Mythological VFX from Freefolk on Netflix’s Kaos
Posted on Nov 14, 2024 by Samara Husbands
Visual effects by Freefolk bring Olympus to life, with stunning CG creations of Zeus’ palace, storm-filled skies, and mythological landscapes in Kaos
Hands up if you’ve been enjoying Kaos, Netflix’s modern Greek myth romp. Starring Jeff Goldblum as Zeus, this dark, hilarious series places the gods of Olympus in the modern world, desperately trying to hold on to their relevance.
The impressive VFX on this show were delivered by Freefolk, led by VFX supervisor Steve Murgatroyd; CG supervisor Harin Hirani; VFX executive producer Meg Guidon; VFX producer Hannah Dakin; and VFX production coordinator Regan Perry. The team’s job involved creating the fully CG Mount Olympus, including Zeus’ palace and the fabled mountain, as well as the surrounding cloudscape and atmospheric fog elements.
“The eye-popping first shot of Zeus’ abode was a key sequence,” explains Murgatroyd. “Being tasked with not only the first shot of the series but also establishing Zeus’ decadent dwelling was incredibly exciting and challenging. It had to be both breathtaking and believable, as well as feeling immense, lavish, rich and beautiful.”
The surface of the mountain was sculpted by hand and based on references, with rocks and stones layered on top. Each and every tree, plant and bush scattered on the mountain was carefully considered, mixing in the vibrant greens of Cypress trees with pockets of warm pink from wisteria decorating the walls of the gardens and mansion. “We built a number of bespoke set dressing assets like fountains, statues and garden furniture. All of these details were key to making it feel like a real, living place,” he continues. “We also designed the dramatic thunderstorms orchestrated by the king of gods. To make this extreme weather work well, the VFX team had to control the composition of the clouds and the speed they developed.”
Hirani elaborates: “We generated several cloud simulations in Houdini, starting from birth to over 3000 frames. These were then randomly rotated, scaled, offset and pieced together to create the larger storm structure. We were then able to retime these caches on a per-shot basis to achieve the speed we wanted. Other cloud layers – like the distant ones and the surrounding base clouds the storm sat on – were developed procedurally.
“A challenge for this sequence was that storms are usually seen from below, where they appear dark due to their density, which blocks out light,” he adds. “In this sequence, thanks to the gods’ lofty location, we look at the storm from above. We had to creatively darken the clouds’ shadows in compositing to make them appear dense and stormy to show their progression.”
Other key tasks included creating the Frame on the River Lethe, which mortals pass through on their way to renewal into another life. The numerous other VFX sequences included creating Prometheus’ Cliff, Hera’s collection of Tacita’s tongues, a CG gold statue of Zeus and a huge concert stadium with crowd replication.
