For the second season of the hugely popular Davinci’s Demons the producers knew they wanted to end it with a bang. We were approached by the Starz network and Tonto films to help with the big season finale of writer David S. Goyer’s (Dark Knight, Man of Steel) epic series. The plan was to conceive a Mexican stand-off from the water to the land. There was to be an armada of Turkish battleships descending on an Italian coastline where Davinci and his men readied a defence based on one of his famous inventions.

In order to portray the intricate progression of the scene adequately, we created a virtual environment consisting of CGI landscape, sea and battle ships. Using some of the latest procedural and simulation tools in Houdini we created thousands of the trees and fields of grass as well as the undulating sea water with the ships sailing though it. This process enabled the filmmakers freedom to situate cameras anywhere inside their 15th century surroundings and tell the story through the best possible angles.

Realise completed over 120 shots for this episode, as well as several fully CG shots in previous episodes. Our hard work and perseverance was ultimately rewarded with a great piece of work to show along with an Emmy Nomination for Visual Effects. We can’t wait to see how the cliffhanger resolves itself in Series 3 and keep pushing the boundaries of what is possible here at the studio.