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Tag: VFX in GoT

  • How GoT Created a Near-Perfect Episode “Beyond the Wall”

    Game of Thrones, the television phenomenon based on George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire saga, and brought to life by HBO has earned rave reviews and a legion of loyal fans across the globe. The epic fantasy show has relied strongly on visual effects and animation to help bring their ridiculously-expansive scenes, characters and myriad fantastical creatures to life.

    From ice zombies to fire-breathing dragons and everything else in between, this show is a standard-bearer for VFX done right. The season finale for the show’s penultimate running, titled “Beyond the Wall” is a microcosm for how stellar the show is and what an important role VFX plays in making it so.

    Built on a Big Budget

    All of that otherworldly glory, magic, mystique, and magnitude at the cost of a penny. On average, a GoT episode has cost anywhere between $6 million to $10 million, and a solid chunk of that money has gone into the show’s CGI and VFX efforts. As MoneyInc reports, every 10 minutes of CGI set the show back by a whopping $800,000. Vanity Fair has put out a story claiming that the budget for the upcoming final eighth season of the show could be as high $15 million per episode, with six episodes planned.

    Raking in the Awards

    Adored by a hardcore fan base and acclaimed by the critics, this show has won a fair few awards since it began airing in April 2011. The show has also pulled off a streak of awards for its visual artistry. Having already nabbed five prestigious Emmy Awards before Beyond the Wall, the curtain closer for season 7 was also a recipient of a sixth Emmy for Outstanding Special Effects.

    The Insane Level of VFX in GoT

    The sheer volume of visual effects used on the show is incredible. No wonder the VFX costs so much, as there are six major VFX studios involved in the making of GoT according to this Autodesk article.

    The studios in question are:

    • BlueBolt, London
    • Screen Scene, Dublin
    • Pixomondo, Frankfurt
    • Rodeo FX, Montreal
    • Image Engine, Vancouver
    • Iloura, Melbourne

    Toolbox Studio offers cutting-edge VFX services to enchant and delight the audience, taking projects from concepts to visual conclusions.

    Breaking Down “Beyond the Wall”

    Another studio not mentioned in the aforementioned Autodesk piece, but one that has played a pivotal part in the making of GoT’s seventh season, including Beyond the Wall, is El Ranchito Imagen Digital, Madrid. This is the studio behind that iconic battle of the frozen lake. You can watch the studio’s video on how this episode came about right here.

    While this may have been the epic climax to an insane finale, the episode features quite a lot of interesting effects for VFX aficionados:

    • Zombie Polar Bear

    The first major VFX addition to this episode, this bear accosts the show’s heroes and is killed in a great ball of fire. The VFX team reportedly studied images of dead polar bears and tried to match the decay they found to the look of this particular zombified specimen, making the amount of fur, fat and caked blood as realistic as possible.

    • The Wight Army

    While not appearing for the first time in this episode, the sheer volume of this undead horde was challenging to produce realistically. The VFX studios managed with two sets of wights, one made up of 90% computer-generated imagery and 10% costume and prosthetic, and secondly, the negative space wights that were only 30% CG and 70% costume and prosthetic. These wights were then multiplied using VFX to make the number look large and foreboding, extending into thousands of these specimens in the episode when it aired.

    • The Dragons

    The three mighty dragons that form an integral part of GoT lore were all in action in this episode. They flew in to try and rescue the heroes who were stranded in the middle of a (mostly green-screened) frozen lake surrounded by the wights. Everything from the motion of the dragon’s wings to their billowing flames needed to be created using the help of VFX and the final result was absolutely mesmerizing.

    • The Rise of the Ice Dragon

    The biggest plot twist in this episode and one of the biggest in the show as a whole was the reanimation of one of the dragons into an undead ice monster by the White Walkers and their dreaded leader – the Night King. This sequence, too, was a masterpiece in VFX and has been addressed in the video we spoke about above.

    This IndieWired piece goes into even more detail regarding how this episode came about. Needless to say, Beyond the Wall was a masterclass in VFX and worthy of all the plaudits it has received so far.

    Toolbox Studio is a VFX specialist that has been around for over 11 years, delivering a host of visual effects solutions to clients from around the globe. Having worked on Hollywood blockbusters like Maleficent, 300: Rise of an Empire, Jupiter Ascending and Hunger Games, we have the essential tools and skills to make magic happen on screen.

    If you want to create your own larger-than-life, slick and richly-detailed VFX sequences, we can help make it happen.

    Get in touch with our team today!

