By TREVOR HOGGImages courtesy of Peacock TV.Productions of an epic scale are a signature of Roland Emmerich, who shifts his focus from lunar destruction to a time when the Roman Empire appeased the disenchanted masses with blood sports that made gladiators famous and their patrons richer. Hitching a ride on the chariot through the 10 episodes of Peacocks Those About to Die is Peter Travers, Emmerichs go-to visual effects expert since Midway.Skies proved to be difficult because the clouds had to have the ability to move during takes and not become static.There is a point in the story where they have to collect some sulfur from Mount Vesuvius inside of the original caldera. We scouted a place at Vesuvius with a drone camera and flew the [Sony] Venice 2 into a lava flow that was there from the original eruption in 79 AD. We did 360s. That footage we brought back processed because the wall at Cinecitt Studios is eight meters tall by approximately 51 meters in circumference. We had pumice rocks onstage and had to build a diorama of the environment of Vesuvius, which was based on the tiles that we happened to get under perfect weather conditions. Then we did some augmentation to the plates.Peter Travers, Visual Effects SupervisorThis was an incredibly complicated show mainly because of virtual production, Travers notes. One of the lucky things was that we had an idea of what Rome looked like, but even then the scenes were complex. We had 900 visual effects shots at the end, but over 1,800 shots that were accomplished in virtual production without touching them. It was a 2:1 ratio of shots that were fully realized on the virtual production stage. The work was divided between DNEG and Dream Machine FX. Dream Machine FX handled the wide aerials of Rome and compositing shots. DNEG did all of the heavy lifting for Circus Maximus and the Colosseum. You can have vendor blow on a show like this because the data set is so massive. If we had too many vendors it would have been a mess because how do you share Rome across everybody? The most we could have was two, Travers says.Practical and digital horses were integrated with each other.Thirty-five unique environments were divided between what could be built on set and what had to be extended digitally. There is the footage that we shot that was primarily put on the wall, Travers explains. We had the weird subset of rendering out CG that was put out onto the wall that was pre-rendered. But the vast majority of it was Unreal Engine, so it had to be built and lightweight enough that we could get a 24 fps playback because we did do camera tracking on the show. Its getting the breadth of environments ready to go and all that it entails. There are a number of environments that are almost purely 2D even though we actually displayed them in Unreal Engine. There is a point in the story where they have to collect some sulfur from Mount Vesuvius inside of the original caldera. We scouted a place at Vesuvius with a drone camera and flew the [Sony] Venice 2 into a lava flow that was there from the original eruption in 79 AD. We did 360s. That footage we brought back processed because the wall at Cinecitt Studios is eight meters tall by approximately 51 meters in circumference. We had pumice rocks onstage and had to build a diorama of the environment of Vesuvius, which was based on the tiles that we happened to get under perfect weather conditions. Then we did some augmentation to the plates. The pixel resolution of the wall is 16K and is approximately a semicircle. If we had to build 360 dioramas, those were 32K, then they have to playback at 24 fps playback. We gen-locked it to the camera so youre right facing. That was an enormous undertaking. We had just enough resolution to maximize the wall but not too much that we couldnt achieve playback.The chariot racing with the actors was done as a poor mans process.The different stages of construction of the Colosseum happens in four episodes.One of the things Visual Effects Supervisor Peter Travers and his team discovered was that four horses charging at full gallop in one chariot results in a mess lacking all precision, with the horses bumping into each other and fighting.A lot of times, what we were able to do in order to creep into that daylight effect is that the wall was as bright as it could be. We put practical lights to simulate the sun and used the low-light capability of the Venice 2 to boost up the contrast and light intensity from our fake sun to get much closer to sunlight. Can you do noon sunlight on a virtual production stage? Not yet. But we crept in there. [Director] Roland Emmerich wanted to live in magic hour, so the vast majority of our scenes were in the desired lighting conditions.Peter Travers, Visual Effects SupervisorA major asset was the Venice 2 camera with its low-light sensitivity. Whenever you walk onstage the set is always brighter than whats on camera, Travers observes. This is the opposite. We would go on set and its dark. You cant see anything. Then you look through the monitor and go, Its there. A lot of times, what we were able to do in order to creep into that daylight effect is that the wall was as bright as it could be. We put practical lights to simulate the sun and used the low-light capability of the Venice 2 to boost up the contrast and light intensity from our fake sun to get much closer to sunlight. Can you do noon sunlight on a virtual production stage? Not yet. But we crept in there. Roland Emmerich wanted to live in magic hour, so the vast majority of our scenes were in the desired lighting conditions. It was rare that we would be shooting in noon sunlight anyway.Over 1,800 shots that were accomplished in virtual production without having to be augmented later in post-production.All of the departments were involved with the wall content, including costumes. The crowd shots that on the wall were cards, so [they became] pre-rendered people, Travers states. But even for those pre-rendered people, like the plebeians in crowds for Circus Maximus, we had to get those from the costume department way early on in pre-production and render them out and put them in. Circus Maximus and all of these other environments like the Colosseum were done in Unreal Engine with a 3D environment because we were using camera tracking. Lessons were learned along the way. The ongoing joke on set was, Were going to get really good at this on the last day of shooting! The first day of shooting was tough because we were trying to figure out where does the set stop and where does the Unreal Engine set begin. What we discovered [is that could be achieved by] layering of the practical set on the rotating stage and also having a layering even within the Unreal Engine environment. There are a lot of scenes, in particular Leptis Magna, where the slaves in North Africa are picked up and shipped off to Rome. The original background plates were shot in Morocco. We brought those plates in and started to build a 3D environment. We had to figure out with our Production Designer Johannes Muecke what kinds of cages because were going to have to build those virtually. We had a real giraffe on the virtual production stage, and behind it we needed to have a CG giraffe. We had to get