damsel
My main role on this project was lighting and look development, but because of my background in FX, a large part of my work naturally became FX-focused lighting and integration.
I mainly worked on the look development and lighting for the dragon death sequence and the dragon cave, and I was also involved in rendering and integrating the dragon fire during the dragon death sequence.
Working across both lighting and FX gave me a strong advantage when dealing with complex effects-driven shots. It allowed me to build setups where the FX and lighting could be adjusted together, rather than treating them as completely separate departments.
This became especially important in sequences where dragon fire and ice effects interact directly with each other. In situations like this, the final result depends not only on the simulations themselves, but also on how their emission, scattering, illumination, color, exposure, and surrounding environment react together.
Having experience on both sides made it possible to create more flexible, art-directable setups and solve visual problems directly at the intersection of FX and lighting.
For this kind of shot, combining FX knowledge with lighting and look development is particularly valuable, because the effects themselves often become major light sources and have a direct impact on the final composition and readability of the sequence.