In 2020, Martin Hernblad walked us through the visual effects crafted by Important Looking Pirates for the third season of Westworld. Since then, he has continued to expand his portfolio, contributing to major productions including The Stand, The Last of Us, Shogun, and Dune: Prophecy.
What was your feeling to be entering the Wastelands?
Great to be back! ILP worked on season one so we were able to not only expand upon that work, but also explore some new and exciting creatures and environments.
Can you elaborate on the work made by ILP this season?
Our main focus was the hero creature work, particularly the radscorpions and the super mutant, which required different creative and technical approaches. We also handled a few smaller creature moments to help enrich the world.
On the environment side, we continued developing the cryo chamber sequence introduced in season one, and built out large-scale extensions for the legion camp, which is new to season two.
ILP delivered 163 shots this season. How was that workload distributed between creature work and environment extensions?
The radscorpion sequence was one of the first and largest sequences we tackled, so much of my time on the show was focused on it. It involved complex animation, interaction, and lighting work across every shot.
As for the environments, the cryo chamber sequences also covered a large portion of the show over multiple episodes. The remaining shots were more evenly split between additional creature moments and environment extensions.
The radscorpions are among the most iconic creatures in the Fallout universe. What were the key challenges in bringing them to life in Season Two, particularly in terms of scale, animation, and interaction with actors?
Production had built a practical radscorpion prop based on early concept art, which was extremely helpful for scale reference and on-set interaction. That gave us a grounded starting point.
The first key challenge was designing the mouth, both in look and motion. We studied a wide range of creature references, which guided us in coming up with something unique for the radscorpions.
The next challenge was the animation. With large creatures, scale is often conveyed through the speed of movement, and since scorpions move very quickly in an insect-like way, our main challenge was finding the right balance between something heavy and massive while still retaining the recognizable movement of a scorpion. Thankfully, our very talented animation team took this challenge head on and nailed it.
The super mutant is another fan-favorite character. How did you balance staying faithful to the game design while grounding the character in a believable live-action context?
We were lucky enough to have great reference footage of Ron Perlman acting out his lines, both on the set of the scene and separately. We did some early design work on the facial features, which then evolved into a blend of our design, Ron Perlman’s face and references from the game. This was a great challenge to strike the right look without leaning too close or too far from one of these.
Two-headed cows are a signature element of the franchise. From a VFX perspective, what were the main anatomical and performance considerations in creating a convincing two-headed creature?
As this was more of a standalone element, we focused on making it read clearly and convincingly within the shot rather than pursuing perfect anatomy. It’s one of those world-building details that some viewers immediately notice while others may not consciously register. For these shots, if it looked like it was working, then it was.
The centipedes introduce a different type of creature language. How did you approach their movement and behavior to make them both unsettling and physically plausible?
In terms of movement and behavior, we stayed as close to a real world centipede as possible. At first glance it should look like one, but then we get this great little moment where it does a pause, and that’s when we notice the unsettling detail of a second head.
Creature work often depends heavily on lighting and on-set data capture. What kind of reference, scanning, or practical elements were used to ensure seamless integration?
The production team provided us with a great start of HDRIs, lidar scans of the sets, and witness cam/reference photography. This became our base setup to bring our assets into the right world of values and color, but in almost all cases that is not the finished image. All creature shots we did needed beauty lighting for one reason or another.
ILP continued working on the cryo room chambers introduced in Season One. What refinements or upgrades did you implement for Season Two?
As with many sequences, a lot of quick changes happen towards the end of the show to get it all the way, so one of the first things we did was consolidate these changes from season one into a more robust asset.
The practical set had also been rebuilt so we did some modeling and look-dev work to match this. The biggest change is that in season two we actually see a lot of them opening, this meant volume simulations that could hold up both close up but also as a group, with enough variation and detail.
The legion camp is a new environment this season. Can you walk us through the design process and how much of it was practical versus digitally built or extended?
For each side of the mound, the main tents and structures were in place on set, along with various props and actors in costume and makeup, so most of the core design work was already done. Our task was to extend this to show the proper scale of the camps, as well as some tweaks to the center location for story reasons. The most fun part was creating a little crowd army of legionnaires for the wide shots that were running around, dragging away the wounded, and fighting one another.
How did you ensure visual continuity between your Season One environments and the new locations introduced in Season Two?
We always referred back to the footage. There was always some part built and photographed which is immensely helpful for VFX work. Careful pre-production and strong design made it possible to use VFX in the right way, the way its meant to be used.
Looking back at ILP’s contribution to Season Two, which sequence are you most proud of, and what makes it stand out in terms of visual effects achievement?
Difficult choice, but the radscorpion and super mutant sequences definitely stand out, especially as a fan of the games. For me, the real success and reward is measured in the fact that other fans are debating which super mutant it is, or sharing radscorpion memories from the games, instead of how good or bad the VFX was.
How long have you worked on this show?
About 9 months.
What’s the VFX shots count?
163 shots across 6 episodes.
What is your next project?
Lots of things in the making, all very exciting but secret unfortunately.
A big thanks for your time.
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WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Important Looking Pirates: Dedicated page about Fallout Season 2 on Important Looking Pirates website.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2026
