightforward approach to the Hollowmen, which I speak more about below. Joao Sita at Framestore Australia came on in post to help with some heavy lifting, specifically the replacement of the practical Alpha character in his confrontation with Drasa. He led a great team, and we loved working with him.Anelia (Nellie) Asparuhova, Supervisor at DNEG, visited the set frequently and helped solidify the visual style and feel of the upper gorge extensions. Her team also dedicated a significant amount of time to conducting scope and binocular research. Nellie and I had also worked together on a previous film and have a great shorthand as a result.Christian Irles at Image Engine flew in to supervise our elements shoot and the animation work that his studio expertly crafted for the body web, skull spiders, and Hollowmen in the church. Christian and I also have a lot of previous experience working together.We also leaned on Outpost VFX, Host VFX.All in all, I was spoiled with the teams we put together for this movie. They were such a massive part of its success. Super collaborative, and I look forward to continuing my experience with them on further shows.Can you explain the process of designing the Gorge environment? What were the biggest creative and technical challenges in capturing its vastness and danger?Early on in the production, it became evident that the most significant challenge in creating a photorealistic upper gorge was achieving repeatability through many sequences without killing the render times. The environment needed to feel like a consistent and believable space that the audience could rely on. Additionally, we required sufficient shape and landmarking to prevent the gorge from feeling disjointed or too indistinct. We didnt want to confuse the space for the audience.To this end, we established an obvious north end that was large and impassable, a south end that encircled a distant waterfall with mist and atmosphere. Then the east and west sides featured rock faces that were distinct and differing distance skylines and elevations. Part of the learning curve involved doing this too heavily handed at first, where it ended up feeling like it was a pastiche of environments that were too dissimilar. So, luckily, we continued to experiment with the DNEG team once they came on board.In addition to these challenges, we also wanted a gorgeous environment that felt untouched and undiscovered. This required a lot of time and energy to nail down and keep the landmarking in place. DNEG hired a geologist named Tom Brodie that helped guide the science behind the overall makeup of the natural world we were trying to recreate. Forests that have been forested or destroyed by a fire tend to appear like millions of identical trees once they regrow. When photographed, this can look realistic, but in CG, it can feel very repetitive and artificial. We needed variability in order to feel real. We needed micro and macro breakups in the types and amounts of trees, rock faces, boulders, cliff faces, types of rock, etc. We needed a forest floor that felt built up and reflective of centuries of being untouched, even the hints of animal pathways through the woods were important. There were so many challenges to balance, and through continued experimentation, the DNEG team solved each problem one at a time.Were there any real-world locations or specific references that inspired the creation of the Gorge?Initially, we believed we could find a perfect location and even send a team to acquire it. Unfortunately, it didnt exist. However, while flying around Google Earth in a pair of goggles, we managed to isolate several locations in Norway that could individually serve as a library of scans and photographs for different sections of the gorge. This formed a good balance of feeding the needs of the world whilst still rooting it in reality.How did you film the dizzying scenes above the Gorge?Over several days, all the zip-line work was conducted on the backlot of Leavesden. Two large cranes were strategically positioned and offset to assist with height adjustments. We also brought in approximately a dozen tele-handlers equipped with 2030 blue screens. These screens were used to postage-stamp individual shots and cover as much of the action as possible. While primarily focusing on Miles, we aimed to isolate him when we could without affecting the lighting.To secure the zip-line to the east and west sides of the gorge, we connected it to the tower base locations. The west tower base was also physically built on the backlot, allowing us to directly link the wire work to the moments Miles ran and leaped from his side. On the other hand, the east tower base was constructed in a forest location near the edge of the gorge wall scenes. This made it more challenging to integrate the wire work into Drasas tower. Fortunately, there were fewer shots in this area, and we prioritized capturing Drasas reactions rather than the actual wire work. For instances where Levi fell, we had exceptional elements of actual falls shot by our stunt team, led by Brycen Counts and Shane Habberstad.How was the design of the creatures developed? What key elements were chosen to reflect their menacing nature while keeping them believable within the gorge environment?Designing the Hollowmen was a labor of love. It began early in the process, even before we awarded the project. Before I signed on, Scott had selected a core group of references that resonated with him. These references quickly became a foundation for tone, that we built upon throughout many rounds of creature design.L to R: VFX Supervisor Erik Nordby and VFX Producer Rich YeomansThe first significant design push involved Ravi Bansal and his talented team of designers within the art department at DNEG. We began by exploring the base morphology of the creatures. How distorted were they? How did we convey the hybridization between organic, insect, and human elements? How could we connect the human elements to the WW2 legions mentioned in the script? How horrific should we make them? Ravis team guided us through numerous rounds of these investigations. Scott was excellent at making decisions about what worked and what didnt. He wanted to connect to the humanity of the characters at all costs. This helped us narrow down a set of base designs that felt authentic.Once we awarded it to Framestore, Martin Macraes team got involved and helped flesh out some smart manifestations and interesting mutations that we pitched to Scott. His team created some great