The Production VFX Supervisor is Olivier Dumont.
The Production VFX Producer is Kathy Siegel.

The VFX are made by:
Weta FX (VFX Supervisors: Erik Winquist, Keith Herft and Sheldon Stopsack, VFX Producer: Hugo Morris, Animation Supervisor: Karl Rapley)
Trixter (VFX Supervisor: Dominik Zimmerle, VFX Producer: Agustina Arcondo, Animation Supervisor: Sebastian Badea)
Important Looking Pirates (VFX Supervisor: Nicolas Hernandez, VFX Producer: Kajsa Kurtén)
The Yard VFX (VFX Supervisor: Laurens Ehrmann, VFX Producer: Elisa Perez, Animation Supervisor: Bruno Etchepare)
Framestore (VFX Supervisor: Mark Curtis, VFX Producer: Sophie Carroll)
ILM (VFX Supervisor: Chad Wiebe, Executive Producer: Lauren Ellis, VFX Producer: Andrew Poole)

Director: Dan Trachtenberg
Release Date: November 7, 2025 (USA)

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The Production VFX Supervisor is Jay Worth.
The Production VFX Producer is Andrea Knoll.

The VFX are made by:
ILM (VFX Supervisor: Steve Moncur)
Raynault VFX
Important Looking Pirates
RISE (VFX Supervisor: Andreas Giesen)
Futureworks
Curated
Haymaker VFX
Refuge VFX
CoSA VFX
Studio 8
Yafka VFX
Cinemotion VFX

Release Date: December 17, 2025 (Prime Video)

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WANT TO KNOW MORE?
One of Us: Dedicated page about Hamlet on One of Us website.

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The Animation and VFX are made by:
Illumination

Directors: Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic
Release Date: April 3, 2026 (USA)

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The Production VFX Supervisors are Pablo Helman and Jonathan Fawkner.

The VFX are made by:
ILM (VFX Supervisors: Robert Weaver, Anthony Smith, VFX Producers: Sandra Beerenbrock, Chrissy Metge)
Framestore
Outpost VFX
Rising Sun Pictures

Director: Jon M. Chu
Release Date: November 21, 2025 (USA)

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How did your initial collaboration with director Cédric Jimenez unfold to define the visual language of Chien 51 and its dystopian world?

Cédric Jimenez is a filmmaker rooted in realism, instinctive by nature… his directing style is entirely based on that approach and energy. So, we needed to keep as much as possible filmable, meaning no green screen. We started to plan VFX for what couldn’t be shot practically because it was too futuristic: the environments, all the screens, and of course the work on the film’s AI, Alma, and its reconstructions. Envisioned as real, the drones quickly joined the list.

How did you divide the visual effects work between the different studios, and what criteria guided this distribution?

With my VFX Producer (Mélodie Robert), we began the prep work with Digital District (VFX Supervisor: Philippe Aubry, CG Supervisor: Olivier Osotimehin, VFX Producer: Théophile Dhuicque), focusing on Alma’s reconstructions and the drone design. We also set up the karaoke sequence, shot on an LED screen, in collaboration with the great team at Planète Rouge (Morgann Brun and Benoît Mafonne).

For everything related to Alma’s design and interfaces, we reached out to Tom Kan — a reference in motion design — and from the very first versions, we were already on target. For the reconstructions, I first contacted an artist whose work I admired to explore directions, and DD later finalized the renders.

Then in Belgium, UFX (VFX Supervisor: Morgan Hardy, VFX Producer: Nicolas Martre) began working on the screen integrations, and their work expanded to environments separating Zone 2 from Zone 3.

Noïd Studio (VFX Supervisor: Chervin Shafaghi, VFX Producer: Naïyre Apelian) joined mid-postproduction for a LoveDay nightclub sequence featuring a hologram character. Their work was so appreciated by the director that we entrusted them with additional shots.

Paris is depicted as a city divided into distinct zones. How did you approach the visual design of these areas to reflect the story’s social and political tensions?

The idea was to show that, beyond the checkpoints, Zones 2 and 3 experienced very different political and social treatments. For example, in night shots, Zone 3 was to be lit in sodium tones, with minimal public lighting, while Zone 2 would be cooler and more modern, filled with bright advertisements. This visual contrast heightened the feeling of social divide.

Can you explain the creative process behind combining real Paris locations with futuristic extensions and CG environments?

Paris is a very difficult city to “futurize.” Touching the Haussmann buildings too much distorts the city and makes it unrecognizable. Even in the future, it’s hard to imagine architects altering that. So, we worked around it with new constructions — glass towers, as if the La Défense district had spread everywhere.

For Zone 3, the idea was to add extra levels to existing buildings, thus creating two architectural styles within the same structure.

Which zone proved the most challenging to create, and why?

