Over the past week, there has been a deluge of VFX breakdowns that cast a light on the latest techniques that adorn the VFX industry. With the mainstream bringing VFX into sharper focus with such elaborate breakdowns, we picked our top five that will blow your minds and educate you at the same time.
Here are the top five VFX Breakdowns released over the past week:
Season Two of The Mandalorian
ILM released a new behind-the-scenes video recently of the season two of The Mandalorian that highlights the show’s more than 5,000 visual effects, which — according to the video description — “leveraged virtually every trick in the book, from miniatures and motion control to traditional puppeteering, advanced animatronics, spectacular special effects, and photo-real CG.”
The featurette gives a glimpse of what was CGI and what was practical, with the two often being pulled together seamlessly for a stunning shot.
Tribes of Europa
VFX breakdowns are always a great source of learning for budding VFX artists. It becomes even more effective when a streaming giant like Netflix takes it upon themselves to post elaborate breakdowns explaining how they created the shots with the help of VFX studios.
Recently, Netflix posted an elaborate VFX breakdown of Tribes Of Europa; a German sci-fi series. Such out of the world variety presupposes a great deal of VFX with well-placed background replacements and other technical nuances to depict the post-apocalyptic world.
Tribes of Europa is set about 50 years into the future, following an earth-shattering event known as Black December, when the world’s electrical power systems crash and bring the globe into an energy catastrophe. Out of that population-decimating crisis, there emerged various tribes of people living in the wilderness or taking over former cities, all fighting for survival.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League
The HBO MAX’s VFX breakdown is a treat for artists who are curious to know what goes behind the scenes of this iconic major.
Director Zack Snyder along with actors Henry Cavill, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, and Jason Momoa talk about fans, becoming immersed in the characters, and the making of Snyder’s four-hour cut of Justice League.
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists newfound ally Diana Prince to face an even greater threat. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to recruit a team to stand against this newly awakened enemy. Despite the formation of an unprecedented league of heroes – Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and the Flash – it may be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
What’s interesting about this clip is that it not only delves into the VFX intricacies but also takes us on the set with chroma screens, effects, costumes and monotor reviews.
A Discovery of Witches
AXIS Studio released a breakdown that gave a glimpse of the fantastical world created for the series.
A Discovery of Witches is a British fantasy television series based on the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness, named after the first book in the trilogy. It is produced by Bad Wolf and Sky Productions, and stars Teresa Palmer, Matthew Goode, Edward Bluemel, Louise Brealey, Malin Buska, Aiysha Hart, Owen Teale, Alex Kingston, and Valarie Pettiford.
The eight-episode first series of A Discovery of Witches premiered weekly in the UK on Sky One from 14 September 2018. In November 2018, Sky One renewed A Discovery of Witches for a second and third series. The ten-episode second series was initially released in its entirety on 8 January 2021 and aired weekly on Sky One.
WandaVision
Marvel Entertainment released the VFX breakdown of popular series WandaVision in which Marvel Studios’ WandaVision VFX supervisor Tara DeMarco talks about the visual effects magic behind the series.
For the unversed, WandaVision goes back three weeks after the events of Avengers: Endgame (2019), Wanda Maximoff and Vision are living an idyllic suburban life in the town of Westview, New Jersey, trying to conceal their true natures.
It begins by taking us into the magical sitcom-inspired world of Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and her beloved Vision (Paul Bettany). But as always, the real magic was happening behind the scenes, thanks to the dedicated artists of Marvel who brought to life all the spectacular details of the Disney+ series.
