Yellow Brick Road

In the trailer for Creative Assembly’s upcoming game "Total War: Pharaoh" we meet a rather unlikely game cinematic hero: a scarab beetle. How did Goodbye Kansas come up with that idea and how was the trailer produced? Director Bengt-Anton Runsten, Senior Producer Calum Hart and Executive Creative Producer Jan Cafourek take us behind the scenes of the production, a story that includes boiling dead insects, scanning sun-dried soil and visual inspiration from 3000 old hieroglyphs.

Welcome to a world where fairies and mythical creatures walk the foggy streets of the late 1800s. In episode 69, Yellow Brick Road’s Nils Lagergren sits down with Executive Producer Matilda Olsson, VFX Supervisor Joel Lindman and Animation guru Staffan Linder to talk about Goodbye Kansas’ VFX production for season 2 of Prime Video’s Carnival Row. How do you make Orlando Bloom fight a giant troll, how do you mocap a flying fairy and how do you transform a human into a wolf?

In episode #68 of Yellow Brick Road we take a closer look at the character trailers that Goodbye Kansas produced for Bethesda's and Arkane Studios’ brand new game Redfall. Director Emnet Mulugeta, Art Director Tom Waldton and Illustrator Karl Johnson discuss the creative approach to partly work with a 2D Comic book style, how it feels to revisit characters you haven’t worked with for a while and the importance of team spirit in a production.

The announcement trailer for Arkane Austin and Bethesda Softworks new game Redfall was released in 2021. Yellow Brick Road’s Nils Lagergren sat down with Goodbye Kansas' Executive Producer Jörgen Lilja, director Emnet Mulugeta and VFX Supervisor Henrik Eklundh to discuss the production of that trailer – and now when the game is released we’re happy to share that conversation with you! So buckle up for some vampire hunting CG adventures!

Follow us behind the scenes of the VFX production for the third and final season of the great post-apocalyptic series “See”. VFX Supervisor Felipe Borges and Senior FX Artist Martin Widö explains how to create huge battle scenes using digital extras and what ingredients do you need to cook a perfect CG explosion.

In episode 65 we dive into Tom Clancy’s world of espionage and action, when Goodbye Kansas VFX Supervisor Jim Parsons and Compositing Lead Olov Samuelsson takes us behind the scenes of the VFX work for season 3 of the Amazon hit series “Tom Clancys’s Jack Ryan”. And follow us down Yellow Brick Road as we retrace the footsteps of on-screen Jack Ryans through the last decades, from Alec Baldwin in “Hunt for Red October” to John Krasinski. Have the old movies stood the test of time?

An efficient pipeline is always important when you produce CG productions and VFX. In episode #64 of ”Yellow Brick Road” we dive into the world of pipeline development – and USD. Pipeline Technical Director Dan Englesson and CG Supervisor Alexis Andersson share insights from the development of Goodbye Kansas Studios new USD pipeline. Why is USD superior to older systems and what are the challenges when you update pipelines?

Follow us out on the high seas, as director Emnet Mulugeta and VFX Supervisor Henrik Eklundh share stories from the production of the trailer for Ubisoft’s game “Skull & Bones”, produced by Goodbye Kansas Studios.

This week we discuss the coolest space bounty hunters of them all: Spike Spiegel, Jet Black and Faye Valentine in the classic anime series Cowboy Bebop - recently adapted as a live action series on Netflix. Goodbye Kansas Lighting Lead Ivor da Silva talks about his passion for anime in general – and Cowboy Bebop in particular. And what kind of VFX did Goodbye Kansas Studios deliver for the Netflix series?

Let’s talk real time production! In episode 61 of Yellow Brick Road, Realtime Artists Tim Hermes and Henrik Melsom discuss Unreal Engine 5, how game engines are changing the VFX industry and how Unreal Engine and its peers are used in the Goodbye Kansas Studios production pipeline. Also: what’s the difference between working on the development of a game and the production of a game cinematic?

How is it to work with Visual Effects and what career options are there in the VFX business? How important is a creative company culture and how has the pandemic and working from home affected the team spirit for VFX-artists? In episode #60 of our podcast “Yellow Brick Road” VFX Producer David Enbom and Compositing Artist Hannah Myllyoja answer questions from VFX students and discuss company culture, creativity and how to keep the passion for the craft alive.

In episode #59 of Yellow Brick Road we skydive into the world of Battle Royale style games. Director Emnet Mulugeta and VFX Supervisor Felipe Borges takes us behind the scenes of the production of the new cinematic trailer for Krafton’s popular game PUBG Battlegrounds. How was the trailer produced, where did they find their visual inspiration and how did they manage to produce this trailer in just four months?

Welcome to the world of teenage espionage. In episode #58 we meet VFX Supervisor Jim Parsons and CG Supervisor James Sutton, discussing Amazon’s teen spy series "Alex Rider" and the various visual effects Goodbye Kansas Studios created for season one and two, including a “killer drone” and a bunch of dead Aztec warriors. Also: how does Ray Harryhausen inspire modern VFX, is Hitchcock’s “The Lady Vanishes” the best spy movie ever and why on earth did Ken Russel get to direct Michael Caines third outing as Harry Palmer?

In episode #57 of our podcast Yellow Brick Road we meet VFX producer Paula Pope and VFX Supervisor Ditch Doy, discussing the various effects that Goodbye Kansas delivered for season 2 of Netflix’s supernatural horror series “Locke & Key”. Prepare for faceless living mannequins and "romantic fire effects". Also: why is it so scary with masks and is it true that we lose our urge to get scared as we grow older?

Follow us to the Capture Department at Goodbye Kansas HQ in Stockholm. In episode 56 of our podcast "Yellow Brick Road" we meet Capture veteran Chris Jestico, who shares stories from his career - including the Virtual Production of Steven Spielberg's "Ready Player One" - and talks about the many fascinating services provided by the Goodbye Kansas Capture Department, including 3D Scanning and Performance Capture.

How can you use VFX to depict hallucinations and what's a "glitter engine"? In episode 55 of Yellow Brick Road we meet VFX Supervisor Jason M Halverson, who takes us behind the scenes of Goodbye Kansas' VFX work for Amazon's ballet film "Birds of Paradise".

How was the VFX in BBC’s submarine thriller “Vigil” created? VFX Supervisor Jim Parsons and VFX producer Desirée Rydén from Goodbye Kansas Studios takes us behind the scenes of the VFX production of this year’s biggest BBC drama hit series.

In episode #53 we visit the foggy streets of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s 19th century London and meet thousands of aggressive digital birds! VFX Supervisor Jim Parsons, FX Supervisor Filip Orrby and Animation Supervisor Staffan Linder discuss the various Visual Effects created by Goodbye Kansas Studios for Netflix’s “The Irregulars”. What were their favourite shots and how was it to create Visual Effects in the middle of a pandemic lockdown?

How do you create a digital animal? In episode #52 of Yellow Brick Road, we discuss modeling, rigging and CFX with Senior Character Artist Magnus Eriksson, Rigging TD Stephanie Holder and Lead Character FX TD Ludvig Eliasson from Goodbye Kansas Studios. How was the stag in “A Discovery of Witches” made, how do you create a digital muscle system and why are birds more complicated to rig than other animals?

How do you create a CG locust swarm and what insect movies do we love the most? Line Producer Alexander Darnell, CG Supervisor Hannes Drossel and Senior Compositing artist Karl Rydhe talk about the locust effects in Outlander Season 5 and discuss their favourite insect movies. (recorded in april 2020)