Jelmer Boskma was the VFX Supervisor at DNEG on Time Bandits (AppleTV+). The show is a modern twist on Terry Gilliams classic 1981 film. The series about a ragtag group of thieves moving through time with their newest recruit, an eleven-year-old history nerd, was created by Jemaine Clement, Iain Morris, and Taika Waitit. It stars Lisa Kudrow as Penelope, Kal-El Tuck as Kevin, Tadhg Murphy as Alto, Roger Jean Nsengiyumva as Widgit, Rune Temte as Bittelig, Charlyne Yi as Judy, Rachel House as Fianna and Kiera Thompson as Saffron.In addition to the great environment work the company did, DNEG 360, a division of DNEG, which is a partnership with Dimension Studio, delivered virtual production services for Time Bandits. FXGUIDE: When did you start on the project?Jelmer Boskma: Post-production was already underway when I joined the project in March 2023, initially to aid with the overall creative direction for the sequences awarded to DNEG. FXGUIDE: How many shots did you do over the series?Jelmer Boskma: We delivered 1,094 shots, featured in 42 sequences throughout all 10 episodes. Our work primarily involved creating environments such as the Fortress of Darkness, Sky Citadel, Desert, and Mayan City. We also handled sequences featuring the Supreme Beings floating head, Pure Evils fountain and diorama effects, as well as Kevins bedroom escape and a number of smaller sequences and one-offs peppered throughout the season.FXGUIDE:? And how much did the art department map this out and how much were the locations down to your team to work out?Jelmer Boskma: We had a solid foundation from both the art department and a group of freelance artists working directly for the VFX department, providing us with detailed concept illustrations.The design language and palette of the Sky Citadel especially was resolved to a large extent. For us it was a matter of translating the essence of that key illustration into a three-dimensional space and designing several interesting establishing shots. Additional design exploration was only required on a finishing level, depicting the final form of the many structures within the citadel and the surface qualities of the materials from which the structures were made. The tone of the Fortress of Darkness environment required a little bit more exploration. A handful of concept paintings captured the scale, proportions and menacing qualities of the architecture, but were illustrated in a slightly looser fashion. We focused on distilling the essence of each of these concepts into one coherent environment. Besides the concept paintings we did receive reference in the form of a practical miniature model that was initially planned to be used in shot, but due to the aggressive shooting schedule could not be finished to the level where it would have worked convincingly. Nonetheless it served as a key piece of reference for us to help capture the intent and mood of the fortress.Other environments like the Mayan village, the besieged Caffa fortress, and Mansa Musas desert location were designed fully by our team in post-production. FXGUIDE: The Mayan village had a lot of greens and jungle was there much practical studio sets?Jelmer Boskma: We had a partial set with some foliage for the scenes taking place on ground level. The establishing shots of the city, palace and temple, as well as the surrounding jungle and chasm, were completely CG. We built as much as we could with 3D geometry to ensure consistency in our lighting, atmospheric perspective and dynamism in our shot design. The final details for the buildings as well as the background skies were painted and projected back on top of that 3D base. To enhance realism, the trees and other foliage were rendered as 3D assets allowing us to simulate movement in the wind. FXGUIDE: Were the actors filmed on green/blue screen?Jelmer Boskma: In many cases they were. For the sequences within Mansa Musas desert camp and the Neanderthal settlement, actors were shot against DNEG 360s LED virtual production screens, for which we provided real-time rendered content early on in production. To ensure that the final shots were as polished and immersive as possible, we revisited these virtual production backdrops in Unreal Engine back at DNEG in post. This additional work involved enhancing the textural detail within the environments and adding subtle depth cues to help sell the scale of the settings. Access to both the original Unreal scenes and the camera data was invaluable, allowing us to work directly with the original files and output updated real-time renders for compositing. While it required careful extraction of actors from the background footage shot on the day, this hybrid approach of virtual production and refinement in post ultimately led to a set of pretty convincing, completely synthetic, environments. FXGUIDE: Could you outline what the team did for the Fortress of Darkness?Jelmer Boskma: The Fortress of Darkness was a complex environment that required extensive 3D modelling and integration. We approached it as a multi-layered project, given its visibility from multiple angles throughout the series. The fortress included both wide establishing shots and detailed close-ups, particularly in the scenes during the seasons finale.For