Union creates surreal and magical VFX for The Sandman
Brie Clayton May 16, 2023
0 Comments
The Union team delivered effects ranging from invisible environment work to supernatural elements for across the series
Fantastical creatures, surreal environments and a chaotic dreamworld provided ample opportunity for Union to flex their creative muscles in this Netflix series based on The Sandman comic books. Neil Gaiman collaborated with comic veterans David S. Goyer and Allan Heinberg to develop the show, which follows Dream, the personification of dreams and nightmares, as he sets out to right the wrongs of his past after being imprisoned for over a hundred years.
Visually, The Sandman is a phantasmagoria that takes in scenes of spectacular gothic architecture, brooding city streets, surreal dreamscapes and a fiery Hell dimension, as well as real-world locations that needed to look grounded and true-to-life.
Union tackled a wide variety of shot types that ranged from straightforward sequences based in the real world, to abstract scenes located in the world of the dreaming, as well as many shots that contained surreal elements but took place in reality.
For example, the Dream Palace corridor and The Dreaming CG environments had elements of the supernatural and existed in the Dream world, but needed to work with foreground plates and environments partly grounded in reality.
The endless meadow was less CG reliant and shot on location on a hillside, but needed to be transformed into a more surreal environment, so lines of CG cherry trees with falling blossoms were added, along with some other meadow enhancements.
Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!
This happens because the functionality/content marked as Vimeo framework uses cookies that you choosed to keep disabled. In order to view this content or use this functionality, please enable cookies: click here to open your cookie preferences.
In another sequence, the movement of a CG feather used for Dream's summoning and capture had to be carefully finessed, finding the balance between the convincing physics of a falling feather, and the supernatural float and rise.
As the story takes place across multiple timelines, some of the scenes set in the real world required a lot of work to make them look like the correct time period. The views across the Thames by the tavern in Episode 6 were shot against green screens and required extensive DMP/CG environments, says Union VFX Supervisor Dillan Nicholls. These scenes took place across dramatically different time periods and required a lot of research, as well as a 2.5D build of the tavern through the ages. We needed to maintain a balance between making it recognisably the same location across the river, while also showing that area of London evolve over hundreds of years from green fields to present day Canary Wharf.
May 16, 2023Maxon Continues to Provide Regular Value-Packed ReleasesMay Release Boasts AMD GPU Support for Redshift, Improvements to Unreal Integration,
May 12, 2023Unreal Engine 5.2 is now available!Unreal Engine 5.2 is now available. With this release, UE5's groundbreaking toolset
This substantial work was Union's biggest sequence on the show, and they in fact did most of the VFX in Episode 6. In some instances the team were given free reign creatively, in others they had to work within some tricky constraints. Some of the transition shots had a very open brief, or in some cases the brief had changed since shooting so there was a lot of problem solving on these sequences, looking for solutions that worked aesthetically in the world of the show while also being technically achievable with the plates provided, says Dillan.
Filming took place exclusively in the UK, so further DMP and CG work was required to make Hal's house and the surrounding area look like Florida, and to make a driving scene with Corinthian and Jed look like it was taking place in Georgia.
On top of these larger sequences, Union supplied a plethora of smaller effects across the show including blood and gore enhancements; removing crew and modern elements; concepts, lookdev and comp for the Dream Palace CG corridors; location enhancements and preparation for the Dream capture sequence; Death's wing shadows; lookdev and enhancements for the magical glow effect of Dream's Ruby.
Union worked across all 11 episodes of S1, notching up a shot count of over 300. The Sandman is produced by Warner Brothers for Netflix and is available to stream now.
Enjoying the news? Sign up for the Creative COW Newsletter! Sign up for the Creative COW newsletter and get weekly updates on industry news, forum highlights, jobs, inspirational tutorials, tips, burning questions, and more! Receive bulletins from the largest, longest-running community dedicated to supporting professionals working in film, video, and audio.
Enter your email address, and your first and last name below!
-- Sign up: * indicates required
Email Address *
Name
--
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
13/05/2026
New Adobe Premiere Color Grading Mode Accelerated on NVIDIA GPUs
Joel Pennington May 13, 2026
0 Comments
New NVIDIA RTX-accelerated features streamlin...
13/05/2026
Grass Valley announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside broadcast (OB) trucks for Cloudbass, featuring Grass Valley LDX 100 Series cameras a...
13/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast production cameras, control units, viewfinders and monitors on stand 5D3-1 at Broadcast...
13/05/2026
FISE, working with the founding members of the XR Sports Alliance (XRSA), Accedo, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and HBS, have collaborated to develop an immersive...
