Led by Overall VFX Supervisor Andy Scrase and internally by Oliver Winwood, Outpost VFX delivered over 200 shots for the third season of Prime Video fantasy series, The Wheel of Time.
Having been series mainstays since its debut in 2021, the Outpost team returned to bring added detail to the city of Tar Valon for season three. These included the construction of a new harbour in the north of the city, as well as a rework of some of the architecture and shading to give more variety to the different districts within Tar Valon. Additionally, two training arenas were built to augment the base of the White Tower, the centrepiece of the Aes Sedai kingdom.
Beyond work within the city walls to improve Tar Valon for season three, Outpost built a number of surrounding areas in CG that were formerly obscured from view or reliant on heavily adapted plate photography. This involved looking carefully at the makeup of the surrounding villages, adding settlements and clearings among the hills to add interest, as well as expanding the geography from the books.
“We built an entirely new North Harbour for season 3, which is featured in the opening shot,” explains VFX Supervisor Oliver Winwood. “It was closer than we ever previously got to the Harbour, so it needed a big overhaul. We thought about the overall structure of the harbour, creating warehouses, dwellings and marketplace. In the lore, Tar Valon was built by the Ogier out of stone, and we imagined the harbour over time to have had more of a human influence so we added a few more man-made wooden features and structures.
“I was really excited to return for a third season. Having worked on Wheel of Time since season one I’ve enjoyed seeing how it has grown and evolved. Everyone really had a great understanding of the project with a very clear direction.”
Jon Creamer
Share this story
