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m a r c h . a p r i l 2 0 1 7 c g w 2 5 is now a police dog that was transported to Oz with Dorothy. Science versus magic is a central theme in the storytelling throughout the series. It seems fitting, then, that computer science was used to create the show's digital magic. "The show is set in the mythical land of Oz, which is inhabited by witches, flying mechanical monkeys, tornados, massive locust swarms, and some creatures, so visual effects were central to the story," says Horton. Emerald City contains approximately 1,300 VFX shots spanning the 10 episodes of Season 1. Four of the episodes had just under 100 VFX shots, while four others had close to 120, while the remaining two episodes to- taled 150 and 250 VFX shots. The work was divided among three main vendors. "We had two major cities that we had to create – Emerald City and castle, and Ev City and castle, both with extremely unique design characteristics – along with several other castles and palaces," says Horton. "Of course, this being the story of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, we had a number of torna- dos that appear throughout the series. They had to be realistic as well as art-directable for very specific 'magic' sequences." Other effects work included crowd repli- cation, digital character augmentation, and a swarm of locust that attacks a small army. While the Emerald City and Ev City castles were CG, Glinda's massive white abode consisted of a traditional matte painting due to the locked-off nature of the shots, though CG had been considered initially. Freefolk completed more than 400 VFX shots, with the work focused mainly on the Antonio Gaudi-inspired Emerald City, the wizard's castle, and the surrounding land- scape, including the 3D sea and harbor, as well as the stone giant standing menacingly over the city that comes to life in the cli- mactic final episode. The studio also creat- ed the underground witches' castle, witch magic, mechanical flying monkey drones, various tornados, and magic gaseous/parti- cle effects and snow. Nvizible created the steampunk-style city of Ev, complete with glass-covered streets and roof-level monorails. Also, the team craed the cavernous interior of Emerald Castle, Glinda's sprawling castle, the Prison of the Abject, the yellow poppy- covered Oz landscape, and Jack aer he becomes the Tin Man. Double Negative, meanwhile, built and disintegrated an enormous stone giant and conjured up a biblical swarm of animated locusts. The artists there also handled a number of magic sequences in the earlier episodes, including a small animated man made of pebbles that dances and a mag- ical cloth that forms the shape of Glinda's face and talks. In addition, the team creat- ed digi-doubles of soldiers, matte paintings, a giant albino eel, and East's magical red gauntlets that encase Dorothy's hands aer the witch is shot dead. Also contributing effects were Incessant Rain, floating pollen in the air in the opening yellow brick road sequences as well as 2D paint and comp work. Anonymous Pixels executed a flashback sequence and some cleanup and paintwork. Filming for Emerald City took place across Spain and briefly in Croatia, in a valley of waterfalls and a VFX shoot in Dubrovnik on the Adriatic Sea. EMERALD CITY There are two main cities in Oz – Emerald City and Ev City – both built using new approaches that differed for each. The artists at Freefolk used a proce- dural approach for Emerald City. "I had in the past been unhappy with the usual CG city approach, which entailed creating a number of buildings that were minimally repurposed and then laid out per camera view by an artist," says Horton. "For me, the repetition was always evident. Using a procedural approach, we were able to input actual topological landscapes from THE PRISON OF THE ABJECT WAS CREATED BY THE WITCH EAST TO HOLD MAGIC-PRACTICING PRISONERS WITHIN ITS MUDDY PIT. IN REALITY, IT WAS CREATED BY VISUAL EFFECTS WIZARDS AT NVIZIBLE.