Arron Roebuck launched his visual effects career in 2010 at The Mill before moving on to DNEG. Over the years, he has contributed to major productions including John Carter, Interstellar, The Crown, and Argylle. He first stepped into the world of Game of Thrones during its fifth season and remained through the show’s eighth and final chapter.
Paul Russo’s journey in visual effects began in Westeros on the third season of Game of Thrones, where he remained until the series concluded with season eight. After working on titles such as Jupiter’s Legacy, Cowboy Bebop, and 3 Body Problem, he has now come full circle, returning to Westeros for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
What is your background?
Paul Russo (PR): I moved to Los Angeles right after university with my sights set on post-production. Back then, I actually thought I might want to be an editor. I ended up getting my start in VFX in a pretty lucky way, joining the team on Game of Thrones during Season 3.
I started out as a VFX Production Assistant just as the scale of the show was really growing. I originally thought it would just be a short-term post-production gig, but I clicked so well with the team that they brought me back and over to Northern Ireland for the next season. From there, I was able to grow with the show by following the coordinator route and ended up staying with the show until the final season as the show got more intricate and the shot counts grew exponentially.
I really can’t imagine a better education in VFX than spending those years working with Steve Kullback and Joe Bauer. Seeing how they managed such a massive, complex machine every day was a masterclass in how high-level productions are run. It really gave me such a strong base for moving onto other shows and definitely didn’t hurt when a new show in this same world came into the picture!
Arron Roebuck (AR): I sort of grew up doing various things that I can appreciate now fed into my current job: working in a highstreet photo lab, developing film, digitizing and retouching/restoring customer photos in early versions of Photoshop. Working as an assistant to a wedding and portrait photographer. In my free time messing around with Flash animation, making PC game mods and shooting VHS action movies with my friends. I later studied at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, specializing in 3D animation. Then into the industry as a runner at The Mill UK before joining Double Negative and working up through matchmove supervision roles and onto set doing data capture. After a few years as a TD in the office and covering shoots as a data wrangler – I decided to pursue the freelance shoot-side of filmmaking. Spending so much time with cameras and lenses early on in my life really shaped how I see images, and I’m still a bit obsessive about perspectives and distances lining up properly, almost to- a fault!
What was your feeling to enter into the Game of Thrones universe?
PR: Entering back into the Game of Thrones world was so exciting for me. After working on a majority of the original series in Belfast, getting the chance to come back and work with a lot of the same crew in the same exact office was a real full circle moment for me. Westeros is a world that I’m very familiar with, and getting the chance to tell another story in this world was really exciting to me. Having that previous experience doesn’t take away from the nervousness of dealing with something so beloved by fans and wanting to do it justice.
AR: Joining A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms felt like a homecoming. I’d worked on Game of Thrones from seasons five to eight, learning a huge amount working under some very talented supervisors and seeing first hand what it takes to pull off those iconic sequences. Knowing there were no dragons in this timeline of Dunk and Egg was honestly a relief as I knew we had less budget to work with. Having seen up close how much preparation, artistry and sheer manpower those creatures demand, it was nice to approach Westeros on a more human scale, with many of the original crew now a rung or two further up the career ladder.
How was the collaboration with the showrunner and the various directors?
PR: Working with our showrunner, Ira Parker, has been an incredible experience. He’s truly one of the kindest people in the industry, but beyond that, he has impeccable taste and instinct. He has a very clear vision for what he wants to see on screen, and his passion for Westeros is infectious. It really sets the tone for the whole production.
Owen Harris, who directed episodes 1, 2, and 5, was instrumental in those early stages. I remember sitting in meetings with him and Ira as they discussed how to translate the elements I loved from the books into this specific show. From a VFX perspective, Owen was really collaborative especially with a smaller budget on this size of a show. He focused on using VFX to enhance the story at key moments which made the visual choices feel much more intentional.
Sarah Adina Smith joined us for directing episodes 3, 4, and 6 and brought such a high level of energy to the set. She was constantly pushing the creative boundaries, always reaching out to us to see how we can help attain her vision. Some of our most technically challenging shots are in Episode 3, and collaborating with her and her DP, Federico, to solve those puzzles was a lot of fun.
