VFX supervisor Aaron Wright just shared the work of his Blue Rain Productions team on the new Hallmark+ series, Mistletoe Murders, Hallmarks first holiday murder mystery, which debuted on the new streaming service this past October 31st.In the all-new Hallmark+ original series, based on the Audible original audiobook series of the same name, Emily Lane is an outwardly friendly, optimistic shop owner of a charming year-round Christmas-themed store, Under the Mistletoe. With a keen eye for details, Emily soon finds herself compelled to investigate not-so-quaint local murders, where her sleuthing skills are soon put to the test. Despite local cop, Detective Sam Wilner's growing affection for her, Emily's enigmatic past raises suspicions about her true motives because she has a big secret. Which certainly shows that everyone has ghosts of Christmas past! Yep, we said it.Created by Ken Cuperus, the show stars Sarah Drew (Greys Anatomy) as Emily Lane, Peter Mooney (Rookie Blue) as local detective Sam Wilner and Sierra Marilyn Riley as his teenaged daughter Violet. Jean Yoon (Kims Convenience), Lara Amersey (Operation Nutcracker), and Good Witch alum Kylee Evans also star. David Hewlett (The Shape of Water) has a recurring role; Tom Cavanaugh (Ed, The Flash) guest stars. Grant Harvey, Melanie Orr and Sherry White each directed two of the six Season 1 episodes.Wright and the Blue Rain Productions team worked on various VFX for the show, including replacing monitors to ensure that the on-screen actions matched the actors' movements. In one scene, they enhanced a tree to make it look more damaged as part of a murder investigation. Their work also involved enhancing clues and making minor production fixes, such as replacing unapproved photos. Additionally, they handled a significant explosion shot and flashback sequences to portray the character's past as a secret agent.The team was on set throughout the production, working to seamlessly blend elements they created, such as hospital interiors, with stock footage, integrating the material into the shows world of Fletchers Grove. The biggest challenge, and largest effect taken on by Wright and the team, was working on a big warehouse explosion. In describing the work, Wright shares that he came onto the show early, helping develop some of the action. MistletoeMurders presented us with the unique opportunityof a murder or 2 every couple episodes, he notes. Right from the get-go we were interested. Blue Rain was given the opportunity to help plan and design from the writing stage some of the murders and accidents you see on screen. This unique opportunity gave us freedom to design the effects in the most exciting but also efficient ways. He goes on to describe how a sleigh falling off the roof onto one of the carolers was a big opening shot for the 3rd episode that required us to build and design the rickety platform that was to be sabotaged. Wright went back and forth early with the art department to design a sleigh that was both simple to build and would break in real life, that could be used in the shot, but also would work for our needs, which were to break and fall from the rooftop. This collaboration meant the shots traveled smoothly through the production pipeline.For a large number of shots that involved outfitting a local shop with a big, bright sign saying, Famous Ray's Furniture Emporium, Wright explains, the choice to do it with VFX was clear. Because Ray's personality on the series was quite eccentric, It needed to be huge, he adds. Taking the initial artwork that the art department provided, we added the layers of grime and wear to it to have it tell a bit more of a story, then composited it into the different shots. Overall, I think the effect was quite successful. The climax of Emily's trauma induced flashback was a great warehouse explosion, one of the big cliffhangers from Emily's past, which begged the question, Why is this Christmas shop owner also involved with a huge building explosion? According to Wright, It was the largest effect in the show and required weeks of planning and involvement from many teams and departments. We filmed the talented Sarah Drew on bluescreen getting hit by air cannons we had background plates of the building, lighting effect plates, lens elements we even built the window panel with candy glass and fired air cannons through it to get realistic glass and debris. In post, we then simulated the exploding buildings fireball and animated extra destruction elements like doors, bricks and rocks, he continues. Adding even more layers, we simulated dust clouds and sparks that engulfed Emily and crashed the shot to black. All of these filmed and CGI components were brought together and composited into the final shot that was intended to capture the dark notion, Who is Emily really? Dan Sarto is Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network.