VFX Legion Crafts 100+ FX for Quantum Leap Debut Season
Brie Clayton May 10, 2023
0 Comments
The Team at the British Columbia and Los Angeles-Based Company Wrapped Work on the Sci-Fi Show's Season Finale Delivering the Effects for Quantum Leap's First Venture into the Far Future' and Moving on to Create Effects for the Sequel's Highly Anticipated Second Season.
Some contents or functionalities here are not available due to your cookie preferences!
This happens because the functionality/content marked as Google Youtube 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.
VFX Legion created over 100 digital effects for the premiere season of NBC Television Network's new series Quantum Leap,' creator Donald P. Bellisario's revival of the '90s sci-fi cult classic. Brought on board during pre-production of episode one, the LA and B.C.-based company stepped in during pre-production of the pilot, moving on to create a complex mix of 2D and 3D assets across the first season.
Quantum Leap' picks up 30 years after time-traveler Dr. Beckett (Scott Bakula) stepped into the Quantum Leap Accelerator and disappeared as a new team restarts the project. The story follows lead physicist Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) as he leaps through time and space navigating new challenges.
Co-Founders James David Hattin, Creative Director/VFX Supervisor, and VFX Producer Nate Smalley put together a bespoke group of artists with a range of disciplines. Hattin, based at Legion's flagship facility in Burbank, headed up the project ensuring that everyone shared a clear creative vision. Working seamlessly as a single unit, the studio's team in British Columbia and LA created a wide range of shots, compositing multiple digital elements that deliver powerful imagery.
A Range of VFX:
The team designed and animated the aircraft's flight control panel, undulating runway lights viewed from the cockpit providing visual cues for the nighttime landing, a hologram, and other CG elements.
Artists built a variety of complex computer-generated elements from the ground up, including a 747 jumbo jet, and a digitally rendered sky/ The team designed the aircraft's flight control panel illuminating gages with an animated mix of vivid colors, replicated the undulating runway lights viewed from the cockpit providing visual cues for the nighttime landing.
Digitally constructed shots include a multi-level nuclear reactor cooling room, an asylum, high-rise buildings, a turret on a battleship, and a Hologram. Set extensions replace large-scale blue screens with a digitally rendered mountain range, skies, and interior walls; matte paintings projected onto geometry 2.5D extend environments.
Dynamics augment shots with fluid simulations, rain, thunder, clouds, fire explosion, smoke, and debris replicating the organic look of real-world forces. Artists digitally deleted rigging, wires, and elements captured by the camera that didn't fit with the look of specific periods.
Each episode plays out in disparate locations and points in time, from a frontier town in 1889, an exorcism in 1938, a psychiatric asylum in 1954, a test site for a nuclear reactor in 1962, a Transglobal Airlines Flight in 1971, and a battleship in 1989 to the Quantum Leap Headquarters in LA in 2051, the far future.'
New effects drive the show's first journey to the future:
A continuum of the original Quantum Leap' premise following time travelers to the past the show makes its first journey to the far future.' Visual storytelling driven by a sequence of new effects works in tandem with the narrative to bring the new scenario to life.
Legion created a series of increasingly complex visual effects for Ben's seminal leap to the future in the season finale, Judgment Day. Minutes after he finds himself amid a nuclear winter at what remains of Quantum Leap's Headquarters the Accelerator begins trying to pull Ben back to the past.
Digital effects visually manifest the increasing strength of the Quantum Leap Accelerator as Ben struggles to resist its force. Ian Wright, the only member of their team to survive the apocalypse, quickly tries to bring Ben up to speed on three decades leading up to the catastrophic event and what he must do to keep it from becoming a reality before the Accelerator succeeds and yanks him back to the past.
Artists began creating the new look of the future' effects by developing a core' visual asset, an overall atmosphere that engulfs Ben. Building on it, the team designed a sequence of layered effects visually representing the Accelerator's progressively stronger force as he struggles to fight it. The ripple of multiple images of Ben increases as the Quantum Leap Accelerator's pull gets stronger.
