A fascinating look at the CGI effects in Game of Thrones Series Four

Date
2 September 2014

Imagine turning up to work in the morning, checking your schedule and realising that the vast majority of your time is going to be spent creating a zombie horse. That’s what the team at Montreal-based Rodeo FX did for Series Four of Game of Thrones, along with creating the slave city of Meereen, the Unsullied Army, a sequence with the White Walkers and most memorably the final (KIND OF SPOILER ALERT!) battle between Stannis’ army and the wildlings.

“In this scene, it was important to convey the impression that one side of Stannis’ army was leading an attack against the wildlings camp, located in a forest on the north side of the wall,” Rodeo say on their website. "For these shots, some live action elements were used, in the form of multiple takes of cavalry. But since the army needed to be much larger, CG cavalry was created with cloth sims, hair sims and proprietary crowd simulation tools. Particle and fluid simulations were also created to generate necessary interactivity between the snow and stampeding army.

“Footsteps left in the snow by horses and people were also all digitally created. The ice wall seen in numerous shots is a full digital set extension, CG trees were also added, and we replaced the sky and ground plane as well. All in all, the crowd sim was put to the test in greater detail in this scene because the animated assets needed to react intelligently to surrounding trees, tents and campfires so as to not intersect in any way.”

I know we’ve posted this kind of thing before but it remains super-interesting, particularly if like me, you’re greedily counting the days until Series Five arrives.

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Rodeo FX: Game Of Thrones Series Four

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Rodeo FX: Game Of Thrones Series Four

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Rodeo FX: Game Of Thrones Series Four

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Rodeo FX: Game Of Thrones Series Four

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Rodeo FX: Game Of Thrones Series Four

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Rodeo FX: Game Of Thrones Series Four

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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