Pixomondo – Game of Thrones

Breathing life into the show's ferocious fire-breathing CG beasts.​

Dragons form one of the most critical elements of HBO’s TV series Game of Thrones, and we have followed their lives from cute cat-sized hatchlings to 80-foot ferocious winged lizards. Effects house Pixomondo has served as digital dragon supervisor since season two of the show.

To begin with, Pixomondo modelled the then-flightless creatures after chickens. It even bought one from a local grocery store to figure out the range of movement of its muscles and bones. As the creatures got bigger, Pixomondo drew on a wider range of sources from the natural world: komodo dragons, iguanas, horned lizards, and even Jurassic Park’s dinosaurs.

The team also used numerous techniques to ensure the dragons naturally interacted with the show’s actors, from ye olde tennis ball on a stick, to a flamethrower mounted on a computer-controlled camera crane.

It all adds up to some of the most realistic dragons ever to grace the small screen—and seasons two to five were rendered in V-Ray by Pixomondo.