Science fiction series Orville has become a surprise hit for Fox, then Hulu, since its premiere in 2017. Created and primarily written by Seth MacFarlane, the series chronicles the adventures of the titular spaceship and its motley crew as they deal with all manner of personal, philosophical, and extraterrestrial dilemmas while traveling the galaxy in 25 century.
In addition to delivering some heartwarming, thought-provoking stories and plenty of humor, the series also treated the audience to some spectacular sequences depicting exciting space battles and fantastical alien worlds. After earning an Emmy nomination for the visual effects that brought the epic battle to life in Season 2, the series returned for its third season in June.
Digital Trends spoke with Tommy Tran, visual effects supervisor for FuseFX, one of the studios working on Orville from the very beginning, to learn more about his team’s work on the show’s third, incredible — and possibly final — season.
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Digital Trends: FuseFX has worked on Orville since the first season. How has Season 3 been different from previous seasons for your team?
Tommy Tran: Well, we started in Season 1 as kind of a topping, working on some shots that needed a home. It was some New York sequences – digital mattes and enhancements. The relationship grew from there and by the end of the season we were established with the production team. Season 2 has come and we’ve established ourselves as one of the three main suppliers doing the big sequences for the show. We got an Emmy nomination in season two, and then season three just blew up.
I mean in Seth’s head [season 3] was his coup de grâce — that this would be it as he continued with his career and his next projects. So he wrote it as a farewell and wanted to go out with a bang, I think. We were expecting something big, and when we got the script for the first episode, it was like, “Oh my God.” The first act alone had enough visual effects to fill three one-hour episodes. The scenarios were bigger [and] the stories were deep and meaningful, but the visual effects were five times greater. They were longer, with more ships [and] multiple environments.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
The series seemed to devote more time to alien worlds this time around. Did that affect your work?
It was! [In past seasons] we would go to a new world, orbit the digital planet, and then hover above the surface for a while. They would go down, do something and then leave. But now we went down, built the environments, built the world, and stayed on it for five or six minutes of visual effects. That was a big change.
What worlds have you worked on the most?
We did some pretty big sequences for the planet environments. In episode 1 we built Jovian, the hurricane planet, and in episode 4 we created and built Krill City, among other environments. Everything you saw on another alien planet was probably us. In episode 8, we did the canyon chase. And in episode 9, we did a whole environment on Draconis—a dogfight and a city with an exploding reactor core.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
We’ve seen a lot more of Orville himself this season. Did you do anything on the boat this season?
We were not involved in the internal environment [of the Orville] but the interior has been completely renovated. During the off-season, we were tasked with upgrading and redesigning the entire Planetary Union fleet, starting with the Orville. If you watch season 1 and season 2, [the Orville] he was a pretty bright CG model, but in Season 3, Brandon and Seth said, “We want a complete makeover. We want to make this thing as cinematic as possible.” This is the end after all, so we went out with a bang.
We added thousands of panel lines to the exterior of that ship and changed its hues and texture meshes to allow it to change colors while flying under the lights. He would catch different angles as he passed, and the ship now had an opalescent glow. We added so much detail that we could move three or four feet away from the ship in the shot and it would still hold.
Basically, Orville went from an 8 to a 15 on a scale of 1 to 10. It was a lot of work. And because of COVID, there was a lot of downtime waiting for production to restart, so we used a lot of that time to upgrade and re-detail the space station, the shuttle, all the fighters, and especially Orville. If you were to go side by side with the previous seasons, the change was astounding.
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You mentioned the Emmy nomination the show earned for the visual effects in the big space battle in Season 2. Did you work on any of the space battle sequences this season?
The biggest space flight sequence we did this year was in the first episode with the Pterodon, the new fighter they introduced. We put Gordon in the Pterodon in that scene, which required a lot of thinking about how to make the lighting work. They practically built the front of the Pterodon and placed the actor there, but two-thirds of the ship is still missing. The plan was to digitally replace the missing parts, but then we discovered that the lighting on it was not working. So we ended up just rotoscoping the actor and building a full CG build of the Pterodon fighter around him, which turned out beautifully – and hopefully flawlessly for the audience.
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You also did some creature effects this season. What kind of work was that?
We did Randall, the T-Rex-meets-Rancor creature in the third episode. We did the Kraken from that episode, the squid-like thing underwater, too. We also did full CG spider characters running around the halls in the second episode. I’m so proud of that episode too, because it was half practical, with guys in suits, and half CG. And when you look at that, even I’m like, “Wait, did we make that shot or was that practical?” It was great, because otherwise we don’t get to work much on the creatures Orvillebut we did three cool sequences with creatures that we’re very proud of as a team.
It’s always a good sign when you can’t tell which part you worked on and the audience can’t tell if it’s a visual effect…
Exactly. And it’s always hard to sell that conceit when it’s shown with a full CG ship flying around in space, because you know there’s a lot of CG — but the opportunity to build environments and creatures that walk that fine line between reality and CG was a privilege.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
What is the element that people might be most surprised to learn that you’ve worked on?
How about an eighth episode with Dolly Parton? [The work we did] it was not night and day, only subtleties. Everyone knew Dolly was a hologram – and it was a holographic room she was in – but I think seeing Dolly from the 1980s blew people’s minds. It wasn’t so drastic that you could say it was digitally enhanced. It was subtle and flawless. We’ve seen a lot of fanfare on the web about how good she looked in it. But yes, she’s subtly improved in the episode and we’re really proud of the response.
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
Image used with permission of the copyright holder
That’s incredible. Looking back at this season, as it is uncertain whether we will see more OrvilleWhat are you most proud of from your work on the series?
Besides the visuals and how beautiful everything was and all the praise the company gets for doing such stunning visual work, what I’m most proud of is my team. The best part, for me, was the fact that we have been in this season since April 2019. It started heating up at the beginning of the pandemic and we went the distance, and for three years we had a team built just for Orvilledue to the sheer size and scope of the show.
I had a huge team with more producers and VFX supervisors and CG supervisors than any show ever made at Fuse. And we were on our little island for three years. The friendship that came out of that will never be repeated in my mind, because to do a show that long and hold the hearts and minds of people on the show was so unusual.
We’re usually in and out, about six weeks for an episode, about six months for a season. But we’ve been on this together for three years. We laughed, we cried… we had conversations full of memes. We learned to work together, [and] the dedication that the team put in for three years to deliver what you see in season three, that was the biggest thing for me. We put it all on the screen.
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All three seasons Orville are available on Disney+ and Hulu streaming services.
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Source: newstars.edu.vn