the exterior, we developed a highly detailed 3D model to capture the grandeur and foreboding nature of the fortress. This included creating intricate Gothic architectural elements and adding a decay effect to reflect the corrosive, hostile atmosphere surrounding the structure. The rivers of lava, which defy gravity and flow towards the throne room, were art directed to add a dynamic and sinister element to the environment and reinforce the power Pure Evil commands over his realm.Inside, we extended the practical set, designed by Production Designer Ra Vincent, to build out the throne room. This space features a dramatic mix of sharp obsidian and rough rock textures, which we expanded with a 3D background of Gothic ruins, steep cliffs, and towering stalactites. To ensure consistency and realism, we rendered these elements in 3D rather than relying on 2.5D matte paintings, allowing for the dynamic lighting effects like fireworks and lightning seen in episode 10. FXGUIDE: What was the project format was it 4k or 2k (HDR?) and what resolution was the project shot at primarily?Jelmer Boskma: The project was delivered in 4K HDR (3840 x 2160 UHD), which was also the native resolution at which the plates were photographed. To manage render times effectively and streamline our workflow, we primarily worked at half resolution for the majority of the project. This allowed us to focus on achieving the desired creative look without being slowed down by full-resolution rendering. Once the compositing was about 80% complete and creatively aligned with the vision of the filmmakers, we would switch to full-resolution rendering for the final stages.The HDR component of the final delivery was a new challenge for many of us and required a significant amount of additional scrutiny during our tech check process. HDR is incredibly unforgiving as it reveals any and all information held within each pixel on screen, whether its within the brightest overexposed areas or hiding inside the deepest blacks of the frame. FXGUIDE: Which renderer do you use for environment work now?Jelmer Boskma: For Time Bandits we were still working within our legacy pipeline, rendering primarily inside of Clarisse. We have since switched over to a Houdini centric pipeline where most of our rendering is done through Renderman.FXGUIDE: How completely did you have to make the sets for example, for Sky Citadel did you have a clear idea of the shooting angles needed and the composition of the shots, or did you need to build the environments without full knowledge of how it would be shot?Jelmer Boskma: I would say fairly complete, but all within reason. We designed the establishing shots as we were translating the concept illustrations into rough 3D layouts. Once we got a decent idea of the dimensions and scale of each environment, we would pitch a couple of shot ideas that we found interesting to feature the environment in. It would not have made sense to build these environments to the molecular level, as the schedule would not have allowed for that. In order to be as economical as possible, we set clear visual goals and ensured that we focussed our time only on what we are actually going to see on screen. Theres nuance there of course as we didnt want to paint ourselves into a corner, but with the demanding overall scope that Time Bandits had, and with so many full CG environment builds to be featured, myself and DNEGs producer Viktorija Ogureckaja had to make sure our time was well-balanced. FXGUIDE:Were there any particular challenges to the environment work?Jelmer Boskma: The most significant challenge was working without any real locations to anchor our environments. For environments like the Fortress of Darkness, Sky Citadel, Mayan City, and Caffa, we were dealing with almost entirely synthetic CG builds. For the latter two, we incorporated live-action foreground elements with our actors, but the core environments were fully digital.Creating a sense of believability in completely CG environments requires considerable effort. Unlike practical locations, which naturally have imperfections and variations, CG environments are inherently precise and clean, which can make them feel less grounded in reality. To counteract this, we needed to introduce significant detail, texture, and imperfections to make the environments look more photorealistic.Additionally, our goal was not just to create believable environments but also to ensure they were visually compelling. The production of these larger, establishing shots consumed a significant portion of our schedule, requiring careful attention to both the technical and aesthetic aspects of the work.The contributions made by all of the artists involved on this show was vital in achieving both these goals. Their creativity and attention to detail were crucial in transforming initial concepts into visual striking final shots. Reflecting on the project, its clear that the quality of these complex environments was achieved through the skill and dedication of our artists. Their efforts not only fulfilled the projects requirements but also greatly enhanced the visual depth and supported the storytelling, creating immersive settings that, I hope, have managed to captivate and engage the audience.