FMX: Raising the dragons! - Sven Martin

This talk was about the process of creating the Game of Thrones dragons.

It was really exciting since I'm a huge fan of it!

They showed us how important it is to create a very recognizable character, even just by it's shadow because in this case the shadows of the dragons were used as advertisements on big buildings etc. to give people the impression like they're flying over. I personally think it's an awesome idea and I wish I could see it in real life, but I'll live. 

Fire&Blood productions:

Steve Kullback season4

Joe Baver season3

Rainer Gombos season2

Process:

Concept & Design

Sculpting

Surface

Rigging

Animation

Fx

Composing

They made a litle puppet of the dragon for lighting reference and for actors to practice with.

SO MUCH RIGGING!!!

When it came to design they had to figure out what they look like in different situations like when they're calm and when angry. Just so you can easily tell the difference. 

Lizard + snake = dragon

Again it came to referencing all the patterns and textures. To make it more believable.

What I thought was genius is the way they were understanding how to rig this thing.

They bought CHICKENS! 

He showed us pictures and videos of this dead bird being flapped around by a group of people just to understand how it works. It was very funny to watch but apparently it was even funnier to do :') 

He claims it was the only way, because it was the only dead bird he could find. 

They did tons of scales and spykes and chain tests. 

All dragons had to pass a windtunnel test before they were approved! Talk about realism. 

Krakatoa particles were used for the shot of the dragon getting out of the water.

BBC + National Geographic were used for reference, they watched things like bats and all kinds of birds. 

They had to make sure that they interact with the environment as well as the actors. It's the little things that matter.

And most importantly in the end, we got a little preview of the FUTURE DRAGONS! 

Overall I think it was one of my favourite talks!! 

Did quite a great job at showing how fun this industry is!