Interview
House of the Dragon VFX supervisor recalls animating Lucerys’ death scene
The last episode of House of the Dragon aired last year, and it was exactly as depressing as viewers had expected. Those who had read the novels were looking forward to this day because the book’s ending included a death scene involving yet another significant character. Lucerys Velaryon, the second son of Queen Rhaenyra, was returning from Storm’s End as an ambassador when he was murdered by Aemond and his dragon Vhagar. Let’s have a look at what went behind the screens in this scene.
How Lucerys’ last flight scene was filmed
House of the Dragon visual effects supervisor Angus Bickerton recently talked to The Brunswick News and recalled how the team recreated the sequence:
“We animated the whole flight in Unreal, then loaded into Third Floor’s ‘Cyclops’ system. This is their particular version of a virtual camera; now you are in the scene, just looking for the coolest angles. We didn’t storyboard and then pre-vis; we did it entirely through these virtual-camera sessions.
We got very long takes. It’s not an animator sitting down and doing a five-second shot. Our visual effects editor edited that together, then we exported those files to another vendor who reanimated all the dragon stuff.”
How Vaseline was used for the rain effect
Bickerton also revealed how they improvised for the rain scene, “The best shots we got were when we actually put loads of Vaseline on the camera lens. So we had [actual] wind and rain, but we were literally smearing Vaseline on the lens to get that sort of shooting-in-the-storm cinematography.”
🔥🐉 Embark on a riveting journey through Westeros with our Game of Thrones themed games – 🔡Hodordle | 🐲 Flappy Dragon. You can also interact with fans of the show on our Discord group🔥🐉
“We had a team do what we call a ‘Techvis,’ where you figure out how to translate that animation to the motion base and the camera, because the camera’s moving separately as well, so we’re getting the appropriate shots of them on the dragon backs.”
Read Next: House of the Dragon premiere had a secret callback to the Game of Thrones finale
If you have any important filming news about House of the Dragon, or if you want to collaborate with us or want to write for us, please drop us a message here.
-
Editorial2 days ago
Who is Gwayne Hightower? Everything you need to know about House of the Dragon character
-
Lore3 days ago
Everything we know about Addam of Hull: House of the Dragon Season 2 character explained
-
Media6 days ago
House of the Dragon reveals first official look at Amanda Collin’s Lady Jeyne Arryn
-
Interview5 days ago
“It’s not the destination that matters to me”: George R.R. Martin on his “gratuitous” Game of Thrones food scenes
-
News4 days ago
Game of Thrones spinoff ‘Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ to debut with six episodes; Black Mirror director joins the production
-
Humour6 days ago
“It would hit me right in the genitals”: Fabian Frankel had a rough time filming fight scene with Matt Smith
-
Media6 days ago
“What a legend”: Matt Smith and Fabien Frankel react to Milly Alcock’s casting as Supergirl
-
News5 days ago
House of the Dragon composer Ramin Djawadi to be honored with the BMI Icon Award