When I first saw the concept art, I had a vision in my head for what it should look like, says Hattin. I started breaking down the Avid footage and creating iterations until it started to resemble the final look prior to the final jump back to the past. We then worked backwards to build the intensity of the Accelerator's pull on Ben over the course of two scenes.
Legion's 3D supervisor Blake Anderson used all the tools at his disposal in Maya to rapidly develop several moving textures that could be rendered from any angle, and work with a variety of shots.
We were able to track the motion of Ben and apply the distortion and fractal energy that is part of the base future effect using smart vectors. Roughly match-moved geometry was used to build several fluid simulations in Houdini to create the visible energy of the Accelerator trying to claw Ben back in time. Several Maya-based animated textur
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
19/08/2026
As the cost of IP nears price parity with traditional SDI, Reynolds argues that ...
19/08/2026
A private 5G bubble was chosen instead of traditional broadcast RF for the race ...
19/08/2026
(L-R) Rafael Manuel and Isabel Sicat attend the Filipi ana premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 23, 2026, in Park Cit...
19/08/2026
Studio owners invited to have their say on rates cuts
The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that ...
19/08/2026
Vintage-inspired desktop interface revealed
Harrison's latest hardware offering sees them head into the world of audio interfaces, delivering a 10-in/12...
19/08/2026
Granular effect remains locked to scale and tempo
Described as your dream granular effect , Minimal Audio's latest creation is capable of turning any s...
19/08/2026
First polyphonic SWAM instrument incoming
Audio Modeling's latest physical-modelling orchestral instrument is just around the corner, and is now availab...
19/08/2026
World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...
19/08/2026
July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...
19/08/2026
iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...
19/08/2026
NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...
19/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...
19/08/2026
LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...
19/08/2026
Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF
Brie Clayton August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Filming endangered turtles required camera...
19/08/2026
Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...
19/08/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...
19/08/2026
Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows
EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...
19/08/2026
Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...
19/08/2026
Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...
19/08/2026
There's an early Christmas gift for Bookish fans, as UKTV confirms the re-commission of the hit U&alibi drama, created by and starring Mark Gatiss. Viewers ...
19/08/2026
Wednesday 19 August 2026
Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
18/08/2026
Boland Communications will introduce a SMPTE ST 2110 input option for its 4K monitors at IBC2026, along with a new 55-inch super-narrow bezel display for video ...
18/08/2026
Dolby Laboratories and the Seattle Seahawks have announced a partnership integrating Dolby OptiView into the Seahawks' live streaming coverage, making the S...
18/08/2026
For BMG Executive Producer of Sports Production, Graham Taylor, producing live s...
18/08/2026
TMRW Sports has appointed Rufus Hack as President of Golf, a newly created role in which he will lead the company's golf businesses including TGL presented ...
18/08/2026
SMT will provide race technology for FOX Sports' coverage of the Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. on August 23, when the NTT INDYCAR SERIES races ...
18/08/2026
The live, YouTube-native roundtables combine fan voices, credentialed reporters,...
18/08/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
18/08/2026
The industry legend sounds off on replacing the Heat's iconic Medusa score...
18/08/2026
William F. Rasmussen, the sports fan-turned broadcaster and entrepreneur whose out-of-the-box idea of a 24-hour cable sports network, ESPN, changed forever the ...
18/08/2026
DAZN Group has completed its acquisition of ViewLift, a provider of streaming and digital solutions for sports content owners. The acquisition was first announc...
18/08/2026
The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) has added SI TV, Sports Illustrated's 24/7 streaming channel, as a broadcast partner for the remain...
18/08/2026
The Esports Foundation has announced that the inaugural Esports Nations Cup (ENC), originally scheduled for November 2026 in Riyadh, will be postponed to Novemb...
18/08/2026
Diversified has announced a new Global Managed Services Practice, consolidating the company's managed services capabilities into one organization. Rob Mello...
18/08/2026
Appear has completed a proof of concept with Thoroughbred Racing Productions (TRP), demonstrating multi-camera remote live production over bonded 5G cellular an...
VFX Legion Crafts 100+ FX for Quantum Leap Debut Season 
