Hard to believe, but true: the spectacular effects in "Game of Thrones" come from Germany. A look behind the scenes.
Stuttgart, Forststraße 7: Of the passers-by passing the building, hardly anyone suspects that TV history has been written here for years. This is the home of Mackevision. And that is responsible for the visual effects (VFX) at "Game of Thrones" (GoT). The mega-fantasy saga, produced by the US station HBO and currently on view in the seventh season at Sky, inspires millions of fans worldwide - among other things because of the fantastic film sets. No matter whether medieval cities, gloomy castles, desolate ice deserts or roaring oceans - much of this is created by the computers of Mackevision. For the team from Swabia, the Emmy Award, the most important award for TV productions, has already been awarded twice.
GoT universe is created on the computer
Up to six months, a team of 40 experts tweaks on the effects for a season GoT. A specialty of Mackevision is the so-called digital environment: many of the impressive castles in GoT build the team completely digitally on the computer and then insert it into the finished rotated scenes. "We also create digital ship fleets, including complex water simulations and virtual mass slaughter," explains Jörn Grosshans in conversation with COMPUTER BILD. Above all the Massenszenen were very demanding, belonged however each time to the highlights of the series. One of the most famous settings that Mackevision has created is a scene from the fourth season with the "Titans of Braavos". For this effect alone, there was the coveted VESA Award for the best animation.
Real places as inspiration
On occasion, the VFX team from Mackevision researches on the set, such as in the Croatian port of Dubrovnik, which is used in GoT as a backdrop for the fictional city of Königsmund. Otherwise, however, it is different: First, the TV station HBO from the US provides sketches to the desired scenes and presents the staging picture by picture. Then Jörn Grosshans and his team are looking for reference buildings or landscapes, and they are designing concepts. In order to present a GoT city in a photo-realistic manner, the team made some photo excursions to Hohenzollern Castle on the Swabian Alb. The Venetian city of Venice served as a model for the banking town of Braavos, and the "Titan of Bravoos" recalls the colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven ancient worlds. "We always try to find something that exists in the real world.
Great technique for great effects
Until an effective scene is finished, Mackevision needs a lot of time and computing power: "Our workstations have Xeon processors and between 64 and 128 gigabytes of RAM. For the calculation of the effects, we also have their own server farm, on which the images are rendered, "says Grosshans.
GoT goes on
Mackevision does not rest on the laurels. In addition to GoT, the company was responsible for the TV series "The Shannara Chronicles" as well as "Independence Day 2", the continuation of Roland Emmerich's science fiction classic - the company built the huge spaceships , Mackevision is currently working on the children's film "Jim Knopf" and on the second world war drama "Der Hauptmann".
Stuttgart, Forststraße 7: Of the passers-by passing the building, hardly anyone suspects that TV history has been written here for years. This is the home of Mackevision. And that is responsible for the visual effects (VFX) at "Game of Thrones" (GoT). The mega-fantasy saga, produced by the US station HBO and currently on view in the seventh season at Sky, inspires millions of fans worldwide - among other things because of the fantastic film sets. No matter whether medieval cities, gloomy castles, desolate ice deserts or roaring oceans - much of this is created by the computers of Mackevision. For the team from Swabia, the Emmy Award, the most important award for TV productions, has already been awarded twice.
GoT universe is created on the computer
Up to six months, a team of 40 experts tweaks on the effects for a season GoT. A specialty of Mackevision is the so-called digital environment: many of the impressive castles in GoT build the team completely digitally on the computer and then insert it into the finished rotated scenes. "We also create digital ship fleets, including complex water simulations and virtual mass slaughter," explains Jörn Grosshans in conversation with COMPUTER BILD. Above all the Massenszenen were very demanding, belonged however each time to the highlights of the series. One of the most famous settings that Mackevision has created is a scene from the fourth season with the "Titans of Braavos". For this effect alone, there was the coveted VESA Award for the best animation.
Real places as inspiration
On occasion, the VFX team from Mackevision researches on the set, such as in the Croatian port of Dubrovnik, which is used in GoT as a backdrop for the fictional city of Königsmund. Otherwise, however, it is different: First, the TV station HBO from the US provides sketches to the desired scenes and presents the staging picture by picture. Then Jörn Grosshans and his team are looking for reference buildings or landscapes, and they are designing concepts. In order to present a GoT city in a photo-realistic manner, the team made some photo excursions to Hohenzollern Castle on the Swabian Alb. The Venetian city of Venice served as a model for the banking town of Braavos, and the "Titan of Bravoos" recalls the colossus of Rhodes, one of the seven ancient worlds. "We always try to find something that exists in the real world.
Great technique for great effects
Until an effective scene is finished, Mackevision needs a lot of time and computing power: "Our workstations have Xeon processors and between 64 and 128 gigabytes of RAM. For the calculation of the effects, we also have their own server farm, on which the images are rendered, "says Grosshans.
GoT goes on
Mackevision does not rest on the laurels. In addition to GoT, the company was responsible for the TV series "The Shannara Chronicles" as well as "Independence Day 2", the continuation of Roland Emmerich's science fiction classic - the company built the huge spaceships , Mackevision is currently working on the children's film "Jim Knopf" and on the second world war drama "Der Hauptmann".