Development for the visual effects in the second season of The Witcher began straight after delivering the first, with Cinesite’s team once again working alongside production VFX Supervisor Dadi Einarsson and VFX Producer Gavin Round.
Having created the opening shots from the first season, the Kikimora battle, Cinesite’s team was again tasked with creating the season’s important first shots.
The first episode picks up where season one left off, opening with a long aerial shot traveling over a scorched forest, through fields littered with dead soldiers and horses, and ending close up on Tissaia surveying the scene. Two separate passes had been shot which did not quite meet. Drone photography and Steadicam plate needed to be joined together and in order to close the gap 2.5D set extensions with reprojections and a full 3D terrain were required. The team also added a full CG scorched forest, crowds of dead bodies and horses, created using Atom.
Cinesite London delivered over 200 VFX shots for the much-anticipated season 2 of The Witcher’s Netflix series.
