After winning its first Emmy last year for the zombie polar bear in “Game of Thrones‘” penultimate Season 7, Weta Digital became integral to Season 8, contributing more than 600 VFX shots for the epic battles propelled by dragonfire and the large-scale destruction.
They notably animated 30,000 zombie Wights and thousands of Dothrakis with simulated, flaming swords for Episode 3’s The Battle of Winterfell, and developed new tech for combining fire and water simulation for the ambush of Dany’s (Emilia Clarke) fleet in Episode 4 and her vengeful destruction of King’s Landing in Episode 5.But the most spectacular Weta achievements involved the deaths of beloved dragon Rhaegal in Episode 4 and the giant wight by Lyanna’s (Bella Ramsey) dragonglass dagger in Episode 3.
These would’ve impressed the legendary Ray Harryhausen.
“Dragons were pretty well established [by Image Engine and Pixomondo], and we needed to bring them into our pipeline and make sure they were looking great with
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