One of the best television shows of the last few years wasPeacemaker, which ended its 8 episode first season last month. The show was a great combination of emotional storytelling, hilarious Rated-R laughs, and brutal action that bolstered some impressive special effects. Over the last couple of weeks, the series creator, writer, and directorJames Gunnhas been peeling back the layers of the series, and his latest video shows fans what went into the visual effects work.
The over 2-minute video starts with a hilarious spoiler warning telling people to go watch the series because “seriously it’s amazing,” and the footage begins showing what went into Eagly. If you did not know he was an entirely digital creation, then we could not blame you because the effect is just that good. We see the different layers of Eagly, from the bone to the meat to the feathers, and it is a much more in-depth process than one might think.
Most of the time,John Cena’sPeacemaker was just interacting with and hilariously petting air. The one scene where Cena did have a physical prop to work with was when the police were storming his trailer, and we see Peacemaker throw what looks to be a foam tube in place of Eagly. Like the previous scene, we see the work that went into them digitally removing the prop and adding Eagly, which makes you appreciate the VFX artists that much more.
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In the Butterfly portion of the video, we see Peacemaker’s first encounter with the alien life-form in the infamous cave torture sequence. We get to see the breakdown of when Peacemaker shoots one of the host’s faces off. Like with Eagly, it takes us through all the different stages, including adding blood, gore enhancements, and the Butterfly leaving the host’s body.
Another scene we get to see is when Peacemaker gets hilariously high with Goth. Two different effects are happening simultaneously here, from the rendering of Goth to the enhancement of the smoke with light tricks and the eventual integration of the two effects. The last scene we see with the Butterflies is the memorable “Monster” needle drop moment during the police station invasion. It takes us through that iconic shot of actorLochlyn Munrobeing chased by a swarm of Butterflies and shows the various things that were done to insert them into the shot, like texturing, coloring, and highlighting. We also get a look at the x-ray vision effect for Peacemaker’s new helmet when he scansDanielle Brooks’Adebayo. Like the previous scenes, we see the many stages of the effect — from the bones to the muscles to the organs.
The Final part of the behind-the-scenes video presents a montage of all the great action stunt work. We even get another peel-back-the-layer moment where we see the many stages that went into the impressive gorilla effect, like the skin, fur, and the beast’s beauty. The cow in the finale also gets the same treatment as we see its CGI combined with its electrified cage. The last thing shown off is the effect of the sonic boom helmet, which was a digital explosion on top of a blue-screen effect.
Throughout its first season,Peacemakerimpressed audiences with its attention to detail and its seamless blend of practical stunt work with visually pleasing special effects. This new behind-the-scenes video is the antithesis of that, and it is always nice to see a usually under-appreciated part of a crew get some love from their director. Gunn’s wildly bombastic series has already beenrenewed for Season 2, and this video makes the wait for the new season that much harder.
