Devs Behind the Scenes

VFX Online June 7, 2020, 7:13 am 1.8k Views

Devs Behind the Scenes

Devs is an American science fiction thriller television miniseries created, written, and directed by Alex Garland that premiered on March 5, 2020, on Hulu, as part of FX on Hulu.

Lily Chan (Sonoya Mizuno) is a software engineer for Amaya, a quantum computing company run by Forest (Nick Offerman). Lily soon becomes embroiled in the mysterious death of her boyfriend, who died on the first day of his new job at Devs. The series explores themes related to free will and determinism, as well as Silicon Valley culture. It received generally positive reviews, with critics praising its imagination, acting, and soundtrack.

Devs Visual Effects by DNEG

‘Devs’ marks DNEG’s third collaboration with Writer and Director Alex Garland, having previously worked on the award-winning ‘Ex Machina’ and ‘Annihilation’.

Led by VFX Supervisor Andrew Whitehurst, DNEG’s TV VFX crew worked on 268 shots over all 8 episodes of the series. The team was brought on to the show at the beginning of pre-production to explore some of the more complex visual ideas that feature in the series, including how the multiverse might be realised.

The location at the heart of the series is the Devs building itself, a brutalist bunker structure in a remote meadow containing a giant floating Cube, home of the Devs laboratories and the quantum computer. VFX and the art department worked together to design both structures.

As well as the Devs Cube itself, DNEG sculpted a full 3D model of the 60m tall statue of Amaya, a little girl. The actress was scanned using a photogrammetry approach to allow a greater freedom of movement and gesture. Several poses were shot and director Alex Garland selected the one he preferred. DNEG then modelled the statue based on the scan.

Devs Visual Effects by Nviz

Nviz team up with Alex Garland once again to provide VFX for his new series, Devs.

Devs, written and directed by Alex Garland has been one of the most talked about dramas this year, and has captured all of our imaginations.

Not surprisingly, considering Garland’s credentials (Annihilation, Ex-Machina), Devs presents an intellectual mind-bender of an experience to the viewer, that toys with the use of quantum computing to simulate the future using the ideology of determinism

Set in the near future, the series follows the story of a group of developers (‘devs’) who are recruited by tech company, Amaya. However, the work is shrouded in mystery and the developers don’t even know what the department does.

Nviz were thrilled to collaborate on the project with Alex Garland, and VFX Supervisor Andrew Whitehurst, working on over 120 shots including complex 3D environment work.

Devs Visual Effects by Outpost VFX

As one of the most exciting writers and directors working in sci-fi today, Alex Garland is no stranger to intelligent, thought-provoking features like Ex Machina and Annihilation.

Starring Sonoya Miyazuno, Devs follows Lily who investigates a tech company that she suspects is involved in her boyfriend’s disappearance.

Outpost VFX is thrilled to be a part of his newest venture, Devs, which marks Alex Garland’s first foray into television.

“Working with Andrew Whitehurst, Overall VFX Supervisor and the team was an ideal scenario from start to finish,” says Outpost VFX Producer Josh Sykes. “The work required was mostly of a cosmetic nature but this brings its own challenges when working in 4K. The team did a fantastic job keeping such exact consistency across all eight episodes, and it was a great experience working on an Alex Garland project.”

Devs is available to watch now on Hulu.