By TREVOR HOGGImages courtesy of Rodeo FX and Netflix.In Season 2 of The Sandman, Dream, after reclaiming his kingdom, goes about restoring his castle, which is guarded by a wyvern, griffin and hippogriff. The responsibility for the reconceived residence and mythical creatures that reside there was given to Rodeo FX, which produced more than 200 shots through a long-standing relationship with Production Visual Effects Supervisor Ian Markiewicz.A sandstorm engulfs the Season 1 palace, which then transitions to a massive, pristine, well-preserved, clean architectural style for Season 2.In Season 2, [the Guardians] become real flesh-and-bone, talking creatures, so the approach was completely different [from Season 1].Martin Pelletier, VFX Supervisor, Rodeo FXIan was a visual effects producer and, at some point, was missing that creative input he wanted so much to give, states Martin Pelletier, VFX Supervisor at Rodeo FX. When the opportunity arose, Ian jumped to the other side. Hes realistic as far as expectations and how things work based on budgets and time. Yet, Ian is never going to pretend that he knows the technical aspect of what were doing. Ian gives pointers to get us headed in the direction he wants and then leaves. He lets the process do its own little magic. Given that visual effects work takes place strictly in the Dreaming, there was more room to be creative and break free from the restrictions imposed by reality. He adds, I like invisible effects, but The Sandman was that opportunity where creativity can go wild.The weather in the Dreaming is determined by the emotional state of Dream.Emotion determines the weather in the Dreaming. The Guardians are exposed to the elements, Pelletier explains. In Season 2, we quickly establish that the mood of Dream determines if its going to be stormy, rainy or the stars or sun are shiny, or a clear blue sky. The Guardians were established as stone creatures in Season 1. In Season 2, they become real flesh-and-bone, talking creatures, so the approach was completely different. The wyvern comes with his fair share of challenges because we never get to see the back of his body or use the tail. The only thing that we ever get to do with the wyvern was for him to lean and stand on the ledge right over the main door entrance. You get to see his wings moving, but its mostly about the neck, torso and head. Posture helped to convey emotion. Pelletier notes, Whenever the wyvern was happy or aggressive, things would be pointing upward in a more rigid and energetic way. The movements would be snappier. Whereas the minute he was in a sad mood, his body sagged and his head leaned lower. The dialogue was synced through keyframe animation. We got the audio track and tried a couple of different ways with the wyvern. The scale and the fact that the mouth opens up made it a little trickier to get the speaking action to look right.Environmental elements such as trees helped to convey the proper scale of Dreams Palace.The Guardians are exposed to the elements in Season 2. We quickly establish that the mood of Dream determines if its going to be stormy, rainy or the stars or sun are shiny, or a clear blue sky.Martin Pelletier, VFX Supervisor, Rodeo FXWings were prominent on both the hippogriff and griffin. We could set the tone, whether they were energetic or sad, by playing with how fast the wings were moving around in animation, Pelletier remarks. The hippogriff was probably the easiest of all three animals because of the fact that we have so many references to look over. White technically creates more issues, especially with feathers. But the good news was that we knew that Season 2 was going to be mostly moody. If you look at the overall chunk of shots where we see the Guardians, 85% of them were either overcast or indirect light. We never had to deal with bright, intense sunlight hitting the hippogriff. The diffused light was a challenge. Pelletier says, All three Guardians are living in some kind of a box. If you look at the entrance and the design of the palace in that area, theres a back wall behind the Guardians as well as sidewalls next to them. Theres not a whole lot of places for light to scatter and bounce off anything that is bright. We had to do lot of cheating, especially on overcast sequences, to get shapes out of them because otherwise they would come out dull and flat.The decision was made to situate Dreams Palace on an isolated island to avoid it looking like Disneyland.Anatomy was a major issue for hybrid creatures like griffins. You start with what was a lion for the reference of the body, Pelletier states. Yet, the body of the griffin is maybe 10 times the size of a lion. The head was mimicking a Golden Eagle, but the Golden Eagle is so much smaller in so many ways. How do we approach the feathers in relation with the scale difference? Are we going with fairly small feathers and make a number required to cover the griffin, which is so much bigger? Or, are we going with much bigger feathers and keep the same relationship size-wise with the Golden Eagle? Which is what we did. Then we had this rig that allowed the feathers to flare upwards and outward as if hes reacting to something. We had to tone it down quite a lot and play subtly with the feather movements to keep in mind the scale of it. You rarely have a human next to it until Episode 210 where hes almost dying and gets rejuvenated with Dream.A number of the shots of Dreams Palace involve top-down perspectives.A puppet head was utilized on set to get the proper interaction between Dream and the griffin. There