art that could push us through the next evolution in finding the hollowmen.After several rounds of this, our challenge was organizing the creatures into groups that fully supported the story. To achieve this, we dedicated a room at Leavesden near the VFX offices, which we named Hollowman Hall. This provided a large space where we could display artwork, rearrange it, allocate per scene, and establish a foothold for a team of designs that adhered to the story and scripted characters. Many afternoons were spent here with Scott and the other HODs attempting to nail down this work.The most significant challenge then arose: how could we assetize these creatures in a cost-effective manner to make a few feel like many? Since each high level of detail requires an intensive process of design, build time, and rigging for animation, we needed to be strategic. Pete Dionne had the brilliant idea of naming each individual Hollowman. The main close-up Hollowmen featured in the wall attack were THURSTON and REGINALD. There were RADCLIFF and WINSTON, two heroes in the horse attack. Then there was REMINGTON, HEATHCLIFF, and CHADWICK, who led the charge when Levi and Drasa towed their jeep up the wall in the third act. They were followed up with a whole cadre of characters that fleshed out each scene each named.This approach allowed us to rally around and embrace a subtle backstory for each character. It also fostered a lot more engagement with Scott and the editing team, reinforcing the idea that each one of these Hollowmen used to be human. It expedited better communication and then launched an effective method of repurposing certain characters through simple swap-outs, transforming the 12-hero Hollowmen into a small army.How did you handle the interactions between the actors and these terrifying creatures? Were there physical elements on set, or was everything animated digitally?During prep, it was evident that there was a significant amount of interaction between the Hollowmen and our leads. Additionally, intricate stunt work was necessary to ensure that the script beats were met. Consequently, we collaborated with the stunt team to enhance these moments. We gained valuable information from their stunt vis, which was filmed, edited, and presented to Scott early on, and used as a framework for our own shooting. For the majority of interactive scenes between Levi, Drasa, and a creature, a real-life person or a puppeteered proxy was involved.What tools or animation approaches were essential to bring the creatures to life and make them feel threatening?The majority of our animation was based on physically real rotoscoped motion. We had real stunt performers on set that were seamlessly integrated into shots. Or, in the case of the skull spiders, we had puppeteered proxies that Drasa and Levi could interact with.The horses play a key role in the film. How were they designed and animated to maintain their terrifying appearance while capturing realistic, natural movements?The horses played a significant role in the first encounter between the Hollowmen in the lower gorge. We spent considerable time digitally choreographing the actual scene in Previs with an exceptional team from The Third Floor, led by Hamilton Lewis. This was then handed over to the stunt team to further develop and refine, guided by their expertise in equestrian physicality. Concurrently, we iterated through various horse designs that began to resonate with Scott. To avoid deviating too far from the overall mass and silhouette of the horses we intended to use on set, we started hollowing them out to reveal internal degradation, muscles, and sinew.Our production manager, Rebecca Field, took the reins in constructing a completely custom motion capture volume, large enough to capture full horse sprints and stunts on a stage at Leavesden. This proved invaluable, providing our animation team with an extensive and high-quality library of motion capture data that was bespoke for each scene.Were there any memorable moments or scenes from the film that you found particularly rewarding or challenging to work on from a visual effects standpoint?Levi and Drasas encounter with the hybrid body mass soup at the base of the shelter after killing the Alpha Hollowman and escaping his lair was arguably one of the most significant and gratifying challenges. We referred to it as the body web, and it demanded exceptional design patience to establish the appropriate tone for this work. The challenge lay in the immense computational burden required by Image Engine to render the complex scene. Fortunately, their solid skills and strategic positioning allowed them to successfully execute the task. Im really proud of the work they accomplished.Looking back on the project, what aspects of the visual effects are you most proud of?I believe Im most proud of how effectively the visual effects support the narrative. They dont hinder the story and, hopefully, only enhance its progression. Additionally, Im incredibly proud of the Upper Gorge set. It was an enormous undertaking to seamlessly blend various disparate shooting locations into a cohesive and expansive world that felt like a single environment.But in the end Im always struck with how proud I am of the collaboration this art form requires. So proud of the entire team of leads, supervisors, production support, and artists that came together to make this film come to life. Also cant say enough good things about working with Skydance throughout. Kathy Chasen-Hay and Aliyah Lopez offered support and understanding throughout the making of this film. It was great to know they had our backs. They made it a joy.How long have you worked on this show?I worked on The Gorge from September 2022 to May 2023.Whats the VFX shots count?1932.What is your next project?Nothing locked in yet.A big thanks for your time.WANT TO KNOW MORE?DNEG: Dedicated page about The Gorge on DNEG website.Anelia Asparuhova & Sebastian von Overheidt: Heres my interview of VFX Supervisors Anelia Asparuhova & Sebastian von Overheidt at DNEG.Framestore: Dedicated page about The Gorge on Framestore website.Joao Sita, Martin Macrae and Nicholas Tripodi: Joao Sita (VFX Supervisor), Martin Macrae (Head of Art Department) and Nicholas Tripodi (Head of Animation) at Framestore.Image Engine: Dedicated page about The Gorge on Image Engine website.Christian Irles: Heres my interview of VFX Supervisor Christian Irles at Image Engine.Outpost VFX: Dedicated page about The Gorge on Outpost VFX website. Vincent Frei The Art of VFX 2025