AR: The collaboration with Ira and the directors was very open and very grounded in story. Ira is an incredibly approachable leader and encourages comments and ideas but when filtered through his unique senses and instincts you end up with this wonderfully vivid and enjoyable show. In early talks we rallied around the idea that VFX was there to support the world and stay at Dunk and Egg’s eye level, not to chase spectacle. If something didn’t keep us in their point of view or serve a story beat, it probably didn’t belong. Paul and I set about earning trust by being as prepared as possible going into meetings. Cheerful and solution focused was our approach because there were some real budget constraints that we had to be realistic about. In the end Ira, the DOPs and Directors knew that if Paul or I raised a concern it was about a budget reality and not us shying away from hard work, which made those inevitable and often uncomfortable conversations during the shoot much easier. I firmly believe that having the constraints of the budget had a net-positive effect as open dialogue and collaborative problem solving were encouraged as a result.
How was the VFX work divided among the different studios?
PR: The VFX work on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was a collaborative effort between El Ranchito in Madrid and our brilliant in-house compositor/wizard, Paul Tuersley. I’ve had a long-standing relationship with El Ranchito, having worked with them for years on both the original Game of Thrones and 3 Body Problem. They are incredible artists, especially when it comes to the complex crowd scenes that this show required. They have such a passion for the art of vfx and you can feel that when you talk to them in reviews.
For everything else, Paul Tuersley was our ace in the hole. He truly saved the day more times than I can count. It actually became a running joke in post-production whenever a new challenge popped up in the edit. Ira would immediately say, “Paul Tuersley can fix that!”
AR: We awarded the bulk of the vendor work to El Ranchito, who we knew could deliver grounded, detailed work and whose previous crowd work really impressed us. They handled the heavy lifting on crowds and environments, and I tried to give them space to do what they do best rather than micromanaging. On the production side, our inhouse artist Paul Tuersley was a huge asset. He took care of many complex -oneoff shots and lots of -paintfix- work that never makes the headlines but absolutely keeps a show like this feeling seamless.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has a very different tone and scale compared to Game of Thrones. From a VFX perspective, how did that influence your overall visual effects philosophy for the series?
PR: Because the show is more intimate in scope by staying close to Dunk’s perspective, our VFX philosophy had to match that feeling. In fact, we had a few wider shots and some drone work that would require larger VFX extensions that eventually were omitted from the show since they felt a bit out of place. We leaned into a sense of gritty realism, aiming to seamlessly extend the world we are in. Our main goal was for the VFX to be invisible. The ultimate compliment came during a caste extension review with Ira when we showed him the finished scene and he asked, “Oh, sorry, which shot did you guys work on?” Perfect. FINAL. Moving on!
We were also incredibly lucky to work with our Production Designer, Tom McCullagh. When we first arrived at the location in Glenarm, it was just a massive empty grass field. As a VFX Producer, my initial instinct was to worry about how we’d afford extensions in every direction for a show that has so many scenes here, but when we arrived the next time, the art department truly built a world we could play in.
Because Tom’s team built with such incredible texture and depth, it gave us the perfect foundation. In every shot, there was something real for us to match and reference. We viewed our role as a supporting one on this show and our job was to keep the viewer anchored in the story without them ever second-guessing the world around them.
AR: From the start it was clear this is a more intimate, boots-in-themud story that lives with Dunk and Egg. The camera language is grounded and patient and for VFX it meant thinking in terms of “how do we hide in this world?” rather than “how do we top the last setpiece?”. One obvious pressure point was the tournament list field: on any given day we might have 50–150 extras, but it needed to feel like a festival of thousands, so Paul and I looked at other, non tournament scenes and set about stripping away anything we didn’t absolutely need – even if that meant me rolling up my sleeves to pre-vis shots myself for example. We wanted every penny on screen.
Westeros is a familiar world for audiences, yet this series needed to feel fresh and grounded. How did you approach revisiting iconic locations while subtly redefining them for this new story?