  • Revealing the Real Story Behind the Iron Throne

    Revealing the Real Story Behind the Iron Throne

    April 17, 2011 marked the coming of winter. HBO’s Game of Thrones brought George R.R. Martin’s ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ to life and introduced us to the opulence and grandeur of the seven kingdoms.

    The series aired its sixth season on April 24, 2016, and has continued to live up to the glory of the literary masterpiece, thanks to visionary creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, a brilliant ensemble cast, and outstanding VFX (Visual Effects).

    Game of Thrones is filmed at several surreal locations including Northern Ireland, Croatia, Morocco, Spain, Scotland, Iceland, Malta, and the United States. The dreamlike sets make up for only a small part of the magic that we see. Behind the green-screen are a bunch of phenomenal maestros sitting on their well-deserved iron thrones with technology that never fails to intrigue.

    Season 1 saw the incredible introduction to G. R. R. Martin’s fantasy world. HBO hired a British and an Irish company for the visual effects.

    Here’s a quick look at the extensive hours of work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcqY2AFNa08

    Games-of-Thrones-VFX-Breakdown                                                                                             Source: http://www.cgchannel.com

    Season 2 had increasingly challenging visuals, and HBO brought on board the expertise of a Germany-based visual effects company. The studio won the Primetime Emmy Award for the Outstanding Special Visual Effects in 2012 and 2013 for the episodes Valar Morghulis and Valar Dohaeris, respectively. They created the majestic armies spread across the screen, backgrounds with extended cityscapes, BG matte paintings, CG gore (blood splatter, anyone?), crowd simulation, and of course the juvenile dire wolves and dragons.

    GoT Season 2                                                                               Source: https://bananascoop.files.wordpress.com/

    Other Canada, US and Britain-based studios were involved in the making of the third season. Doug Campbell, one of the VFX supervisors, spoke candidly about his experience during Season 3. “The Ice Wall was one of the most compelling sequences for us. The 3D build provided the camera range required to deliver the drama and fear of the climb, and of course, the realism of the ice slide.”

    GoT Ice Wall                                                                                    Source: http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/

    A 700 ft. wall (a few miles long, real-world scale) was created and the ice slide was simulated, and shot from several different cameras. Comprised of over 80 shots, the sequence exhibited the hold-on-to-your-seats sort of adventure, without compromising on the scale or continuity.

    The entirety of The Wall – 3D environment could rise to breathless heights on the shoulders of the quixotic experts. And it would be so unfair if we didn’t mention the enormous Mance Rayder’s camp and the 3D Unsullied Army!

    GoT Season 4_1                                                                                               Source:: http://winteriscoming.net/

    GoT Season4_2                                                                                         Source: http://blog.fidmdigitalarts.com/

    By Season 4, the audience and expected VFX magic had grown considerably; so had the dragons! HBO signed on a Germany-based firm that bagged the Emmy Award for Visual Effects in 2014 (for the season finale). A couple of Canada- and US-based studios also contributed to the season’s production.

    A team of 22 to 30 people worked on understanding and conceptualizing Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons. Talk about attention to detail! What resulted was a string of stunning results with the muscle movements of the adolescent dragons in Seasons 4 and 5.

    GoT_DrogoniHD                                                                                       Source: http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/

    The collision, destruction, and grandiose of the Harpy, the golden statue in Meereen, was a visual delight and the highlight of Season 5. A VFX supervisor at the VFX studio that worked on the fifth season said, “This was a huge CG build and complex work for TV. It is challenging because we’re aiming for feature film quality, but the schedule is not the same as on features. We built on last year’s work… Needing close ups of the pyramid meant we had to build it up brick by brick. Every brick was modelled and textured independently.”

    With (VFX Supervisor across the series) Joe Bauer’s work at the foundation, the VFX team worked on adding complexity and life to the CG scenes.

    Season 5 gave us the incredible matte paintings across Meereen, the ruins of Old Valyria, the Smoking Sea, and the Stone Men. While we are still settling into the unsettling and unnerving Walk of Atonement, the unveiling of tedious facts and relentlessly-dedicated processes of producing these heart-wrenching visual effects, continues to celebrate the work of the studios devoted to creating Game of Thrones.

    With Season 6 proving to be an overwhelming experience, especially with the much-awaited ‘Battle of the Bastards’, it’s a long wait until the final season comes knocking on our doors. Until then, we can keep reminiscing the seasons gone by and drool over the visual effects!

    Which was your favorite VFX sequence from the series? Let us know in the comments section below!