Artist Profile
Emmy 2021 Spotlight: Daniel Cohen, Compositing Supervisor
How the nominated team at Spin VFX uses Sapphire and Mocha Pro on Netflix's The Umbrella Academy.
3 minute read
The first-time Emmy nominee discusses what type of visual effects the team handled on Snowpiercer — and how they used Silhouette and Mocha Pro.
The team at FuseFX is currently Emmy nominated — Outstanding Special Visual Effects Single Episode — for their work on TNT's Snowpiercer "A Beacon For Us All."
We chatted with VFX Supervisor Jamie Barty, a first-time nominee, to find out what it was like working on the series and learn how the team used Silhouette and Mocha Pro plugins to help create those stunning CG environments.
Snowpiercer, Season 3 - Episode 10: Sean Bean, Jennifer Connelly (courtesy of WarnerMedia)
Congrats on your nomination!
Thank you! It’s super surreal! But also, a lovely pat on the back!
We put 100% into every single shot for every show we work on, just trying to do the best we can. So, to have our work called out with the immense amount of VFX being done these days and recognized is an awesome achievement for the whole studio.
Jamie Barty, VFX Supervisor
What type of VFX did FuseFX handle on the episode?
FuseFX does a lot of environments work for Snowpiercer, along with a few other bits and bobs. As you can imagine, a lot of the show is filmed on a soundstage with a lot of bluescreen! Whenever the characters are on, in, or around the train…they are surrounded by blue! We turn that blue into a variety of snowscapes and vistas.
Can you give a few examples of how you used Boris FX tools on the episode?
In terms of Boris FX tools, we primarily use Silhouette and Mocha Pro. We supply the compositing team with as many mattes as necessary to facilitate the integration of the characters/train with our CG environments. This includes individual roto for characters, mattes for differing areas of the train interior for spill suppression, and even mattes for the different types of ice around the windows. This ensures our comp team has everything they need to deliver the quality of work expected from us!
Snowpiercer VFX Breakdown from FuseFX
What was the biggest VFX challenge you faced?
As I’m sure others will attest, the biggest challenge for us while working on Snowpiercer season 03 (during the height of the pandemic, I might add!) was the huge volume of work being pushed through every studio at the time. That, along with the limited resources faced with such a boom in production! We had a pretty tight-knit team, a very efficient team. Many of whom I had worked with on previous seasons of Snowpiercer. And this efficiency was instrumental in us getting the amount of work required for the show completed on schedule, on budget, and to an ‘Emmy nominated’ standard!
Which scene/shot was your favorite to work on/most proud of, and why?
For episode 309, I think it’s the first-class carriage tour of the Egyptian Pyramids. They are an incredibly iconic landmark on our planet and one that Snowpiercer hadn’t traveled to yet (there can’t be many left now!). It was a peaceful and beautiful little sequence that came together really well. Plus, we set the sequence at dusk, which gave us an awesome opportunity to inject some color into the otherwise somber and neutral palette of Snowpiercer’s post-apocalyptic world.