It wasn’t the zones themselves but rather the shots showing both zones. Like the sequence on the périphérique (Paris’ ring road) or the view from Zem’s flat. It was crucial that from the first frame, you could understand the difference between the two. We played with textures, colors, concrete versus glass… the social fracture had to be instantly readable. It was a real challenge, but a fascinating one.

Drones play a central role in the surveillance of this dystopian Paris. How did you design their appearance to make them both believable and threatening?

At first, we tried shooting them practically, but the physical constraints of piloting limited the design. So, we ultimately made them in CG. Finding the right balance was tricky — they’re armed drones, yet sold by their creators as tools meant to protect the population. We also explored turbine drones to avoid propellers, but that felt too sci-fi and lost realism. Once we found the final design, we had fun weathering them — showing that they fly nonstop in all conditions. They couldn’t look shiny or new.

What were the main challenges in animating the drones, especially when interacting with characters or environments?

I quickly decided to have stand-ins on set. It helped everyone — for framing, it made things easier, and for the actors, it gave them something to look at and react to. It also made editing smoother, avoiding the abstraction of empty shots.

Did you rely on real references, conceptual design, or a combination of both to define their movement language?

For animation, the stand-ins were piloted by the talented team at Dronecast. They became true references for the first animations, where we even did object tracking. Later, we adjusted the animation to give our drones more weight, sometimes more speed, or changes in trajectory to better match the director’s intentions.

Alma’s AI has a strong presence through its motion graphics. How did you develop the visual language of its interface and identity?

We really divided Alma’s conception into two parts: the police interfaces (screens, terminals, optical scans, etc.) and the reconstructions. For the interfaces, I wanted something clean and efficient. For the reconstructions, the script described the AI as recreating photorealistic images (like AIs can now). However, we decided that the camera movements would be fluid and smooth — we shot them with a steadicam, using wide, elegant motions. But the raw footage didn’t quite work. I knew we’d need to reinvent the look. So, I had all the reconstruction scenes scanned in Lidar to gain more creative freedom in postproduction.

What were the main technical and artistic challenges in integrating these motion graphics into the story so they didn’t feel merely decorative?

The director didn’t want the interfaces to look gimmicky or video game-like. His previous films were inspired by real events, so he’s used to highly credible police screens. We needed believable, serious designs while keeping them modern. Tom Kan really nailed it. My reference was Territory Studio’s work — always elegant and relevant — and Tom achieved a similar quality. I must also highlight the excellent work of Rémy Le Rumeur (motion designer at DD), who brilliantly animated all of Tom’s interfaces and even created an entirely motion-design sequence at the film’s beginning.

For the reconstructions, I was searching for a look using the Lidar/Photogrammetry data we captured with Armada. I found an artist, Alex Le Gillou, whose work I really liked. He proposed many interesting ideas. In the end, we moved slightly away from his approach because the point cloud was too “poetic”; we needed something more data-driven, without falling into a The Matrix-style aesthetic of zeros and ones.

How did you ensure that Alma’s visual presence conveyed a true personality and intelligence, beyond just the functionality of a computer system?

That was a key question. Alma isn’t just a tool helping the protagonists in their investigation — she’s a character in her own right. So, we had to give her a form and intent. We worked around a sphere in which she accumulates all her data. We brought that sphere to life like a brain, something that almost felt like a soul. It was important that she appeared to think before finding a solution, that we could see her brain activating. The sphere’s speed changes depending on her actions. We had very limited screen time to show this, so it had to be efficient. I’m glad audiences felt the intention we put into it.

Are there other visual effects you’d like to mention?

There are indeed two sequences that were really fun to create. The karaoke scene — I immediately suggested shooting it on an LED screen, as it perfectly suited the moment. It was a great collaborative effort. In post, we only added the song lyrics (the director didn’t want them during the shoot), but everything else is live. For the karaoke’s appearance, we suggested what we usually do in VFX breakdowns — making the environment assemble itself — and the director loved it instantly.

Another enjoyable sequence was everything set in the Seine. While a stuntman did dive into the river, the comedy scenes were shot at Belgium’s Lites Studios. We then had to digitally rebuild the riverbanks in VFX. It’s a short sequence, but a really satisfying one to make.

A big thanks for your time.

WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Noïd Studios: Dedicated page about Chien 51 (Dog 51) on Noïd Studio website.

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The Animation and VFX are made by:
Pixar Animation Studios

Directors: Andrew Stanton, McKenna Harris
Release Date: June 19, 2026 (USA)

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The Production VFX Supervisor is Daryl Sawchuk.
The Production VFX Producer is Steve Dellerson.

The VFX are made by:
Alchemy 24
Crafty Apes
Digital Domain
DNEG
Folks VFX
Herne Hill
Outpost VFX
Rocket Science VFX
Rodeo FX

Creators: Jason Fuchs, Brad Kane
Release Date: Fall 2025 (HBO)

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