FMX 2014: Raising the Dragons

FMX Friday 25th April 2014
Raising the Dragons by Sven Martin (PIXOMONDO)
Today was the last day of FMX so we really wanted to ensure that we made the most out of it, and managed to get to as many things that we found interesting as possible to have a great end to the week, and we already knew that we had a good day ahead of us. The day started with a talk from Sven Martin and he went through the process of bringing the dragons to life in Game of Thrones. The dragons instantly became huge with the fans and it was important for them to design the right. As the shadow of the dragons had already become a massive part to advertise the series they had to ensure that they were created with that in mind as well, even though they hadn't started designing them yet.

The process that they went through during creation was:
- Concept art and design
- Scultping
- Surface
- Rigging
- Animation
- FX
- Compositing

Concept Art and Design
The first time that we saw the dragons was season one and the main thing that they wanted to get right about them was their growth between the different seasons. There wasn't much growth between the first two and they could pretty much use the same concept art to just change small elements about it to make it slightly bigger and change the shape so it had more spikes and generally looked a bit older. They looked primarily at bird skeletons first to be able to see how they could fly and then also at the breast bone as this is where they get the power for flight from, and in dragons this would be a key area.

Scultping
They then modeled and put it in a position to be able to show the director to ensure that it looked okay. With the other two dragons they wanted to keep them similar looking to the first black one as well so that they didn't have to design three separate dragons. During season 3 they then had to again make the dragons grow which meant designing them again. They took a lot of influence from the T-Rex in Jurassic Park and also a snake. As they already had the model it just had to be tweaked and the proportions made bigger and more accurate. They also had to start thinking about the dragons breathing fire and whether he should glow first, much like Smaug does in The Hobbit.

Surface
They had multiple references from different coloured animals that are black, green and cream and they also looked at a number of different colours, patterns and influences from different textures.

Rigging
This was definitely one of their most toughest stages. They used the carcass of a chicken to get influence and they had to mark it and ensure that they knew where all of the joints where. Although a chicken can't fly they looked at it's wings to see how it would work so that they could use this for the dragons, as it is an easily accessible bird to find. They also put it under lights to be able to clearly see the muscles moving when they pulled the bones around and they then cut it open to get a better look at how they looked under the skin.

FX and Compositing
They used wing and cloth simulators to check to see if it was originally working and they pulled the model around a lot to test the bends and joints and to see if it was moving correctly. They also did scale tests to ensure that they bent correctly around the muscles and skin when the dragon moved and also opened up when they were bent the opposite way.

In season three there is a scene where a man is set on fire by a dragon and it is interesting to see how this was made. They had multiple layers to work with which consisted off the actor to begin with first pretending to be set on on fire, and these were put together with a stunt man actually been set on fire and then mixed together with the FX and compositing of the dragon.

Overall this was a fantastic talk and it really inspired me to start watching the program as it is so well put together and the dragons look fantastic and well designed. The whole talk was very interesting but it does also show how lazy they are in the way that they didn't actually make 3 dragons, but just one and then altered it slightly, which is funny to see but also something that I would consider doing, especially to save some time.