Overview of Character Visual Effects in Game of Thrones Series 4
Summary
In Game of Thrones series 4, the visual effects team showcased some impressive character work, including dragons, wights, giants, and woolly mammoths. The team used advanced CGI to replace the stuffed toy reference stand-ins and green screen suit for fighting scenes. They also implemented a sense of stiffness in the wights’ movements to create a sense of rigor mortis. To add to the complexity of creating mammoth walking cycles for the giants, they used a special scaled motion control green screen system.
Table of Contents
- Dragons: Enhanced CGI
- Wights: Green Screen Suits and Stuntmen
- Giants and Woolly Mammoths: Mammoth Walking Cycles and Scaled Motion Control Greenscreen System
Dragons: Enhanced CGI
Q: How did the visual effects team work with the dragons in series 4?
A: The dragons in series 4 were bigger, and Emilia Clarke was filmed reacting to full-size moulded plastic heads. The Pixo Mondo team then replaced these with detailed CGI dragons. The team enhanced the CGI from previous series, with no stuffed toy reference stand-ins, to produce more realistic dragons.
Wights: Green Screen Suits and Stuntmen
Q: How did the visual effects team create wights?
A: In series 4, the visual effects team implemented wights, reanimated undead White Walkers. A group of wights attacked Bran Stark and his companions as they reached the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven. Vera fought them off while fighting a healthy stuntman in a green suit that was later replaced with CGI characters. The team also added stiffness to the wights’ movements to create a sense of rigor mortis due to the characters being dead and buried in the snow for some time.
Giants and Woolly Mammoths: Mammoth Walking Cycles and Scaled Motion Control Greenscreen System
Q: How did the visual effects team create the giants and woolly mammoths in the attack scenes?
A: In the attack on the Wall, the visual effects team created the Wildlings Arm, including giants and woolly mammoths. They animated the mammoth walking cycles first to enable programming for the motion bases that the giants sat on. The team also used a special scaled motion control green screen system to film the giants in proportion to the normal actors playing wildlings of the north. They added stiffness to the mammoth fur and crafted the final shots by including complex CGI and effect simulation animation.
