The Orville VFX Breakdown by Pixomondo

The Orville VFX Breakdown by Pixomondo

The Orville is an American science fiction comedy-drama series created by and staring Seth McFarlane.

Inspired heavily by the philosophical and progressive stances made famous by Gene Rodenberry’s Star Trek , this thrilling episodic follows the crew of The Orville as they embark on various diplomatic and exploratory missions.

VFX Supervisor Nhat Phong Tran on The Orville

Shot and edited by Pixomondo’s Paul James Bird
Produced and directed by Pixomondo’s Zorianna Kit

Pixomondo previsualized over 1400 unique shots for the 13-episode second season, including over 350 shots for the universally acclaimed 2-part episode, Identity.

Being used more than just as a narrative guideline, the previs for The Orville was systematically treated as the final shots in edit by the production. The visualization lended itself beyond just a template for action choreography and composition, but was heavily utilized in the art directive side as well – helping establish lighting cues, ship design, color theory, and general look development for the show.

Because the production was so invested in the previs, it provided a 1:1 blueprint for the finals team and brought Seth’s creative vision to life almost a year before each episode hit network.

General Stats:

1400 previs/postvis/techvis shots over 13-episode run.
Shot production went for 1 year – starting from the writers room and extending to just a few weeks before each episode’s airing.
Team consisted of a Supervisor plus an average of 3 artists – with the team expanding to accommodate each episode’s layout phase.

PXO Previsualization Supervisor: Matt McClurg
PXO VFX Supervisor: Nhat Phong Tran
PXO VFX Producer: Dan Carbo

// For more info:

Official Pixomondo page of The Orville
Official IMDB page of The Orville