PR: This first season was really great way to introduce a fresh look into Westeros from a new perspective. While we’re exploring a new location in Ashford Meadow, the show also uses flashbacks to delve into Dunk’s history, which allowed us to revisit iconic spots like King’s Landing from entirely new angles.
Since Arron and I both worked on the original series, it definitely made things easier. It was so helpful to tap into our memory of exactly how certain scenes were handled back then. It was also great to be back in Northern Ireland. There are so many incredible spots there and it felt pretty special to be filming a scene with Young Dunk in the exact same location where I remember Brienne and Podrick riding through years later. It really helped bridge the two shows for us.
AR: During prep and in early meetings with the directors we did flirt with grand establishing shots of places like Ashford and King’s Landing, but every time we looked at those in pre-vis we could sense they pulled us away from Dunk’s perspective. Once you commit to living at his eye level, a lot of the “tourist postcard” shots fall away quite naturally. So we leaned into rediscovering Westeros from the ground up – letting familiar places appear at the edges of frames, or in the distance, and putting our effort into making those glimpses feel real and lived in.
King’s Landing appears in a more restrained and discreet manner than in previous shows. What were the key visual strategies used to enhance the city without drawing attention to the VFX?
PR: When it comes to King’s Landing, we were truly standing on the shoulders of giants by working with a location that is so well established. Because the visual language of this series stays so tightly focused on our characters, the city could function as a subtle backdrop rather than a visual centerpiece for most of the time. Allowing the views of King’s Landing to give us context without being right in your face. This allowed us to place the city and Red Keep into shots that were already visually stunning and integrating them into the lighting and atmosphere of the show.
AR: Our first glimpses of King’s Landing are deliberately discreet, and it was fun working with that restraint. We composed those frames so the city often sits low in the attention hierarchy – it’s there if you look for it, but the compositional weight is always on the foreground and the characters. When placing Kings Landing I would nudge the city slightly “off” ideal placement to keep the frame feeling natural. The one time we really feature King’s Landing and The Red Keep, we leaned into a sunlight shift within the plate. During the take we had rolling clouds, so the shot begins frontlit and then softens as the cloud moves over. We made sure to carry that transition into the CG landscape and castle- so the lighting shift flows foreground to background. It was a challenging shot, because backlight is usually the more flattering, “cinematic” choice, but here the -frontlight keeps it feeling raw, natural- and almost spontaneous, which fits the grounded tone we were chasing but left us more exposed.
Can you break down how much of King’s Landing was practical versus digital, and how you ensured seamless integration between sets, extensions, and environments?
PR: Seeing King’s Landing in our flashbacks was really about establishing Dunk’s origins. Our work was to hep with the geography to link the beautiful locations to the streets of Fleabottom.
Once the story moves into the streets of Flea Bottom, the heavy lifting was done by Tom McCullagh’s incredible Art Department. They built highly intricate sets with various alleys and rooms to really immerse the audience without the need of extending very much.
AR: When you visit King’s Landing in the show, the vast majority of what the audience sees are meticulous, practical sets. From a VFX point of view that was a joy, because it meant we were really only extending a handful of shots – a deep background here, an alley that terminated on bluescreen there. It’s a testament to the collaborative, restrained approach on this production and a real commitment to only leaning on VFX once practical solutions had been explored and exhausted. Paul and I were always delighted walking onto these sets for the first time, they were more complete and sprawling than promised and less VFX work here meant more resources could redirect to where it really mattered. When we did add extensions I made sure, where possible, to shoot complementary plates of other areas of the set specifically to use in those extensions, and paid close attention to distance, perspective and camera behavior so that what we were adding felt like a continuation of the real build rather than a different world pasted on top. That, combined with careful compositing goes a long way toward keeping the joins invisible and keeps CG build to a minimum.
Discretion seems to be a guiding principle for the environment work. What are the biggest technical and creative challenges when VFX are meant to be invisible rather than spectacular?
