DNEG releases an elaborate breakdown of the award-winning series ‘Chernobyl’


It’s raining breakdowns! In the world that has shrunken into a —global house arrest due to the pandemic, people around the world are struggling with a variety of problems. Many VFX studios — have taken to the internet to to actively educate the aspirants of the community on the — finer points of the craft. And they’re all doing that with — elaborate breakdowns.

Recently DNEG released a much-awaited VFX award-winning series that won over a great majority of viewers. But this time around it was much different. With each frame, there was a running commentary on how they deployed the software and created the images.

They shared, “Today we’re celebrating the outstanding work of our FX team on HBO’s Emmy award winning series ‘Chernobyl’. Watch the FX VFX Breakdown below and get an in-depth look into the iconic explosion scene of the series.”


‘Chernobyl’, a five-part miniseries co-production from HBO and Sky, dramatizes the story of the 1986 nuclear accident, one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history — and of the sacrifices made to save Europe from unimaginable disaster. On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine, Soviet Union suffered a massive explosion that released radioactive material across Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and as far as Scandinavia and western Europe.

Dneg shares, “Chernobyl was never about telling the story through gratuitous, scary visuals with the intention to shock. Instead it was to be completely story driven where VFX would provide support for the drama in every shot. Any VFX had to feel and look authentic and ultimately – plausible. While many VFX shots had live action plate integration, there were also many full CG shots which also had to seamlessly match the tone, style and feel of the surrounding drama shots.”

Overall the team delivered about 550 shots for the series, designing the reactor #4 building inside and out, developing complex destruction and smoke simulations, creating CG vehicles like cars and helicopters, animating crowd, etc.