Have you ever wondered what goes into creating an epic Game of Thrones battle sequence, like the one in this season's penultimate episode, "Battle of the Bastards"? There are green screens, the actors (of course), but also a whole lot of camera wizardry and special effects.
This video from the Australian special effects and animation studio, Iloura, breaks it all down. According to ABC Australia, over 200 visual-effects specialists worked on the detailed motion-capture animation in the epic battle scene. To accurately portray the many horses in the sequence, the studio observed the animals' movements and reactions in competitions like steeple chases, ABC said.
Iloura is also the studio behind the effects in movies such as The Great Gatsby, Mad Max: Fury Road, and the upcoming Ghostbusters film.
Click on the video below to watch how the scene came together piece-by-piece. You can really appreciate the artistry that produced layer upon layer of colliding horses, and row after row of piercing arrows. It won't fully satisfy your desire for season 7 to start now, but it will mitigate at least some of the pain of knowing that Sunday nights won't be the same. (Until the premiere next spring, that is.)
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