Back in 2020, Ray McIntyre Jr. spoke with us about the visual effects behind Raised by Wolves. Since then, he has continued to expand his credits with projects such as Plane, Renfield, and Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty.
How did you get involved on this film?
My involvement started in November of 2022. I was working on the Lionsgate film “About My Father” and Brianna Domont asked me if I would be interested in working with the director Patrick Hughes remotely on “War Machine”. At this time the movie was a Lionsgate only production, Netflix was not involved yet. The goal was for Pat and I to breakdown and discuss the complexities of all the VFX needs in the script and get the movie into a budget range that would get the script green lit. Pat and I spent many days chatting over ZOOM, he in Australia and me in the US, discussing what his priorities were for the VFX. After each script revision, I would create a new VFX breakdown, chat with Pat and submit to the studio. After many months, we found the happy medium that made Pat and the studio happy.
How was the collaboration with Director Patrick Hughes?
Really great! As noted above, when I started on the show in November 2022, Pat and I were the only 2 people on the movie for some time. Reviewing the various versions of the script and chatting with Pat so extensively regarding each script gave an extremely thorough knowledge of what Pat wanted for the movie, how he wanted to see it on the screen. We started official prep in January 2025, design prep for the machine and pod. By the time we were boots on the ground in June of 2025, I had already lived the movie for more than a year and had a clear understanding of what Pat wanted to see.
How did you approach selecting the different VFX studios involved in the project, and what was your strategy for dividing the work between them while maintaining visual consistency across the film?
An important consideration for sure. Knowing what was needed to put onto the screen, the goal was to find vendors who had done something similar already. From my experiences as VFX supervisor on productions with high shot counts (‘Raised by Wolves’ had 3000 shots per season, ‘Winning Time’ season 2 had 1500 VFX shots including 900 CGI basketball arena shots), it was important to work with vendors who could demonstrate the work prior to choosing them.
The workload for a VFX supervisor on high shot count projects is quite heavy and having VFX vendors who are creative and capable of hitting the basic creative needs within a few versions is critical. This demonstrates that the vendor understands what is needed quickly and we can move on to execution rather than me reviewing dozens of creative versions for each shot.
I am also a fan of breaking up the hero work between more than one vendor. The CGI War Machine / Pod shots were critical to the success of the movie and I assumed our appetite for big CGI shots would grow during production. I did not want to put the stress of adding complicated CGI shots during editorial on just one vendor.
Framestore Melbourne was the lead vendor for the War Machine asset and shared their completed textured model with Rising Sun Pictures (RSP) in Adelaide. RSP was the lead vendor and only vendor dealing with the POD asset. For consistency, RSP had to render the War Machine to be able to match Framestore, for look and animation.
War Machine features a mix of large-scale environments, intense combat, and a central robotic creature. From the start of the project, what were the main visual effects challenges you identified, and how did they shape your overall VFX strategy for the film?
The main challenge was Pat wanted a creature movie that looks real. Set in a traditional war zone ‘look and feel’ with all the grit, dirt, smoke and debris that we are accustomed to in a war movie. My job was to allow not just for the CGI creature cuts, but all the surrounding cuts so VFX could maintain consistency of look thru out an entire sequence.
Pat wanted practical explosions and debris wherever possible. This was great to have on set. In post, sometimes we were able to maintain the practical, other times it was completely replaced to make it fit the desired action continuity. The practical always gave us real world reference to match our CGI with. Regarding the War Machine creature, the challenge was to make it feel like it was in a horror movie. Imposing, creepy lighting matched with animation that gave it mass and weight. It needed to move like the 100 ton machine it was. Whenever the machine moved too quickly, we were not as happy as look and feel as when moving more slowly, so shots were designed around this tenet. The strategy was to be grounded in a gritty war movie reality.
The War Machine plays a central role in the film. Can you talk about the early stages of its design and how you worked with the filmmakers to define its silhouette, scale, and personality?