PR: While VFX often strives for the spectacular, our guiding principle for this series was absolute integration into the world we were shooting in. We were in a unique position on this show where we didn’t have the magical elements or dragons of the other projects so everything had to feel grounded in a reality the audience would never question. The challenge is then to utilize the real word texture and lighting in our work, which can be tricky to balance sometimes. A perfect example is the wide shot in Episode 3 where Dunk and Egg look out over the market town. The practical set was already quite big, but because we were viewing it from a high vantage point on the hill, we had to extend that environment while maintaining the exact same variety of color, depth, and ‘lived-in’ detail that the Art Department had established. The goal was to ensure the digital extension felt as vibrant and tangible as the physical tents and structures in the location.
AR: When VFX are meant to be invisible, the first challenge is actually upstream: collaborating with other departments to protect the budget for the things production simply cannot achieve practically. When approaching a scene or location I endeavor to shoot something real when possible so on our battlefield and market sets we shot libraries of real elements – tents, wrecked carts, bodies, horses – captured from multiple angles and sun positions, so we could extend depth and complexity with this photography library first.
I’m inherently nervous about going to a full CG build when something has to disappear into the plate, because the road to final is full of nervous variations and subjective notes. The main exception where we leaned into and protected our CG budget was the 3D crowd system, because providing for four thousand background artists in a remote location – aside from a huge logistical concern – is just not safe. The crowd brought its own challenges: refining shading, lighting and animation so those digital people feel completely natural both in the subconscious of the viewer and under the brutal scrutiny of a 4K HDR review.
Crowd creation plays an important role in grounding the world, especially during public events and tournaments. How did you design and animate crowds to feel organic and era-appropriate?
PR: The crowd was a major factor in this show. When we first spoke to Ira, his vision was to create a medieval Coachella with around 4,000-5,000 attendees in Ashford. In reality, we were shotting with around 50-100 background actors most days, with a few larger crowd numbers earlier in the schedule. The costume department did an incredible job providing a huge amount of variety for the background actors, and our mission in VFX was to match that level of detail and diversity exactly.
To achieve this, we used a multi-layered approach. Whenever possible, we used tiling passes to extend the practical crowd, which worked really well for a lot of the medium and tighter coverage. For the more complex shots involving dynamic camera movement or wide-angle views that showed the entire festival, we moved into CG crowds while maintaining tiling passes for the front row. We wanted the front row against the railing to be real people in every shot to help with the integration and believability against the fence posts.
To ensure the digital characters felt organic, we used photogrammetry to scan many of the real background actors in their specific costumes. We then guided their movements using a combination of reference footage of takes from the show and greenscreen ‘sprites’ we captured on a dedicated area off to the side of the set. We recorded background actors walking, running, cheering at various scripted events, and just casually moving and interacting as groups. By capturing these real poses, movements, and small character beats, we were also able to pepper those authentic human movements in between the CG crowd to keep it more organic.
AR: Even knowing we’d rely heavily on CG crowds, we still wanted to build a really robust sprite library from our own background artists. Having shot crowd elements before, I knew the ground always turns into a swamp once you start moving people around, so this time we laid down cheap neongreen astroturf as a sort of green screen substitute for muddy boots; it’s not a perfectly keyable colour, but it resists mud and water enough that the ground stays clean and extractable, and we actually welcomed the odd rain shower to wash it down. Over several days we cycled extras through and filmed them at different heights and distances, performing a wide range of reactions and small group interactions tied to a truncated “tournament story” that I’d shout out to them and guide them through – it was a lot of fun. When we sprinkle those real people into the CG system they bring a lot of life: kids chasing each other, people leaning to get a better view, someone getting handed an ale. We were mindful to steer away from modern gestures – so the performances feel -era appropriate without us having to -hand animate- every nuance. We also scanned the same crowd so their costumes could feed into the modular clothing system, which keeps the look cohesive while avoiding obvious repetition.
Were there specific tools or workflows developed to manage crowd variation, costume diversity, and performance realism across different sequences?
