Game of Thrones has come to an end, but fans are still trying to find ways to connect with the show so the people in charge of special effects have revealed just what it took to create some of the most iconic battle sequences and deaths in the show.
The final season of HBO’s Game of Thrones saw Rhaegal brutally being shot from the sky; cities burnt to a crisp; battles won and lost… and lots of death.
It was an eventful series, to say the least.
From the Battle for Winterfell to the fight between Daenerys Targaryen and Euron’s fleet in Blackwater Bay, the show’s biggest effects were created by Weta Digital – the same people behind the likes of the Lord of the Rings films and Avengers: Endgame.
It took Weta 600 shots across the final six GoT episodes.
Speaking to Digital Spy, VFX supervisor Martin Hill reveals exactly what went into the series’ most astonishing visual effects scenes.
The Battle for Winterfell was filmed in 55-night shoot over 11 weeks and had a mixture of actors and supporting artists, as well as some 30,000 Wights and Dothraki – all created digitally.
Hill explained: ‘For the Dothraki and their horses, we created full CG shots as well as crowd extensions that blended into live action plates.’
Fans of the show will remember a creepy scene between the Dothraki and the Wights, in which the warriors atop the horses charge into the fray after Melisandre bewitched their blades with fire, only to have their lives literally blink out along with the light of their swords.
How did they achieve such a scene? ‘For the fire,’ Hill revealed.
‘We passed the timing and positions of the arakhs being lifted in a wave from Massive [a special computer animations software program] to our FX team for the fire simulations.’
Hill went on to explain that they used motion-capture software to get performers climbing up 45 degree inclines juxtaposed with Wight motion to simulate the undead climbing the walls of Winterfell.
Creating Rhaegal and Drogon’s fire required an actual flamethrower.
‘Dragon fire elements were shot practically with a motion control flamethrower on a Spyder cam wire rig, resulting in a very cool and particular look for the fire,’ Hill said.
Although, there were challenges in creating the fire organically when the dragon was in motion so they made digital fire at some points, replicating ‘the burn point of the fuel and the pressure of the propellant.’
Fans will remember the violent and bloody end to Rhaegal, Dany’s beloved dragon at the hands of Euron. It took three scorpion bolts to take down the might beast, one in the chest, one in his wing and one in his neck.
The dragon fell to his death in a torrent of blood before sinking into the sea. Rhaegal’s final death was supposed to be ‘three separate shots’ but after Hill reviewed the animation, they decided it would have a better impact to combine them into one camera move.
‘This meant we flew past Rhaegal’s head, right at the moment he gives his dying breath and added a large fluid simulation for the blood spraying out.
They wanted to differentiate from Drogon’s wounding earlier in season eight, and so they ‘made him go limp and fold up as he crashes into the water.’
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