Saturday, June 17th, 2017 Posted by Jim Thacker

Discover what life is really like in broadcast effects

VFX Heroes: Game of Thrones meets Black Sails meets Mad Men by Gnomon

Watch Gnomon’s VFX Heroes: Game of Thrones meets Black Sails meets Mad Men on Livestream.com. Have you ever wondered how to turn a tennis ball into a dragon? Are you curious how artists go about recreating an entire historic city? Do you ever marvel at the “invisible” VFX that we so often take for granted?


Artists working in TV have it tough: while budgets are a fraction of those for movies, and schedules are much tighter, audiences still expect them to create VFX of the quality they’re accustomed to from the big screen.

To find out how they do so, come to VFX Heroes, a free event at Gnomon’s Hollywood campus on Thursday 22 June 2017, and broadcast worldwide on Livestream. You can watch it via the player embedded above.

An essential guide to current workflows in broadcast effects
The event – subtitled ‘Game of Thrones meets Black Sails meets Mad Men’ – brings together three legends of the broadcast effects community.

Emmy Award-winning VFX producers Steve Kulback of HBO and Tim Jacobsen of FuseFX will be joined by Digital Domain VFX supervisor Aladino Debert to discuss the realities of life on episodic series.

As well as sharing their experiences on flagship series like Game of Thrones, the panel will discuss how TV shows with lesser budgets and shorter schedules plan, execute, and deliver convincing visual effects.

The discussion will be rounded off by a 30-minute audience Q&A, which should also provide an opportunity for young artists hoping to break into broadcast work to receive essential careers advice.

Free to attend, but register online in advance
VFX Heroes: Game of Thrones meets Black Sails meets Mad Men takes place at Gnomon’s LA campus from 8.00 to 9.30pm on Thursday 22 June 2017. It’s free to attend, but you’ll need to register online in advance.

If you can’t make it to LA, the session will also be broadcast worldwide on Gnomon’s Livestream channel. You don’t need to register for the stream, and can ask questions via Twitter using the hashtag #gnomon.

Read more about the VFX Heroes event on Gnomon’s website