AR: The CG crowd was a procedural system made of interchangeable parts. Different uppers, lowers, heads and body types – so a fairly contained asset set could generate a lot of unique agents. The scanned costumes from our background artists plugged straight into that system, which helped the digital crowd feel like the same people you see in closeups. The CG crowd workflow choice came from a need to represent the enormous spectator crowds in a variety of weather conditions and times of day. So depending purely on 2D sprites and trying to relight them for every scenario would have made seamless integration much harder. The procedural CG system gave us consistent shading and lighting control across sequences, and the live action sprites then became a way to break up patterns and add realism on top. For a few key shots where Dunk and Egg are buried in the larger crowd and lens focus would sit in that -middistance meaning we couldn’t hide in shallow depth of field – we fell back on an old school trick: multiple passes of extras in tiled sections. If you’re afforded- the time on set, that approach still works brilliantly.
The jousting sequences rely heavily on VFX to enhance scale, danger, and impact. How did you collaborate with stunt teams to augment these moments without compromising physical credibility?
PR: The stunt and horse teams on this show were truly world-class. From the very beginning, they were involved in the process, working through storyboards and stunt-vis to determine exactly what could be achieved safely and where VFX needed to step in to push the impact further.
One of the biggest helps for us was the use of practical breakaway lances. Because they splintered in such unique and interesting ways on set, we had perfect reference for the physics of those impacts. We were able to take that real world data and enhance it, adding flying splinters rushing past the camera to heighten the sense of danger for the riders.
The stunt team also utilized a small, agile camera to get right into the heart of the action. By getting the lens incredibly close to the horses and the impact points, they provided us with high-energy plates that we could then augment. We were able to get some amazing shots all with real horses or prosthetic horses that might otherwise fall apart in standard coverage.
AR: Going into the jousting sequences, we all understood that the use of CG horses and full digi-double riders would blow the budget very quickly. Fortunately we had an incredible horse and stunt team who could deliver nearly all of the spectacular moments practically, which meant that in a lot of cases our job in VFX was to support performer safety – to paint out safety lines, pads and rigging, and to give a bit of extra punch to things like the breakaways and explosive wooden lances with FX simulations of flying debris. It was a relief to see that approach actually hold under the realities and pressure of the shoot, because so often best intentions give way to lastminute problems and you end up leaning on CG much more than planned. On this show we were able to support the spectacle by helping hide the machinations and retaining the core stunt. I love being able to throw thumbs-up across a busy set to someone who’s- looking to move on to the next setup – saying ‘Yes! VFX can help with that.’
In terms of action enhancement, what were the most complex shots when it came to increasing the intensity of the jousts while preserving clarity and readability for the audience?
PR: Given the frenetic nature of some of the action sequences, some of the work we had to do to address timing and adjustments to the stunts proved to be quite tricky, but the most labor intensive sequence would have to be the 7v7 fight. The entire scene takes place in a thick layer of morning fog. The weather in Northern Ireland is infamous for being unpredictable so to keep the look of the sequence consistent we had to enhance the fog in a lot of shots. While battling the sun coming in and out of the clouds, layering fog over complex wire rigs, stunt choreography, and gore moments is a roto nightmare! Luckily, our team at El Ranchito delivered such artistic choices for smoothing out all these rough edges and really made the sequence work together. It feels super cohesive now and keeps you immersed in the action.
AR: While not complex, one favorite shot is a clash where two riders hit so hard they dismount each other in midair; in the original plate you could feel the little bounce and extra airtime from the safety wires, and by very subtly adjustment those trajectories and retiming the impact suddenly feels impossibly brutal. Yet the audience is seeing two real horses and two real stunt performers. Those are the moments that are most satisfying – where VFX quietly sharpens what’s- already there and helps the other departments’ work shine.
The series also leans into more visceral and sometimes gory moments. How did you determine the right balance between practical effects and digital augmentation for these sequences?
PR: This show has a lot of visceral and gory moments and luckily we had really talented SFX and Makeup/Prosthetics teams that shared our goal of doing as much practically as we can to assist with our VFX enhancements. The best results came from having something practical because it gave us authentic interactions with clothing, hair, and the surrounding set.
Collaborating with Tom Lloyd (SFX Floor Supervisor) was a highlight. He was constantly sharing tests and working with us to determine the best way to give us a base so the VFX augmentation felt grounded. We’d discuss exactly where the practical rig would end and the digital enhancement would begin to ensure the impact felt real.