13/05/2026
Canon Unveils New EOS R6 V Full-Frame EOS Camera and RF20-50mm F4 L IS USM PZ Bu...
13/05/2026
Boston Conservatory at Berklee Honors Beth Morrison and Moses Pendleton at Comme...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
13/05/2026
Creative software developer Foundry today announced the latest developments on Nuke Stage. A purpose-built application for end-to-end virtual production and in-...
13/05/2026
A definitive portrait of one of Ireland's most influential musicians
New TV documentary airs Monday 18 May on RT One and RT Player at 9.35pm
Watch the...
13/05/2026
Agentic AI is changing the way users get work done. Following the success of OpenClaw, the community is embracing new open source agentic frameworks. The latest...
13/05/2026
Reinforcement-learning agents - AI systems that learn by trial and error - can c...
12/05/2026
Beyond the Hype: A Strategic Post-Hoc Analysis of NAB 2026 If NAB Show 2026 had an underlying theme, it was a quiet, industry-wide pivot from the high-energy sp...
12/05/2026
Guntermann and Drunck (G&D), a Panoptec Technologies Group company, and CT Square, led by Chandresh Shah, have announced a joint venture to distribute G&D and V...
12/05/2026
With 30 days until the start of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Telemundo, the exclusive Spanish-language home of the tournament in the United States, has announced th...
12/05/2026
The NHL has announced the return of Stanley Pup for its third consecutive year, a 90-minute special featuring adoptable rescue dogs competing on a miniature rin...
12/05/2026
NBCUniversal presented its 2026 Upfront to advertisers at Radio City Music Hall, detailing upcoming programming across NBC, Peacock, Bravo, and Versant properti...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced funding for the Fandom and Social Connection Initiative at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Publ...
12/05/2026
TNDV and Live Media, both divisions of Live Media Group, supported live broadcast coverage around NCAA Final Four weekend in Indianapolis, including the March M...
12/05/2026
The European Football Alliance (EFA) has announced a content distribution agreement with Fubo Sports Network, the free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) channel ...
12/05/2026
For the first time, Spanish-speaking fans in the U.S. will have two separate tel...
12/05/2026
CP Communications led a comprehensive spectrum management initiative on behalf of Churchill Downs during Kentucky Derby week, coordinating RF assets across the ...
12/05/2026
LiveU has announced a strategic partnership with DRONERESPONDERS, a 501(c)3 non-...
12/05/2026
Open Broadcast Systems has announced that BMC TV, a specialist in IP transport of broadcast content, has selected the Open Broadcast Systems 5G Flyaway solution...
12/05/2026
NEP Europe, part of NEP Group, has announced it will deliver broadcast solutions...
12/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced continued collaboration with Ravensbourne University ...
12/05/2026
Stats Perform has announced the launch of Opta Pulse, an AI-assisted video creation and distribution platform for leagues, rights holders, and broadcasters. The...
12/05/2026
FOX Sports has announced a collaboration with Sesame Workshop to integrate Sesame Street characters into FOX Sports' FIFA World Cup 2026 programming. Conten...
12/05/2026
To date, NHL Productions has produced 19 broadcasts with commentary in American Sign Language
NHL in ASL (American Sign Language) may be just one show, but the...
12/05/2026
Google's Brian Albert: creators, athletes, highlights, nostalgia, second-scr...
12/05/2026
A still from Past Lives by Celine Song, an official selection of the Premieres program at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival. (Courtesy of Sundance Institute | p...
12/05/2026
Spotify is where fans and artists come together, turning discovery into somethin...
12/05/2026
Features patented Marco-MMC clocking technology
Black Lion Audio's latest release combines the company's expertise in clocking with their renowned p...
12/05/2026
New Track Panel, sequencer upgrades & more
Following their recent public beta release, Reason Studios have announced the full release of Reason 14. With the...
12/05/2026
One month to go! SBS reveals expansive FIFA World Cup 2026 lineup beyond the pi...
12/05/2026
Rohde & Schwarz presents its advanced solutions for power electronics testing at...
12/05/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, has developed a modified fund raising p...
12/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
12/05/2026
Tyrell Corporation, specialists in high-end live sports and entertainment broadcasts, was tasked with delivering compelling broadcast coverage of premier equest...
12/05/2026
Registration is now open for IBC2026 as the global media, entertainment and technology community prepares to converge on the RAI Amsterdam from 11 14 September ...
12/05/2026
Ross Video, a global leader in live video production technology, will present its latest innovations and integrated production workflows at BroadcastAsia 2026, ...
12/05/2026
500 selected leaders from around the world across start-ups, corporates, and venture capital. Over 50bn in assets under management among attending investors, a...
Union creates surreal and magical VFX for The Sandman 
