The Orville Visual Effects Breakdowns

VFX Online June 2, 2019, 7:01 am 2k Views

The Orville Visual Effects Breakdowns

The Orville is an American science fiction comedy-drama television series created by and starring Seth MacFarlane for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on Sunday, September 10, 2017. MacFarlane stars as Ed Mercer, an officer in the Planetary Union’s line of exploratory space vessels. After his career takes a downturn following his divorce, he is given the ship Orville as his first command, only to discover that his ex-wife, Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki), has been assigned as his first officer. Inspired by several sources, including Star Trek and The Twilight Zone, the series tells the story of Mercer, Grayson, and the crew of the Orville as they embark on various diplomatic and exploratory missions.

The Orville is a joint production by Fuzzy Door Productions and 20th Century Fox Television and syndicated by 20th Television.

New episodes aired Thursdays on Fox during the 2017–18 season. On November 2, 2017, Fox renewed the series for a second season, hich premiered on December 30, 2018. On May 11, 2019, Fox renewed the series for a third season.

The Orville VFX 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.

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.

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

The Orville VFX by FuseFX

The FuseFX team did it up big with the most epic space battle sequence to ever hit your televisions.

Big Congrats to all of the artists and special thanks to Tommy Tran, Kevin LingenFelser, Melissa DeLong, and Matt Von Brock! If you missed it, hit play on your DVR, stream it on your OnDemand or watch this 60-secondd clip of pure AWESOME!

The Orville VFX by Tippett Studio

An American science fiction comedy-drama series created by and starring Seth MacFarlane. The Orville is set on the titular U.S.S. Orville (ECV-197), a mid-level exploratory space vessel in the Planetary Union, a 25th-century interstellar alliance of Earth and many other planets.

Tippett Studio worked on Season 1 and is currently completing work for Season 2.

Tippett is delighted to have blasted back into space for Season 2 of Seth MacFarlane’s popular FOX science fiction comedy-drama series, “The Orville.” Tippett was the sole VFX studio working on comical alien blob Yaphit, who works on the mid-level futuristic spaceship. Though lacking in bones and muscles, the translucent alien was a technological challenge for Tippett’s VFX crew.

“Yaphit is a surprisingly complex character – he is polymorphic and only emotes with his mouth. Plus, his transparency means long render times for complex lighting effects. On the animation side, we’ve loved being a part of Yaphit’s character development through the season, helping him mature from comedic sidekick to courageous hero.” Nicole Watt, VFX Producer.

Client: 20th Century Fox
Producers: Ken Kokka & Nicole Watt
VFX Supervisor: Eric Leven
Animation Supervisor: Brian Mendenhall

The Orville VFX by Eight VFX

Eight VFX, Check out this VFX breakdown from The Orville.

The Orville VFX by Stargate Studios

Stargate Studios, Check out this VFX breakdown from The Orville.

Meet the Editors of The Orville

Avid Presents: Meet the Editors, Tom Costantino, ACE, editor of the Seth MacFarlane show The Orville, and Assistant Editor Hillary Wills talk about using Media Composer | Ultimate for cutting the hilarious meld of sci-fi, action, drama, and comedy.