Fallout (Season 2)

Based on a popular video game, Fallout is the story of haves and have-nots in a world in which there’s little left to have. Season 2 returns to the aftermath of Season 1’s epic finale, taking audiences along for a journey through the wasteland of the Mojave to the post-apocalyptic city of New Vegas.

ILM’s work largely focused on the creation of the iconic New Vegas environment, as well as the development of the Deathclaw creature. For the city of New Vegas, the team aimed to capture the larger-than-life scale of the Vegas Strip and its landmarks, utilizing a mix of fully CG environments and digital matte paintings to do so. Partnering with the ILM Art Department, they extended the set of the legendary Lucky 38 building’s ground floor entrance into a full tower that included a number of in-game references. It was also important to translate the worn, apocalyptic look of the city to the screen, utilizing accents like the flickering or faded neon signs to reflect the years of exposure of the desert, or shifting the lighting design from the more sterile look of Season 1 to a heavy atmospheric haze.

For the Deathclaw creature, the ILM team referenced work from projects like The Dinosaurs (2026) and the Jurassic World films to iron out the creature’s theropod likeness. The team was committed to creating a real and tangible design that would blend seamlessly with the puppet used on set. The battle sequence between Max and the Deathclaw was a particular standout. ILM visual effects supervisor Steve Moncur shared that the team created 20 damaged variants, including “slashed chest, shot in the neck, shot in the eye, to fully exploded models, as he would tell The Art of VFX. “We pretty much killed it any which way we could!”

The Fallout team was led by visual effects supervisor Steve Moncur, animation supervisor Stafford Lawrence, executive visual effects producer Stefan Drury, and visual effects producer Ed Randolph, in partnership with production visual effects supervisor Jay Worth and production visual effects producer Andrea Knoll. ILM’s visual effects work was led by our London studio, with additional support from our Mumbai studio.