Silo S2

Project Overview

Returning to Silo for a second season, VFX Supervisor Ian Fellows and the Outpost VFX UK team were presented with a number of unique creative challenges.

Once again the team was tasked with visualising the digger void at the base of the silo, a vast open cavity filled with a gigantic drill that, unlike many of the environments in the show, is entirely CG. Outpost had previously worked on this environment in the first season, but had to breathe new life into it for season two. Again, tackling an updated version of the generator room, which played host to a memorable sequence in season one, required the team to utilise the space in a different way to before.

The main body of work in season two, however, featured a dramatic underwater sequence in which Juliette dives down to the depths of Silo 17.

“The underwater Silo 17 posed some interesting challenges for the team,” explains VFX Supervisor Ian Fellows. “From an asset perspective we had to replicate the work on the main silo above the water line undertaken by Rodeo using their asset as the base, on to which we had to scatter underwater algae, decay and plant life as well as damage from an uprising.

“It was important to make it recognisable as the same silo we’ve seen above water whilst creating a unique character for the underwater environment. In 3D terms the asset was very large, with action covering the whole expanse of the Silo, which posed a technical challenge in the scattering of debris and plant growth as well as lighting.

“We did a lot of research, both scientific and visual, into the properties of water and what happens to light underwater."

"The overall underwater effect was created in comp by balancing the volumetrics and fall-off of red light as well as all the optical effects such as distortions and aberrations of both the camera lens and the water volume.

“Tracking and layout were particularly challenging tasks for the underwater sequence. Everything was shot underwater in a tank meaning that fixed points used to track had an independent motion from the camera due to water distortion. Horizontal travel of Julliette allowed the shoot teams to create a sense of vertical travel by a combination of physical movement through the tank and additional sense of travel caused by moving the camera.

“It meant, however, that the actors and stunt performers were always fighting natural buoyancy. On top of that, bubbles often travelled in the wrong direction for selling the motion of vertical travel. Our layout teams had to reconcile horizontal and non-linear travel in a sequence of shots that mapped Juliette’s vertical descent and ascent to the lower bridge level.”

As well as a significant amount of FX work to simulate water and also bubbles, the environment ask was considerable, with the sequence featuring fully-CG shots alongside underwater plate photography that had to be augmented.

We can’t show a VFX breakdown here due to talent likeness restrictions, but you can catch season two of Silo streaming now!