We reported on an earlier, edited-down version of this visual effects breakdown, but now the full version has found its way online, courtesy of TheCGBros. Check out three and a half minutes of Pixomondo’s special effects wizardry below.
Winter Is Coming: It is easy to see why these guys won the Emmy for visual effects.
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39 Comments
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FirstQuote Reply
Original name that one.
Aegon the ConquerorQuote Reply
Very very cool video!
Aegon the ConquerorQuote Reply
Beauty.
3eyesQuote Reply
I swear I’ve seen this video before (and not the shorter german version).
CarneQuote Reply
Carne,
I found it probably three weeks ago, but the quality of the video was a little bit worse than this…
bonQuote Reply
A woman is always pleased to watch behind the scenes videos that help us see what goes into making this wonderful series. The artistry and technical expertise of the VFX crew truly enhance the feeling of “living in Westeros/Essos” and our understanding of that world. Again, BRAVO!
Mrs. H’gharQuote Reply
Wow. Everything is so much better in vfx! That is some amazing work and I’m sooo glad they raked in the awards this year. HBO should be very proud of this series.
MimsyQuote Reply
Whoa! These guys are artists!
The mighty hodorQuote Reply
I’m loving this video. From what we’ve seen so far, and what what will be demanded of the effects team for the future seasons, this show might end up having the best special effects ever for a television show.
Maegor The CruelQuote Reply
I’m still tripping on the zombie horses tiny neck bone bobbing up and down. Talk about details.
MimsyQuote Reply
Carne,
Yep it was posted around this time last month. I know I posted it the 17th last month on SpoilerTV. Pretty sure we discussed it on here too, but it’s alwas fun to see again!
Simply amazing work by Pixomondo.
darquemodeQuote Reply
I started watching this but stopped pretty quickly – I think I would rather keep the ‘magic’ there and not know all the green screen shots. I just know when I rewatch these scenes I will just be thinking – ‘that building is not really there’. Which of course we all know… but it’s nice (for me anyway) not to have it at the forefront of my mind.
RossQuote Reply
Yes, the Emmy was well-deserved. But we already knew that…
Love this video!
lovesduncanQuote Reply
And last year I kept reading about people’s anxieties over Pixomondo! ;)
Lin BeifunkQuote Reply
Wow, amazing! Also, no matter how many times I hear it, the GOT theme song still gives me chills, especially towards the end. Also, is that Stannis’ theme song? Whatever it is, it sounds awesome with the Blackwater footage. *sigh* I can’t wait to see what the team has in store for us in season 3.
DreamlifeQuote Reply
I really hope there will be a great deal of “Behind the Scenes” for the CGI/special effect stuff on the DVD/BlueRay release of Season 2.
This is so much fun to watch.
JohQuote Reply
When you compare this to say a show like Terra Nova, you realise just how good the effects really are! George Lucas should hire Pixamondo.
Aegon the ConquerorQuote Reply
Aegon the Conqueror,
Pixomondo has worked on Terra Nova actualy. From the german wikipidia. ;-)
- Maybe they just thought: “Meh, we don’t like the show. Let’s do this as fast as possible…” ^^
AbyssQuote Reply
Loved watching this, an award deserved.
ReneeQuote Reply
Dreamlife,
The track is “The Throne is Mine” it’s a malevolent, brooding version of the King’s procession from season 1 with a working of Arya’s theme into its structure.
For Stannis’ theme check out the track “Warrior of light” and “Die with a Clean Sword”.
Great pieces both.
Joshua TaylorQuote Reply
Joshua Taylor,
It’s got Stannis in it, actually, and no Arya. It’s used for the Blackwater scene, which is very appropriate given the two houses involved.
Matt ChungQuote Reply
FIRST!
Harry The HeirQuote Reply
I wish some of the CG assets (Not the matte paintings) would have been broken down in a little more detail, rather than “Here’s the untextured geometry, and here’s the finished product with all the colour correction and grading applied!” but that’s just a personal preference for breakdowns for me.
