LogInCinesite's Richard Reed and Samir Ansari shared a comprehensive breakdown detailing their production process on Netflix's The Witcher series.
Cinesite, an award-winning visual effects and animation company that worked on Avengers: Endgame, all eight films in the Harry Potter franchise, and nine films in the James Bond franchise, has recently shared a lengthy breakdown explaining the production process behind some of the creatures and sequences from Netflix's recently-aired The Witcher: Season 3.
For those unaware, Cinesite also worked on the previous seasons, having already created Basilisks, Chernobog, Kikimora, and Striga and received a BAFTA for the work on Season 2. According to the team, their main challenge for Season 3 was "to create weirder and more horrifying creatures than audiences have seen before.
In the breakdown, Cinesite VFX Supervisor Richard Reed and CG Supervisor Samir Ansari provided an in-depth explanation of how the team managed to accomplish that goal and produce several monsters for the show.
One of the creatures made by the team was The Aeschna, an eerie water beast that attacks our protagonists on their way to Aretuza. In the article, the artists thoroughly explained how the creature was designed and how the sequence was filmed, talked about setting up the monster's rig, and even discussed the use of fluids in the sequence, explaining how the scene's various liquids (ocean water, blood, wet footprints, drool, etc.) were made.
"Original designs for The Aeschna came out of the art department, and they were pretty close to the finished look, although the creature initially had a head resembling a goblin shark," reads the breakdown on the creature's design. "We reworked the design to better fit the requirements of the sequence and to give it a bigger jaw and bite, which was more threatening. Production had built a giant maquette of the tail for lighting reference and to give a general sense of the creature's scale on set. We used various amphibian references, including frogs and salamanders, for skin texture, looking carefully at the surface patination, pores, and wrinkling."
Additionally, the creators talked about creating The Flesh Monster, Ring of Fire, and Aretuza Destruction sequences. You can check out the full breakdown by clicking this link.
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