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"An ancient Asian devil has overtaken a woman's body, and again the
incantation helps pull the evil spirit out of her body. The producers wanted it
to be serpent-like, but not a snake! Of course, we had to start with a snake
to get the general shape, and then just softened the edges to make it less
defined. We also had to make her eyes serpentine and make her throat
ripple when the entity leaves her."
Jim |
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"Two kids were killed in a car accident, and when they returned from the
dead he became a demon, and she was an angel. Derek saves the day by
chanting some incantations, causing the demon to reveal its true face. It
took us a couple of weeks to create the 3D computer generated image for
his demonic face, but lasts seconds in the show. Luckily, we've been able
to redress it and use it again in other shows. The final shot involves the girl
going back to Heaven, and we had to create some animated CG wings.
The wings took a couple of hours to composite, but weeks to do the feather
texturing. It's a beautiful shot though."
Jim |
 "The first of our two-part vampire story. The producers wanted a promo piece for the opening of the season, so we concentrated our efforts on a shot where the vampire bat attacks Derek at the end of the episode. It took almost two weeks to create that seven second shot, but it turned out well. The sequence was pure CGI, and included five separate shots. We could cheat a bit on the bats that were in the distance, but the one coming towards the camera had to look real. Our audience have high expectations, and you can't have a bat on a wire any more."
Jim |
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"A comedy episode, with some really hilarious moments. Derek and his friend (played by Rene Auberjonois, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Odo) drink some ancient whiskey and get possessed by the spirits of some Irish rascals. Rene was great because he has worked with so many effects in Deep Space Nine, and knew what to do. One of my favourite shots involves the spirits leaving the bodies, whilst Derek and Rene are asleep on the floor. This was harder than say a demon escaping from a body, because we wanted the spirits to be mirror images of sleeping characters. The process is the same, but the leeway for error is reduced dramatically."
Jim |