After our reporting on the Visual Effects Society nominations for Game of Thrones, we were reminded of the fact that BlueBolt were not going to be lead VFX vendors for the show this season, per our interview with Lucy Ainsworth-Taylor. So, who had stepped up to do the job?
Some Googling reveals that the information has been out there, but it seems none of the fan sites noticed: Pixomondo, “an international visual effects company with a global network of studios in Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Stuttgart, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai, Beijing and most recently Toronto,” has landed the job.
Pixomondo feature the show’s logo on their site, which is pretty much a tip-off, isn’t it? They’ve been working on the show at least from November, when a press release went out noting that, “The company is currently in production on upcoming features including Red Tails, Snow White and the Huntsman, and TV series including Terra Nova and the upcoming season of Game of Thrones.”
Among their other projects? Scorsese’s Hugo, which was also nominated for a VES award. A long article discussing their work can be found at the CG Society. They’ve also worked on Hollywood films such as Iron Man 2, Sucker Punch, Fast & Furious 5, and Super 8. One notes that Terra Nova—considered to feature some of the best CG on television—is another Pixomondo project which earned two nominations at VES (in fact, it’s competing with Game of Thrones in the Environment category).
Below is a show reel from Pixomondo, giving a sense of just how large and diverse an opertion it is:
PIXOMONDO REEL 2011 from PIXOMONDO on Vimeo.
From what we’ve learned, it sounds like Pixomondo’s LA studio is overseeing the work, and from the Hugo article at the CG Society it’s likely that several of their international studios provide the various elements that go into creating effects from start to finish. Because of this, participation from other vendors is apparently limited, and our understanding is that Screen Scene in particular is instead working on the A Good Day to Die Hard film, the latest entry in the Die Hard franchise.
Update: Turns out that someone mistakingly reposted out of date info—that was in fact a request for last season. So, so far as we know, BlueBolt is not involved.