While we’ve seen some concept art from the last series of Game of Thrones, tonight I thought it’d be cool to look at some of the VFX work done on season 7.
Rodeo FX, a studio with offices across the world, was tasked with coming up with some of the series’ biggest shots, from the sea battles to the march of the undead to the destruction of the Wall at Eastwatch.
From the company’s notes on that last shot:
For the wall’s dramatic collapse, we scored the wall to break it apart in multiple shots to cover its extensive size. We separated the wall in three parts: the closest area, which was destroyed in hi-res, the middle section, that remained standing in hi-res, and the farthest section in low-res as a base for digital matte paintings.
We received a previs referencing the timing and size of the collapse, and the studio layered effects on top of that. Our artists added secondary debris, smoke and interactive fire when the fire hits the wall. For the actual collapse of the wall, our team created debris, powdered snow and water splashes as the ice falls into the sea. Real fire elements were provided and color graded to become the ice dragon’s destructive blue breath.
Their shot of the ice dragon bringing down the wall was so good, in fact, that it won them a VES (Visual Effects Society) award for “Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Episode”.