were a couple of shots where the puppet head wasnt necessarily accounting for the space that the body would take, Pelletier reflects. We had to cheat things because if we would line up our griffins head with the puppet, then the body would be half intersecting with a wall. We had to do a little bit of magic tricks here and there to make things work. But, in the end, it turned out that this sequence looks amazing. Situating the Guardians on a raised platform looking down altered the dynamics of the shots. Its a restriction as far as movements, Pelletier observes. We ended up making the pedestal wider as we quickly understood that it was going to be a struggle to get the wings to open up freely without intersecting with a wall. Feathers added to the complexity of the wings. Regular grooming is a lot easier to deal with, especially with an animal such as a horse because its a short groom. The main thing that we had to deal with was when the wings open up and showcase the full open feathers, because you see a whole lot of little technical details that wouldnt make sense and would create hard shadows, unnecessary gaps and unwanted penetration. There were numerous quality control passes to fix all those issues.A holdover from Season 1 is the bridge being held by a pair of hands, which was inspired by the Golden Bridge in Vietnam.We could set the tone [on the hippogriff and griffin], whether they were energetic or sad, by playing with how fast the wings were moving around in animation.Martin Pelletier, VFX Supervisor, Rodeo FXOpening Season 2 is the reveal of Dreams Palace. Pelletier explains, The shot where the Season 1 palace is being completely engulfed in the sandstorm is much bigger than it should be in relation to the Season 2 palace. Interestingly, enough of the opening of Season 2 was not planned that way. Originally. we were only building the finished version of the Season 2 palace, but then an executive at Netflix said, We need a new opening to get the people in the audience to understand that we have come into the Dreaming, the palace is not the same, and the Dreaming environment has changed as well. Dreams Palace is massive. When we first started presenting the palace to the client in the established initial scale, it was four to six times bigger than what we ended up doing. The minute I showed Ian how small a human being is next to that entrance, he said, Okay, we have a problem because were never going to be able to read a human being in semi-wide shot. We ended up scaling down the palace to something that made more sense. It was still a challenge because on aerial shots where you see the Fates coming in, theyre like tiny dots, so we had to fake longer shadows and a bright spot to cause your eye to look over that area of the garden to make sure you get to see the four figures walking.Vegetation like bushes were important to make sure that the imagery did not look too clean and CG.An iconic castle had to be avoided. They wanted to stay away from that Dracula kind of a mood, Pelletier notes. The palace was to be a pristine, well-preserved and clean architectural piece. They didnt want us to age it or weather it too much. The gardens had to look like theyre being taken care of on a daily basis. There were moments where we had to bring in a bit more brush to our shots because from a certain distance it was looking a little too clean and CG. Another famous image was not to be replicated. How do we present different pieces like a rocky desert landscape on one side and a lush, green jungle environment on the other side without making it look like Disneyland? We decided to place the palace on an isolated piece of land surrounded by a lot of water. The first thing we did was to scatter a bunch of trees next to it to convey the size both of the environment and the palace. And we played quite a lot with the size of the the vegetation next to the palace so it could make sense.Located above the entrance of Dreams Palace are the three Guardians consisting of a griffin, wyvern and hippogriff.The Guardians of the Palace evolve from stone statues in Season 1 to living creatures in Season 2.The size of the Guardians did not always allow for stand-ins or puppets to be utilized in shots.The initial size of Dreams Palace had to be significantly scaled back to enable humans to stand out in semi-wide shots.The pedestal was made wider to enable the wings of the Guardians to open freely without intersecting with a wall.A skinny version of the griffin that would shrink and lose muscle mass over time was developed by Rodeo FX.The fact that the mouth opens made it trickier to get the speaking action to look right for the wyvern.How fast the wings were moving indicated whether the hippogriff was happy or sad.The griffin has the body of a lion and the head of a Golden Eagle.A head of a puppet was utilized to get the proper interaction as Dream attempts to heal the griffin.Rodeo FX created more than 200 shoots for Season 2 of The Sandman.Watch two dramatic VFX breakdowns by Rodeo FX of its work creating the surreal world of The Sandman, Season 2, Volume 1 for the Netflix series. The first video chronicles the initial development of Dreams Castle and the mythical creatures. Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=Kwd5AWGhTE0&t=1s. The second video details the Guardians the wyvern, hippogriff and griffin as they are brought to life from stone statues to soaring, lifelike CG creatures. Also explore the rise of the towering palace they protect. Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watchv=IMoDkVnYwlk&t=2s