The design of the robot began in January 2025 with four different concept artists, each creating unique versions of the War Machine. We would meet via ZOOM with each artist and discuss the attributes of their design.
Most important to the movie was for the designer to understand all of the attributes of the War Machine, from pod design, transition from pod to walking machine and all the various weaponry the machine would use during the film. In the end we chose the design by Alex Senechal (AS) in Tblisi, Georgia. His concepts best incorporated the multitude of design complexities that the War Machine / Pod needed to demonstrate during the movie.
When creating a large mechanical creature like this robot, conveying a believable sense of weight and mass is crucial. What were the main animation challenges in making its movement feel heavy, powerful, and grounded?
The robots movements were always front and center in our thought process. This affected design from the beginning, we had to believe this machine was walking around in the real world. Patrick and I were obsessed that we did not design something that we did not like how it would move or be limit to how it would move due to design.
The joints of the War Machine are magnetic for the hips, legs, knees and feet splaying out with each step. This was part of the design by Alex Senechal. No ball and socket or simple hinging. This allowed us to contract and extend leg length (leg plates slide up and down within themselves at the hip and knee) as needed so the War Machine could step onto or over something without any odd hinging or leaning movement from the robot torso. This looks really convincing.
The initial dev walk cycles created by AuroraAI in Sydney, we manipulated each of the above until we found what made everyone happy. This was then given to Framestore who perfected the movement of the robot. That was then shared with RSP.
What kind of references did the team study when developing the robot’s movement and behaviour?
Some of the War Machine designs were radically different from the final design choice. Each designer knew that the movement of the War Machine was critical, not just living the look, but we also had to love that way it would move. Alex Senechal did the very initial movements of the joints of the War Machine, and those movement studies were one of the factors in choosing this design.
The War Machine interacts directly with natural elements, including rivers and waterfalls. What were the main technical challenges in simulating those water interactions, especially when such a massive creature moves through them?
Pat had said from the beginning the War Machine would need to show mass by interacting with its environment. This was always critical in making the War Machine feel like it was physically moving in shot and part of my breakdown for all shots where the War Machine’s feet were visible.
The technical challenges for these interactions are not new as that pipeline is pretty well known today. I understood that the War Machine would have to sink into / displace soft ground, kick up dust on hard ground and push / displace / drip liquid when moving in water. RSP and Framestore did a great job making us believe that the War Machine was walking on our set.
The film also features a Rangers encampment and several military environments. How much of these locations were practical builds versus digital environments, and how did the VFX team extend them into the surrounding forests and mountains?
I am big believer in scanning sets and practical environments. I am a commercial pilot and own 2 drones. I photogrammetry / gaussian splat scan and solve virtually all VFX sets and environments. I find since I know exactly how each set or env will be used, it is best if I scan them myself to be sure I get the detail that is needed for each shot.
Victor DiMichina on the production VFX team solved the geo / splats / textures for each scan. We then supply them to each vendor as a textured model or splat.
Each location that the War Machine had to interact with or sweep with its blue lasers in the movie was scanned. I scanned the entire river crossing location via drone from then middle of the river. I shot the hero video for the waterfall scene at a river in NZ. The river did not have a waterfall, but the look of the rapids / water flow in the river was really nice. I drone scanned that entire environment to supply to RSP textured geo. RSP then masterfully created the CGI environment for the waterfall shots as well as created CGI water.
For the ending sequence oner, I scanned and supplied to Framestore a one kilometer long section of a rock wall in NZ. Framestrore then created a full CGI environment for the War Machine and Guardian (tank vehicle) for about 4 minutes of the movie.
The first view of the Ranger base in Colorado was shot in Australia and the entire view of the base and mountains beyond it are CGI created Fin Design Effects in Australia. They replaced the terrain with CGI trees, ranger base / buildings, moving vehicles and soldiers.
Fin also created all the shots of the ranger base we shot at Point Cook / Laverton military base in AUS. They removed practical planes and buildings that did not fit our look, added CGI helicopters, added mountains via 2D DMP for each shot.
