Blackmagic Design today announced that LA based Muse VFX uses Fusion Studio for their VFX work on “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series,” the hit television show from El Rey Network and Miramax®.

“From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series” centers on the story of the Gecko Brothers and expands on the horror film franchise developed by Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino. In a world filled with crime and Culebras (immortal reptilian vampires), the television series requires skilled VFX work from the team at Muse VFX. Tackling every thing from Culebra transformations, blood splattered scenes and vampire immolations, the Muse VFX team uses Fusion Studio and Generation, Fusion’s multi-user management software, as the backbone for its pipeline.

“Episodic work requires feature film quality,” said Fred Pienkos, founder and VFX supervisor. “Fusion has a long track record of being fast and scalable, giving the highest quality results with the quickest rendering and processing and that still holds true. That type of productivity and intuitiveness in our tools is what’s needed to keep pace with today’s post production schedules.”

Operating as a tight knit team, Muse VFX is owned and run by artists. The Hollywood VFX boutique tackles big work without having to have a huge team, and relies on Fusion’s customization abilities to collaborate and speed up the VFX process. With Fusion, they are able to design an effect and then efficiently repurpose the nodes, macros and elements across the team and project to maintain high quality and consistency from shot to shot.

“The combination of good special effects and visual effects always leads to the best results,” said John Gross, founder and Creative Director. “On ‘From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series,’ the make up FX team did a fantastic job designing the Culebra look. One of our jobs with Fusion is to handle the transition from human to Culebra both seamlessly and believably, mixing reality with the supernatural.”

“It’s also up to us to tackle the non-practical blood. With horror at its core, blood is a large part of the show’s storytelling. It can be subtle or hit the audience over the head, but its look has to be consistent and authentic throughout the series. There was attention given to trying to get the color exactly right and Fusion guarantees the blood will be the exact crimson color that we need every time, regardless of the different environments and lighting conditions” added Pienkos.

Recently, the Muse VFX team was challenged with a particularly tricky scene that required a CG shot of an eight foot long, two headed snake. An actress was shot holding a real snake and then the Muse VFX team was charged with replacing its tail with a secondary head.

“Doing VFX for half of the snake posed certain challenges because it had to match the lighting and coloring of the real half, down to how light refracted off it’s scales,” explained Pienkos. “What’s nice about using Fusion is the stability and speed, empowering us to get things done. Without having to worry about technical issues, we’re able to focus on the task at hand — in this case, a mythical and mysterious serpent.”

Press Photography

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About Blackmagic Design

Blackmagic Design creates the world’s highest quality video editing products, digital film cameras, color correctors, video converters, video monitoring, routers, live production switchers, disk recorders, waveform monitors and real time film scanners for the feature film, post production and television broadcast industries. Blackmagic Design’s DeckLink capture cards launched a revolution in quality and affordability in post production, while the company’s Emmy™ award winning DaVinci color correction products have dominated the television and film industry since 1984. Blackmagic Design continues ground breaking innovations including 6G-SDI and 12G-SDI products and stereoscopic 3D and Ultra HD workflows. Founded by world leading post production editors and engineers, Blackmagic Design has offices in the USA, UK, Japan, Singapore and Australia. For more information, please go to www.blackmagicdesign.com.

About Muse VFX

Muse VFX is an award winning boutique of VFX artists and producers with a long track record of successful productions. The Muse core belief is that a happy team makes happy clients. The Muse team loves what they do and that shows in the experience of working with them. For more information please visit www.musevfx.com