POST ALIEN: EARTH
Blood-engorged ticks, deadly orchids and the infamous xenomorph: VFX supervisor Aladino Debert gives us the lowdown on how Zoic Studios helped shape the creatures and visual effects of Noah Hawley’s Alien: Earth VFX BREAKDOWN CREATURE FEATURE
WORDS OLIVER WEBB IMAGES FX
S et in the year 2120, two years Prodigy, Weyland-Yutani, Lynch, Dynamic and Threshold. Cyborgs and synthetics co-exist with humans and we are soon introduced to the first hybrid prototype, Wendy. After a research vessel crash-lands, Wendy and the other hybrids make a shocking discovery. Created by Noah Hawley, Alien : Earth marks the first TV series in the Alien franchise, with Ridley Scott serving as executive producer. The show has been nominated for several Emmy awards, including Outstanding Special before the events of Alien (1979), Alien : Earth depicts an Earth governed by five corporations: Visual Effects in a Season or a Movie. Working across all eight episodes of the acclaimed sci-fi series, Zoic delivered more than 250 visual effects shots over the course of a 14-month production.
Hawley and editor Regis Kimble have a longstanding relationship with Zoic through their work on acclaimed shows Fargo and Legion . When Aladino Debert joined Zoic in January 2024, Alien : Earth was still in the early prep stages. “It seemed to be the right fit for me,” he begins. “I already knew the VFX supervisor, Jeffrey A. Okun. I was very happy to be part of it.” The show is a new story featuring new characters and creatures. “The timeline is a few years before the events of the first film, so there were lots of elements that played into our advantage,” Debert says. “There’s a design and ethos that we wanted to adhere to, but besides the xenomorph, all the creatures were new.” CLOSE THE HATCH Zoic was responsible for two of the main creatures depicted in the show: the ticks
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