A few months back I mentioned that Blue Bolt and Screen Scene will NOT be handling the VFX on Game of Thrones in Season 2. Both are fairly small companies and the amount of VFX this season would have been just too much for them to handle properly in the given time frame.
Over the weekend Ran at Westeros broke the news that the VFX for Season 2 will be handled by Pixomondo. They are a larger FX company and have a good resume of FX heavy films and director's they have worked for including working on Hugo with Scorsese, on Super 8 with JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg, on Sucker Punch, 2012 and more than 30 motion pictures over the past few years. They also did the VFX for Terra Nova.
Wait, Terra Nova who's FX were laughable more often than laudable? Indeed.
This made me worry I won't lie. I looked around at a number of trailer, VFX Reels and movie scenes and I still have my doubts about the Direwolf CGI honestly since the only "hairy" creatures I can go by were Terra Nova's feathered or "furry" dinosaurs....
However, their dragon VFX work on Sucker Punch was first rate. Even in that movie's highly stylized environment I think the dragons came off being some of the best I have seen in film.
I also have little doubt their backgrounds will be as good as last year, they do incredible smoke and fire and great epic battle scenes (very important VFX this season) as can be seen in the Sucker Punch and Red Baron clips linked below.
While we look forward to Season 2(and maybe worry a little), concentrate on the positive and enjoy the show reel for Pixomondo, a scene from Sucker Punch that highlights their fire and battle work, and a VFX reel from Red Baron which highlights some nice background work.
Pixomondo VFX Show Reel:
PIXOMONDO REEL 2011 from PIXOMONDO on Vimeo.
Sucker Punch - Dragon and Battle Scenes:
Red Baron VFX Reel:
I hope thw Direwolves are better than the Terra Nova dinosaurs!
ReplyDeleteUntil then I will just keep repeating " I have faith in HBO" like some sort or serenity mantra.
There's some hairy creature in the first video, not from Terra Nova, looks like it's from some documentary or something. But i gotta say, not really impressed by the vfx above, only thing i really liked was the creature from Super 8 (not because of it's design), but to me, it looks much more cinematic than other effects, rest is much more digital (yeah no shit) like from commercial, rather than feature lenght movie. But GoT doesn't really have that 'cinematic' look either (which super saddens me) so i guess it's going to fit?
ReplyDeleteThanks
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteYeah I'm not sold by their show reel at all. Every effect pops and wants you to know it is an effect.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have always thought the idea of VFX is to create something that looks real that could not be created psychically. IF something looks like an effect to me it's poor quality. Even if it is a cool effect.
I think their background work is great and should be as good as last year's (I hope), the battle scenes and fire scenes I'm sold on... the Dirwwolves though.....
Hmmm, maybe I should pay their German studio a visit and look what I can find out. :D
ReplyDeleteI don't like the change either but I'll keep my fingers crossed. All the VFX on Sucker Punch was fantastic (even if the film wasn't) so maybe it's a spend more to get more scenario. I'm guessing Thrones has a better budget for this than Terra Nova.
ReplyDeleteAs a movie Sucker Punch.. well sucked (sorry), but as a VFX reel for battles, fire and dragon VFX.... It's pretty good actually! XD
ReplyDeletePixomondo did not solely do the VFX in those movies. The creature in Super-8, for example, was mostly handled by ILM. Smaller studios are used for a variety of reasons: background mattes, smoke effects etc. so it is hard to judge how they will handle Game Of Thrones. I have no doubt that the producers will not accept shoddy CG work though.
ReplyDeletethanks
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