There are several action moments involving tanks and a chase sequence. How did you combine practical vehicles, stunt work, and digital augmentation to achieve those sequences?
Production built a practical ‘Guardian’ tank vehicle, they removed the body off of a Mercedes Unimog vehicle and built a wooden body to resemble the military M1117 Guardian. We had that build scanned. Production shot a chase sequence with the practical driving Guardian, allowing for VFX to add the CGI War Machine and all the laser hits on the Guardian as well Orbs (grenade) flying plus explosions. As is always the case in editorial, when you assemble a scene, you move shots around to best fit the look needed for the story. To achieve the desired result, VFX switches between the practical Guardian and the CGI Guardian from cut to cut in the sequence. We add CGI explosions and damage along with practical.
The ‘carpet bomb’ part of the sequence, where the War Machine launches a barrage of orbs at the Guardian, all of the explosions, ground hits, fireballs are CGI created by Framestore. In many cases Framestore added CGI trees nearest the road to allow for interactions needed from the fireballs and debris.
One of the highlights is the battle between the tank and the robot. From a VFX perspective, what were the key elements in choreographing that confrontation and ensuring the scale of both machines felt convincing?
The night quarry fight between the earth mover and War Machine required a CGI War Machine, a CGI earth mover to replace the practical when needed so that the movement of the War Machine upon the earth mover would look realistic. We freely switch between practical earth mover and CGI earth mover thru out the sequence. The quarry set was photogrammetry scanned with my drone and supplied to Framestore as a full CGI model.
Framestore also freely switches between the practical quarry environment and full CGI build environment as needed when the War Machine need to interact with the quarry walls. Shots where the earth mover did not move in a realistic way due to interaction with the War Machine, Framestore frequently replaced much or all of the scene with CGI env, earth mover and War Machine to achieve the best result.
For scale of the War Machine, virtually all shots had a scale stick in shot that needed to be painted out. Plus having the full CGI model of the env to scale, allowed us line up the photoG to the production shot, instantly giving us distance and scale to any object within the scene and instant scale when we add the 7+ meter tall War Machine robot.
The film includes a striking oner inside the tank during the action. How complex was that sequence from a visual effects standpoint, and what kind of invisible work was required to maintain the illusion of a continuous shot?
This scene was extremely complex. First the creative / editorial side was very involved, we had to make sure the audience understood all of the story beats. Patrick and Andy Canny (editor) spent lots of time going thru various edits of this sequence. Then they would come to me and discuss the options they had come up with and I would offer suggestions from the VFX side that might help with the story telling.
Next I spent a tremendous amount of time chatting with Joao Sita at Framestore to get both the story beats and the ‘look’ desires for each cut of the 3+ minute long sequence. Joao and team did an amazing job creatively and technically executing this sequence and offering additional creative options for us to consider.
The interior oner beats were created by stitching multiple different takes with whip pans and creative wipes. VFX was responsible for a fully CGI environment for about 3+ continuous minutes of the movie. Every exterior shot plus views from inside the Guardian looking out are a full CGI ENV. During the interior portions, VFX had to tell the story of the degradation of the Guardian, all interior smoke, debris, sparks and holes that appear in the back of the guardian due to the War Machine shooting at them are CGI generated. They get progressively heavier as the scene moves forward.
The interior Guardian set was a build placed on a gimbal on a blue screen stage. The Guardian exterior was full CGI thru out. All the interactivity, dust, debris and smoke the guardian trailed behind it was generated by VFX. The design of this exterior environment was created by Framestore, and consisted of many iterations in order to get all creative and studio sign offs.
How long have you worked on this show?
Just under 3 years.
What’s the VFX shots count?
We delivered just over 1300 VFX shots, about 1050 of them are in the final cut.
What is your next project?
Ally Clark for Amazon Studios.
A big thanks for your time.
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Framestore: Dedicated page about War Machine on Framestore website.
Rising Sun Pictures: Dedicated page about War Machine on Rising Sun Pictures website.
© Vincent Frei – The Art of VFX – 2026
