TV Series
The Wheel of Time - Season 3
Outpost VFX
The third season of The Wheel of Time presented a number of interesting creative challenges for Outpost VFX, who return following their work on the first and second outings of the series.
The most substantial body of work involved the build and integration of a newly upgraded and optimised Tar Valon CG environment. Although this environment has featured in the show as a key location since season one, Outpost expanded on it once again to breathe more life into the city, as well as the addition of interesting new elements.
These included the construction of a new harbour in the north of the city, as well as a rework of some of the architecture and shading to give more variety to the different districts within Tar Valon. Additionally, two training arenas were built to augment the base of the White Tower, the centrepiece of the Aes Sedai kingdom.
Beyond work within the city walls to improve Tar Valon for season three, Outpost built a number of surrounding areas in CG that were formerly obscured from view or reliant on heavily adapted plate photography. We looked carefully into the makeup of the surrounding villages, added settlements and clearings among the hills to add interest, as well as expanded the geography from the books.
In addition, season 3 marked the first time viewers were shown Tar Valon in a moodier setting, with lashing rain and atmospherics that dramatically altered the look of the city versus previous, sunnier seasons. All establishing shots of the city and the White Tower were fully CG, with the same 3D environment asset featuring in the background of multiple shots that were captured on a sound stage in front of a blue screen.
For season 3 we converted our entire asset over to USD. This gave us far more flexibility in working the shots up as entire sequences, while also being able to make per shot modifications. A city like Tar Valon is always difficult from an asset management standpoint. You have so many pieces to keep track of and work with. USD really helped with that, as we were able to create and utilise proxies for the assets which helped speed up our workflow.
Beyond Tar Valon exteriors, Outpost were tasked with taking on a vast number of interior and balcony shots. The entrance hall in particular, with its stained glass windows and giant statues, helped to bed audiences into the White Tower, along with another tumble through the main atrium that extends up through the middle of the vast tower.
As well as a significant amount of CG environment work, Outpost also took a key role in a major battle sequence; created ghostly apparitions; and built and animated a possessed axe that flies through the air to assault one of the main characters. The latter required some surprisingly delicate animation to get the balance just right to avoid it looking comical. As we progressed, we also ended up replacing the axe more than was intended due to the performance we were able to bring. As well as interacting with talent, the axe had to become lodged in various parts of the room before shaking itself free and continuing its rampage.
In total, Outpost delivered over 200 shots for the series, with work featuring in every episode.
SOFTWARE
Houdini, Maya, ZBrush, Nuke