How WeFX Made ‘From’s’ Monsters Feel Uncomfortably Real
From eight-foot dolls and feathered birds to Roger’s brutal demise and Fatima’s transformation, WeFX reveals in this behind-the-scenes look at how it pushed the visual language of American sci-fi horror series FROM in Season 4.
Standing eight feet tall before you, the three dolls look handmade and oddly nostalgic until one rips its mouth open and sharp fangs lunge forward, introducing the show’s newest nightmare. WeFX Studios in Toronto is no stranger to frightening monsters, having worked on From since season two. With an established visual language for the show’s creatures, season four was about pushing those visual boundaries further. Led by Visual Effects Supervisor Ryan Ng and VFX Producer Christine Tsao, the team’s 81 artists worked over eight months crafting new terrors and twists for nearly 150 shots.
To turn classic looking ragdolls into life-sized terrors, WeFX started with designs received from production, then digitally recreated each of the three dolls to match the practical builds. From the burlap skin to their stuffing and yarn hair, the challenge was to maintain a direct match to the live action, from the materials to the mechanics of their movements and the fabric simulations.
A standout spectacle of the dolls’ character is the frightening reveal of their mouths. In collaboration with the showrunners, WeFX developed the idea of using broken buttons as fangs, turning the harmless dolls into horrifying creatures. Multiple simulations were done to achieve realistic physics of the burlap mouth and leather stitched lips tearing apart. Each doll had its own individual quirks, including unique hair simulations. “Each hair system was individually simulated so the hair would respond naturally to movement. The dolls’ hair had to have personalities of their own,” notes Ryan.
The dolls became some of the season’s more complicated assets, requiring roughly three months of research and development. It was a combination of challenges: the movement of their bodies, the texture of their clothes, and the ripping and tearing of their “skin.” Using photogrammetry and ZBrush, the team sculpted the insides and outsides of the dolls to achieve the most authentic look possible. Rigging of the models was completed in Maya. Stitching, stuffing and fabric simulations were all done in Houdini, with final renders finished using Arnold.
Shifting from fabric to feathers, the team also created a crow, improving a pre-existing asset from an earlier season, and a starling, which was newly developed for this season as well. Feathers can be incredibly difficult to render convincingly, so the team developed a feather system in Houdini using its newer grooming capabilities. Each feather had individual barbs, needed to behave realistically and, most importantly, needed to remain detailed at hero-shot scale. The optimization allowed for more feathers on the birds while making them significantly easier to render.
Next, WeFX took on a different kind of transformation: the Man in Yellow transforms into Sophia. The showrunner specifically wanted dislocated joints, bones moving unnaturally, sliding skin, and unusual anatomical transitions. The team worked on developing a special transformation rig that blended the two digital doubles and allowed for isolated animations to create the desired effect.
Finally, the challenge of preserving the human face when transforming the human characters into monsters, as seen in Fatima and Roger’s brutal death scenes. Roger is being eviscerated during his attack; his death is all but instantaneous. The audience sees his face. They see his emotions as this horror happens to him. The team started with full-body scans of the actor and built 1:1 digital doubles using ZBrush. Then, they created the physical destruction in layers: skin, muscles, fat, veins, and blood spray. Before they could destroy Roger’s face, they had to understand how it was constructed. The VFX artists essentially had to work backwards, crafting his anatomy into destruction.
For Fatima’s transformation, the team worked closely with the showrunners for the perfect look. Being a beloved character, Fatima’s surprise transformation had one crucial requirement: “Fatima had to remain recognizably Fatima.” WeFX’s creature department created an original design for Fatima’s monster side, drawing inspiration from popular movie monsters and also from signature traits of From’s hero creature, Smiley. Using a scan of the actress, the team maintained Fatima’s characteristics while sculpting a unique and distinctive look for her new alter-ego.
Ryan emphasized how much of season four’s creatures were “a huge team effort across all departments.” The team developed new methodologies to solve the interconnected challenges of bringing new characters and horrors to life, resulting in the thrilling visual effects that help reveal more secrets and nightmares lurking within the world of From.
To learn more about the VFX of season 4, the WeFX team will be presenting with Roberto Biagi (Show VFX Supervisor) at Fan Expo Canada on August 29th at 2 pm at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto, Room 707.
About WeFX A leading boutique VFX studio based in Toronto, providing high-end visual effects and CGI for film and TV. With representation in LA and worldwide, WeFX prides itself on consistently producing top-tier, blockbuster-level work while offering all the benefits of a boutique studio. Globally diverse, with a proudly collaborative team representing 31 nationalities and 12 languages, working seamlessly across North America and beyond.
FROM Season 4
Created By: John Griffin
Executive Producers: Jack Bender, John Griffin, Jeff Pinkner
VFX Credits WeFX
Executive VFX Supervisor: Mo Ghorbankarimi
Visual Effects Supervisor: Ryan Ng
VFX Supervising Producer: Amanda Lariviere
VFX Producer: Christine Tsao
VFX Production Manager: Lynn Sibley
Head of 3D: Igor Avdyushin
Head of Effects: Vimal Mallireddy
Head of Creature Effects: Cesar Dacol Jr.
Compositing Supervisor: Ehsan Ramezani
Tracking/Matchmove Supervisor: Josh Clark
Layout Supervisor: Austin Baerg
Animation Supervisor: Nadav Ehrlich
Asset Supervisor: Sonny Ong
Lighting Supervisor: Viduttam Rajan Katkar
Rigging Supervisor: Ethan Lee
Head of Editorial I/O: Brandon Terry
VFX Editors: Patrick Hirlehey, Jeremiah McWhirter, Maurizio Sestito
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