PROJECT INSIGHT
3D World speaks with DNEG’s Aymeric Perceval and Guy Hancock about the studio’s effects work on thought-provoking series Extrapolations
Earlier in 2023, a new drama series entitled Extrapolations was released on Apple TV+, which showcased visual effects to depict a future driven by climate breakdown. Spanning the years 2037-2070, the series envisages the dystopian reality future generations might experience based on decisions being made and not made right now.
Immersing and anchoring viewers in the chaos and devastation of climate change, the VFX and MGFX (motion graphics) work of DNEG takes a leading role in the storytelling, developing neverbefore-seen phenomena and technologies through impressive and ambitious, yet sometimes invisible, effects.
Our conversation with DNEG’s VFX supervisor Aymeric Perceval and the MGFX supervisor Guy Hancock starts with a reflection on the project’s challenges; fundamentally in terms of the creative dynamic explored between realism and something more heightened. Perceval begins: “It was important that the natural phenomena felt real. Same thing with the animals: whether it was the baby and mama walruses in episode one, the whale in episode two, or the bear in episode seven, they all had to look photographic to integrate in the shots and keep the viewers in the story.”
Perceval points out: “Of course, you sometimes have to art direct. Life is not always cinematographic enough, and our setups are always built the right way first, out of pictures and video references, before adjusting to let the required story point or emotion come out. But fire still has to look like fire, and a bear like a bear.”
