This situation contains spoiler through the third instalment ofWestworld,“The Stray . “Head toourWestworldshow hubfor more reviews , theories , and deep dives .
Thethird episode of HBO’sWestworldtook the serial to a whole new stratum , and not just in damage of android abilities . The visual effects for the show also went up a notch in " The Stray , " whichflashed back to a younger versionof Westworld ’s creative director , Dr. Robert Ford , play by 78 - year - old Anthony Hopkins .
The de - aging study is just one of many optical effects that standWestworldup against Hollywood blockbusters . Thrillist spoke to the show ’s visual - effects supervisory program Jay Worth to get the rundown on the mind - bending drama ’s subtle , spectacular opthalmic illusion .
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Helping the hosts go haywire
It ’s not promiscuous play anartificial intelligence chivvy by existential philosopher thought . Whenever the Westworld park ’s legion need to go a piffling haywire , the ocular - upshot team is usually involve to deal the malfunction .
Worth says his team has three unlike methodologies for robotic breakdown . Old Bill ( Michael Wincott ) , an former model who converses with Dr. Ford in the first episode , suffers from wear and binge , so jerking , mechanical - like motion was tot up with information processing system graphics . For the malfunction Sheriff Pickett ( Brian Howe ) , Worth ’s team tally glitching and eyeball motion that follow a fly ball .
Effects on Peter Abernathy ( Louis Herthum ) , Dolores ' father , were even more soft . " We cease up doing very little to Louis ' performance , " says Worth . " I wanted that to sense more like someone struggling , almost have a stroke , rather than something that felt mechanical , and because his operation was amazing and already felt very organic . But we did do a little piece of digital massaging using 2D trick with making him block and start when Dr. Ford was give him bidding to go between the ' previous figure , ' as he hollo it . "
Flies: real or fake?
The host inside Westworld have a pretty rotten clip . They ’re shot at , beaten up , and then drag back to the mesa main office where they sit down in a comatose state of matter while the parking lot ’s controller interrogate them . To add insult to injury , the hosts must endure a true pest : fly sheet – that literally cringe over their opened eyes .
So did actors like Evan Rachel Wood have to work with actual flies during shoot ? Surprisingly , yes . " We had existent flies there on the day for most of the prison term , but then we mostly changed the performance , or end up replacing fly or having one shot be a virtual fly and one shot be a CG fly . " For the close - up on Dolores , when a fly crawls across her eye , Worth spare the actress and digitally inserted the louse .
The secret to prompt real flies to do ? freeze them . " You get them cold and they wake up when they ’re on people , and then they creep around rather slow before they fly off , " explains Worth . " We had our fly wrangler there and we had the Humane Society there to check that no flies were harm . "
HBO
Viewing the world of Westworld
Westworld ’s controllers keep sentinel over their contrived park via a 3D map expulsion . Although this did involve digital intervention , the map itself began with something much more practical .
" We brought in a company to help us figure out the logistics of carving this massive opus of Styrofoam on a turntable and have it look like topography , " says Worth , " because we really did n’t want a hologram sort of vibration . We want something that felt up real and real but also felt up like a delegacy of the park . "
Visual - effect artists then build a 3D matte painting of the landscape and " projected " that onto the sculpted form . This could well be changed to accommodate the time of solar day and therefore function for the storytelling percentage point . " The hardest affair , " note Worth , " was to get a jut that rotated in sync with this lazy Susan built by special effect , which took quite a chip of proficient reckon out . "
HBO
Turning back the clock on Dr. Ford
Normally , de - ageing visual effects are the domain of major picture show production . mean of the immature Michael Douglas inAnt - Manor the " youthified " Robert Downey Jr. inCaptain America : Civil War . ButWestworld ’s maker tackled the same kind of snap in the third episode ’s flashback to young Ford .
" We took a scan of Sir Tony and used that as our base , " explains Worth , " and then used a ton of photography and reference to envision out what we wanted him to take care like . I think it end up turning out really , really incredible . "
ocular - effects studio Important Looking Pirates , in Sweden , was responsible for for the shot . It made a photorealistic CG version of Hopkins from the scan and mention , and then locate that on the body of a stand - in . What made the shot particularly challenge , says Worth , was that the ocular - core squad was conscious of a sure perceptual experience Hopkins has among audience .
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" America does n’t really commend Sir Tony beforeSilence of the Lambs . Obviously we find every reference we could from every movie and every photo and everything from the correct timeframe . But it really came down to what feels most like our character in the past , as much as anything . "
The visual effects that you don’t notice
Another mostly practical essence was the 3D printing - like widget that sculpts the host body that we often see mid - build , like sinewy skeletons . Even the ones we see dipped into a milky - white liquidness were preponderantly on - set creations , with extra brawniness fibers total onto the skeleton in the closet at the visual - effects stage .
Indeed , many of the effect you see inWestworldare not immediately unmistakable . Some involve environmental fix to the westerly - themed emplacement – the show was filmed in both Utah and outside Los Angeles , but had to appear like a desolate otherworld . " We do everything from road cleanup to telephone poles to airplane trails to continuity localization , " says Worth . Westworld ’s locomotive , the Black Ridge Limited , had to be completely add in after charge . Worth praises his team ’s work on the chess opening shot in the 2d installment , " Chestnut , " where the steam locomotive engine chug along the ridgeline and transition into the mapping .
" We always look at VFX as , first and foremost , an foil to the story , " add together Worth . " So if it ’s not run to enhance the tale we do n’t do it , and if we can do it practically or some part of it practically then we do that , and we only really do the things in ocular effect that we ca n’t do much for whatever reason . "
HBO
TheWestworldlegacy
In craft the various visual effects for the show , Jay Worth ’s team also had a comparatively problematical act to follow . The originalWestworld(1973 ) , upon which the HBO series is ground , is wide acknowledged as the first feature movie to utilise digital image processing , the proficiency that put audiences into thefuturistic POV of a automaton . At the clip , the upshot was revolutionary .
" That ’s just one of the honour of getting to work on a task like this , " acknowledges Worth , who has high wonder for the team of VFX artists and studios on the show ( these include Important Looking Pirates , Shade VFX , CoSA VFX , Double Negative , and Chicken Bone VFX ) . " And you feel , because ofWestworld ’s history , a little more protective of it , but also just a sense of being observe to be able-bodied to be part of the universe that is part of the story . "
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