Similarly, working with Pippa Woods (Makeup Designer) allowed us to blend our CG seamlessly with her makeup and prosthetics. A perfect example (spoiler alert) is Baelor’s head injury in episode 5. Pippa’s team made sure there was interesting bloody bits of hair and gore around the wound. By having those practical details to build on, we were able to replace the caved-in portion of the head digitally while ensuring the edges blended perfectly into their work.
AR: The balance on the more visceral moments always started with what the SFX team could achieve in camera, and they gave us some fantastic practical gore gags. One grisly shot proved challenging in post due to it’s need to serve as a shocking inciting incident during which someone’s finger is brutally snapped. That went through a whole spectrum of iterations, from almost no blood up to a full geyser fanning in front of the lens, and we eventually came back to something much more restrained when it became clear that too much blood actually obscured the action and undercut the cruelty of it – the sound does a lot of the work, and a modest digital augment gives it a horrible emotional sting without turning it into a gag. A similar logic guided a shocking horse death that plays in a single shot: there was nowhere to hide a practical blood rig, so we committed early to digital blood and iterated until we landed on what we started calling “sad ribbons” of blood with pulses that feel physically credible and distressing.
Looking back at the season as a whole, which VFX sequences best represent the philosophy of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and why are you particularly proud of them?
PR: I think the sequence I’m most proud of is the jousting in Episode 3 where the horse gets injured and the crowd begins to riot. This scene is our first big joust sequence in daylight so the CG crowd had to really hold up to scrutiny because there was nowhere to hide. There were a few days during this sequence where we didn’t have nearly enough background actors to fill our frames and the added crowd by El Ranchito look stunning, especially the shot where Dunk and Egg walk into the jousting area at the beginning and the camera tracks along with them. Most of the people walking behind them up the hill are CG and little groups of children running and playing are taken from our sprite library and mixed in. The crowd is also very dynamic during this scene as they turn against what has happened on the list field and start to get angry and rush the field. The added animation complexity was a challenge to get right, but works so well in the sequence.
It was also perfect blend of many departments working through how best to handle the horse action. Tom Cox, our Horsemaster, and his team were able to get some fantastic performances out of the horses so that we could add our CG lance, blood, and gore without having to augment the performance of the horse or replace it with a CG horse.
AR: The Trial of Seven, both the buildup in episode four and the battle in episode five, might sum up the show’s philosophy best. Ira wanted that stretch of story steeped in thick morning fog, with distance constantly obscured so the world feels dangerous and uncertain, and that very naturally pushed us toward CG driven atmosphere and crowds, where we could control depth and density rather than wrestling the weather. There was a serious effort in prep to do as much as possible with practical smoke, but wind and changing conditions made it impossible to hold that look consistent across every setup, so on those intense shoot days it was important to be able to say, “We can finish this, let’s move on” El Ranchito delivered convincing results very quickly, and from there it was all about finetuning – sometimes thickening the mist to push the claustrophobia of Dunk’s situation, sometimes letting it hand back and silhouette the stunning set features such as the spectator stands full of royals and nobles. All in a way that most viewers will (hopefully!) never realize VFX was used. So- preserving the show vision as a whole through collaboration and ultimately delivering sequences we can be proud of and that most won’t know we touched. Mission accomplished.
How long have you worked on this show?
PR: I worked on Season 1 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms from March 2024 to September 2025
AR: Roughly 18 months.
What’s the VFX shots count?
PR and AR: Around 600 shots across the 6 episodes.
What is your next project?
PR and AR: We are currently shooting Season 2 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and are excited to follow Dunk and Egg on their next journey!
What are the four movies that gave you the passion for cinema?
PR: Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Jaws, and I know they aren’t films, but early HBO shows like The Sopranos and The Wire. I remember being in University and saying all I wanted to do would be to work on something so well done like an HBO project.
AR: There are many but I can attribute my earliest urges to pick up a video camera and make films with my friends to films like Aliens, Heat, The Matrix and John Woo’s The Killer.
A big thanks for your time.
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WANT TO KNOW MORE?
El Ranchito: Dedicated page about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on El Ranchito website.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2026