started building the CG giraffe and put that in.Circus Maximus and all of these other environments like the Colosseum were done in Unreal Engine with a 3D environment because we were using camera tracking. The ongoing joke on set was, Were going to get really good at this on the last day of shooting! The first day of shooting was tough because we were trying to figure out where does the set stop and where does the Unreal Engine set begin. What we discovered [is that could be achieved by] layering of the practical set on the rotating stage and also having a layering even within the Unreal Engine environment.Peter Travers, Visual Effects SupervisorA number of environments are almost purely 2D even though they are actually displayed in Unreal Engine.Quick turn around is the biggest advantage of a rotating stage. Every show that you do, you have two people talking, and now you have to shoot it from this way, Travers remarks. It took a minute or two to completely rotate the stage 180. All of our sets worked in a 360 fashion. Then, in Unreal Engine we would look [at it] the other way and lock it in. By the end, we were turning around just as fast if we were on a practical set. Kit-bashing was not enough for the major environment build of Rome, so a massive Roman model was leased. People forget that Rome had transformed over the course of 500 years. We picked approximately 100 AD because the it was closest to when the Colosseum had been built. The most important thing was the layout, so where is Circus Maximus and the Colosseum, where is the Forum relative to that, how big is Palatine Hill, and how does the Tiber River go through? Had we not acquired this model we wouldnt have made it. But I dont want to undersell the amount of effort that DNEG did because the set decoration is at least double the data set that you have to consider. It got even more complicated because we needed to have digital crowds in the background. The thing with any kind of animation on a virtual production stage is, all of the animation has to loop, so we had to figure out intelligent ways to have digital characters walking in the background, which happens in almost all of our scenes. We had to hide them and then have them come around again. The takes were so long that we werent cueing the action. The different stages of construction of the Colosseum happens in four episodes. We had to go from its earliest construction to all of it being completed. We were constantly with cranes and activity. All of that stuff enriched the environment.The most important thing was the layout, so where is Circus Maximus and the Colosseum, where is the Forum relative to that, how big is Palatine Hill, and how does the Tiber River go through? Had we not acquired this model we wouldnt have made it. But I dont want to undersell the amount of effort that DNEG did because the set decoration is at least double the data set that you have to consider.Peter Travers, Visual Effects SupervisorThe chariot races were shot on a track situated at Cinecitt World in Rome.Skies proved to be difficult because the clouds had to have the ability to move during takes and not become static. Rendering volumetric clouds at that resolution would have been foolish, Travers acknowledges. DNEG had a proprietary tool that would take a HDRI and slowly loop over two minutes. You didnt notice it, but it had this beautiful movement in the sky. There are shots where we are looking straight up in the sky. During the road to Rome, youre looking up at this line of crucifixes, and the cloud movement that youre seeing is a procedurally animated still. It didnt pop when it looped. It smoothly went back to frame one so we could go on forever. There were a few times where we had to cue things, and it did loop in particular when we shot footage of Morocco and Sicily. Any of those things, like blowing reeds and grass, we had to figure out a way to intelligently get them to loop back to frame one. With those things, we did hit play when Roman yelled, Action. But we were also covered that it would loop, if in a pinch, if that happened. Unreal Engine was not suited for everything. The chariot racing with the actors was done as a poor mans process. We had them standing on a chariot, and then behind them youre seeing the other oncoming chariots; that was all pre-rendered at 16K at certain length. We would get the actors ready and shoot all of those shots by rolling back to frame one because those couldnt loop, but it was the only way to get horses on the wall that looked good. I was also the director of the action unit, so I shot all of the live-action chariot stuff [on a track at Cinecitt World]. We used that for rotomation, rendering and look development because we already had answers as to what photoreal horse chariots looked like. One of the things that we discovered is four horses charging at full gallop in one chariot is a mess. It is not precise at all. They are constantly bumping into each other and fighting. Because I had shot a lot at a high frame rate, we could even see in slow motion at 96 fps the details of how the muscles worked.There are a lot of scenes, in particular Leptis Magna, where the slaves in North Africa are picked up and shipped off to Rome. The original background plates were shot in Morocco. We brought those plates in and started to build a 3D environment. We had to figure out with our Production Designer Johannes Muecke what kinds of cages because were going to have to build those virtually. We had a real giraffe on the virtual production stage, and behind it we needed to have a CG giraffe. We had to get started building the CG giraffe and put that in.Peter Travers, Visual Effects SupervisorThirty-five unique environments were divided between what could be built on set and what had to be extended digitally.A major asset was the Sony Venice 2 camera with its low-light sensitivityA drone flew a Sony Venice 2 camera to capture a lava flow that was there from the original eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.The size of sets was determined by knowing what was going to be captured in-camera.All of the departments were involved with the wall content, including costumes.Those About to Die was shot on the LED volume at Cinecitt Studios in Rome.When youre building a set, you only build where you know youre going to go with the camera, Travers notes. In Unreal Engine we were constantly doing that, where we would start with the Rome model and know the envelope of where we were going to shoot in and start deleting all of these distant things that we werent going to need. Sometimes it was tough. There was a rooftop where we needed to look out at a lot of Rome, so we had to keep most of Rome in the distance. The challenge with that is we wouldnt achieve 24 fps playback. There is a lot of artistry in making things be efficient, load and playback, but you have to keep in mind it is set decoration and that can change. Roland would come to us and say, I want to move that temple over there. Can I do it? Sometimes we couldnt do it, but for the most part we could. Roland was good about not being a kid in a candy store and saying, I want to move everything around. Roland has always been good at working within the box of what he has.