For Season 7 of Game of Thrones, our team was tasked with concept art, as well as the making-of of the sea battle in episode 2 and wall destruction in the finale.
For the nighttime sea battle, we created various simulations, CG environments and more. We created a CG ocean, CG background ships, extended parts of Yara’s ship, redressed it in CG and added extensions, as well as extending the Silence set piece to create a whole ship. Our team also augmented the practical fire in the plates, enhancing the foreground on-set fire with CG or comped fire elements in the background.
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.
Our team earned a VES award earlier this year for their effects simulations on the destruction of the wall at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea on the season finale.