Throughout the season, the work they did was seriously impressive!
AndrewQuote Reply
Matt Chung,
Umm the Music that plays over the Blackwater sequences in the video is the Throne is Mine from season 2 episode 1 “The North Remembers” it plays against the killing of the Bastards, the Arya or intrigue in KL motif chimes in when it shows Gendry lifting Arya on the wagon. It the continues right into the end credits. Rewatch the last 5 minutes of “The North Remembers”.
Joshua TaylorQuote Reply
Wait, what? – That Fist of the First Man was all GCI? I thought they actually FOUND such a hill. And I thought the undead horse was a combination of prosthetics and CGI, not ALL CGI.
That’s just great. That’s really good CGI.
Domenico BarbatoQuote Reply
Domenico Barbato,
Yeah, I actually thought that was a real horse with CGI applied (much like the jawless wight shown towards the ending of the video) because of the constant chewing… after all, why would a undead horse eat anything?
SerianoQuote Reply
I have never been a special effects kind of gal, relying rather on story and dialogue to entertain me, but considering the limited budget and absolute need for special effects to tell this story, I am quite content with the outcome. Kudos.
RygarQuote Reply
Undead humans eat brains :P
ZackQuote Reply
Aegon the Conqueror,
Actually he did on the movie Red Tails. They did some of the aerial flight scenes in the movie.
KlavonivsQuote Reply
This show is so incredibly ambitious, and so masterfully done with such a relatively small budget, everyone involved with the production should get some kind of utilitarian award. They definitely know how to stretch a dollar, and have set the bar pretty high for everyone else. Just imagine what they could do with LOTR-money.
Congrats to Pixomondo. You guys definitely deserved the Emmy.
Varamyr FourskinsQuote Reply
Rygar,
And you wonder why people are confused about your gender and sexuality.
Aegon the ConquerorQuote Reply
Abyss,
No kidding! The Dragons look so much more real on GOT than the Dino’s did. Wasnt Terra Nova cancelled cause the vfx was too expensive?
Klavonivs,
That movie had some good effects. Meant for the Star Wars Live Action series that they’ve been developing for years now. Only thing keeping it from moving into production is that the budget is too big.
Aegon the ConquerorQuote Reply
Aegon the Conqueror,
IIRC the show was cancelled because the production as a whole was to expensive (the pilot alone had a cost of around 20 millions). But vfx was a big part of Terra Nova, so I guess you are right in a way.
AbyssQuote Reply
I wonder if 20 years from now all actors will have been sent into retirement, and all films will be done on computer.
Really impressive what can already been doen today.
morbiczerQuote Reply
Domenico Barbato,
They fooled me there as well. An amazing job.
Hear Me RoarQuote Reply
A couple of the effects were blindingly obvious during the show (Shae in the balcony, some of the dragons’ scenes, Summer and Shaggydog) but other than – GREAT WORK! Two thumbs up.
Like some of the posters here, I thought the zombie horse at the end was just part CGI. I didn’t know they went all the way there. I also thought they found actual buildings for filming when in fact most of them were just added SFX. That’s very good.
LouisaQuote Reply
Meh, they should have used real dragons.
Seriously impressive work, almost all of it blended seamlessly. The only time incidence where something really looked “CGI” was when the gates to Qarth opened for the first time. The detail in the wildfire explosion is incredible; it never occurred to me that that they needed to simulate the movement of cloth and splinters in different directions. In my little mind “boat goes boom” and that’s it but there are so many other considerations to make it look realistic. The technical side of GoT is just incredible. Well done to Pixomondo and HBO for shelling out the money.
HouseLarkQuote Reply
I remember some comments when the first images of Arya at Harrenhal were released– people were disappointed that they only saw some regular-sized stone walls, so obviously the show wasn’t going to depict Harrenhal as the insanely huge structure it should be. Heh heh.
mummerQuote Reply