‘Dune: Prophecy’ VFX Team on Pulling Off That Ice Storm Sequence and Returning to Arrakis
Dune Prophecy’s season finale sees Valya trapped in a chilling nightmare. She’s on a frozen lake, battling fierce winds and a relentless blizzard. In the scene, she finds herself trying to save her brother Griffin from drowning in an ice hole.
The harsh environment reflects her inner torment and emotions. As she crawls across it, black snow falls, and the lake starts to crack.
Set-wise, there was a flat representation of an ice field, but that didn’t give the VFX supervisors a sense of depth and value. Their challenge was that the scene needed to feel like ice. It was also important that they weren’t doing effect for effect’s sake, and everything needed to sell the story.
Visual effects producer Terron Pratt explains, “We transition between the black and white snow. That black snow is an element of the virus component that we were seeing earlier in Episode 5 when Sister Nazir (Karima McAdams) is going through this moment where she’s trying to fight the virus, and we’re seeing a visual representation of that virus in those hollow cubes where the virus is taking over. This is a further representation of that in a more substantial form.”
As black snowflakes fall, metaphorically, the virus is overtaking Valya, but she pushes back, and white snow starts to come through. Pratt says, “All of these components are part of the story, and add a layer of detail.”
The visual effects storytelling came together during post.
As intense as the snowstorm and sequence with Valya on the lake was, visual effects supervisor Michael Enriquez points out, they never wanted to call attention to the visual effects. “If you’re pulled out, if you’re affected, we’re not doing our job.” He continues, “The snow and the ice lake scene that was all background, it supports what’s going on, but it’s all about the dialogue and the moments that we’re experiencing there. So it could not take center stage.”
The other challenge was integrating the fantastical elements of the story since “Dune” is set 10,000 years in the future. Pratt says, “Things will feel different and look different. We don’t know. We can’t even imagine what that life will be like. But at the same time, we have to utilize effects that are grounded in reality so that the viewer can still understand what’s happening.”
Building the snow began with the art department coming up with concepts. Production designer Tom Meyer laid the groundwork for what that tone needed to be and feel like. From there, they started working on developing the environments and dialing into the details; they needed the snow to fall faster, or they needed to know when to add the black snow in, and darken the environment to reflect Valya’s turmoil.
The final shot of the sequences draws Valya to Arrakis, and the imagery shifts from ice to the familial warm sand dunes of Arrakis.
“Image engine actually did some concept art of a transition between that snowy environment and the dunes of Arrakis,” Pratt says. “It wasn’t the story we were necessarily going to tell. We were going to cut to Valya’s vision of Desmond’s mind’s eye and visually, it was such incredible artwork that it just made sense to incorporate that into that last shot.”
He continues, “As the whole environment warms up, sand can be seen rolling in. We’re getting that soft transition into the Arrakis environment, and then we cut into her vision.”
Their challenge was to get the flow right. “It didn’t feel right to cut into a warm color palette when we were already very cool. It felt jarring,” says Enriquez.
However, they worked closely with Image Engine VFX in Canada to help with the transition. “Thankfully, the way they approached it, it was relatively easy to retrofit the Arrakis components to the snow shots.”
Watch the video below.
The harsh environment reflects her inner torment and emotions. As she crawls across it, black snow falls, and the lake starts to crack.
Set-wise, there was a flat representation of an ice field, but that didn’t give the VFX supervisors a sense of depth and value. Their challenge was that the scene needed to feel like ice. It was also important that they weren’t doing effect for effect’s sake, and everything needed to sell the story.
Visual effects producer Terron Pratt explains, “We transition between the black and white snow. That black snow is an element of the virus component that we were seeing earlier in Episode 5 when Sister Nazir (Karima McAdams) is going through this moment where she’s trying to fight the virus, and we’re seeing a visual representation of that virus in those hollow cubes where the virus is taking over. This is a further representation of that in a more substantial form.”
As black snowflakes fall, metaphorically, the virus is overtaking Valya, but she pushes back, and white snow starts to come through. Pratt says, “All of these components are part of the story, and add a layer of detail.”
The visual effects storytelling came together during post.
As intense as the snowstorm and sequence with Valya on the lake was, visual effects supervisor Michael Enriquez points out, they never wanted to call attention to the visual effects. “If you’re pulled out, if you’re affected, we’re not doing our job.” He continues, “The snow and the ice lake scene that was all background, it supports what’s going on, but it’s all about the dialogue and the moments that we’re experiencing there. So it could not take center stage.”
The other challenge was integrating the fantastical elements of the story since “Dune” is set 10,000 years in the future. Pratt says, “Things will feel different and look different. We don’t know. We can’t even imagine what that life will be like. But at the same time, we have to utilize effects that are grounded in reality so that the viewer can still understand what’s happening.”
Building the snow began with the art department coming up with concepts. Production designer Tom Meyer laid the groundwork for what that tone needed to be and feel like. From there, they started working on developing the environments and dialing into the details; they needed the snow to fall faster, or they needed to know when to add the black snow in, and darken the environment to reflect Valya’s turmoil.
The final shot of the sequences draws Valya to Arrakis, and the imagery shifts from ice to the familial warm sand dunes of Arrakis.
“Image engine actually did some concept art of a transition between that snowy environment and the dunes of Arrakis,” Pratt says. “It wasn’t the story we were necessarily going to tell. We were going to cut to Valya’s vision of Desmond’s mind’s eye and visually, it was such incredible artwork that it just made sense to incorporate that into that last shot.”
He continues, “As the whole environment warms up, sand can be seen rolling in. We’re getting that soft transition into the Arrakis environment, and then we cut into her vision.”
Their challenge was to get the flow right. “It didn’t feel right to cut into a warm color palette when we were already very cool. It felt jarring,” says Enriquez.
However, they worked closely with Image Engine VFX in Canada to help with the transition. “Thankfully, the way they approached it, it was relatively easy to retrofit the Arrakis components to the snow shots.”
Watch the video below.