2019 · Film & television

The Wandering Earth

Name: The Wandering Earth
Released: 2019

RoleDigital matte painter

Year2019

StudioPostModern Digital

ProductionChina

StreamingNetflix

ServiceDigital matte painting

DirectorFrant Gwo

Released5 February 2019

Runtime125 minutes

CinematographyMichael Liu

DistributorChina Film Group Corporation, Netflix (International)

Production companiesChina Film Group Corporation

Filmed atOriental Movie Metropolis, Qingdao, Shandong province, China

VFX vendorsBase FX, Bottleship VFX, Dexter Studios, Macrograph, More VFX, Pixomondo, Black Nomad

VFX supervisorDing Yanlai (丁燕来)

VFX shotsAbout 2,003 VFX shots total; roughly 75% completed by domestic Chinese studios

IMDbThe Wandering Earth ↗

SourcesWikipedia · China Daily · Art of VFX · Jiemian (界面新闻)

The environment work built frozen cities, the towering ice wall and vast surface landscapes of a frozen future Earth; Chumak contributed as a digital matte painter.

The Wandering Earth is a 2019 Chinese science-fiction blockbuster directed by Frant Gwo, adapted from Liu Cixin's novella about an effort to move the Earth out of the solar system as the Sun dies; it became one of China's highest-grossing films and streamed globally on Netflix. Its visual effects were split across vendors including Pixomondo, Base FX, Macrograph, More VFX and Dexter Studios, with Pixomondo alone completing over 200 shots and a 400-metre CG ice wall.

The Wandering Earth streams on Netflix. Full credit details on IMDb.

How the environments were made

In The Wandering Earth, China is shown completely frozen, its cities buried under ice, while thousands of planetary engines drive Earth out of the solar system and toward a collision that ends with Jupiter's ignition shockwave slamming into the planet. None of this could be filmed practically. More VFX, one of the film's main domestic effects houses, constructed the frozen Beijing skyline that opens the film, the fully CG planetary engines and their surrounding mining pits, and the Jupiter shockwave sequence near the end, as well as a long single take that moves upward from ground level through the engine exhaust into orbit. Pixomondo produced a separate frozen city encased in ice, with a CG ice wall over 400 meters tall, and handled the simulation of ice covered buildings collapsing for the film's ruined streets. Roughly 2,003 VFX shots appear in the finished film, and Chinese studios completed about three quarters of them, the first time this had happened at this scale for a Chinese science fiction production. Chumak was a digital matte painter on the film.

Source: Jiemian (界面新闻) · slashfilm.com

Questions about The Wandering Earth

Who did the visual effects for The Wandering Earth (2019)?

Seven studios handled the visual effects for The Wandering Earth: Base FX, Bottleship VFX, Dexter Studios, Macrograph, More VFX, Pixomondo and Black Nomad. Ding Yanlai was the film's VFX director. Chinese companies completed about three quarters of the film's roughly 2,003 VFX shots, with More VFX and Pixomondo leading the frozen city and planetary engine work.

Where was The Wandering Earth (2019) filmed?

Major scenes for The Wandering Earth were filmed at Oriental Movie Metropolis, a large studio complex with dozens of sound stages in Qingdao, in China's Shandong province. The underground city sequence and a full scale space capsule set were both built and shot at this complex.

How many VFX shots are in The Wandering Earth (2019)?

The Wandering Earth includes around 2,003 visual effects shots in total. More VFX led the Chinese domestic effects studios that completed roughly three quarters of them, handling the frozen Beijing opening and the planetary engine sequences. Overseas studios, among them South Korea's Dexter and Pixomondo (headquartered in Germany), delivered the rest as co-productions with Chinese teams.