Westworld S4: Welcome to Temperance

For Outpost’s environments team, the challenge was to create seamless set extensions from the environment midground to far background. Utilising a mix of DMP and CG, the team set to work on creating this period-accurate environment.

“I began by using accurate reference of prohibition-era downtown Chicago to create the right look and feel of the buildings,” recalls Outpost 3D Generalist Christopher Myers, “once I’d got the buildings the right place and the right size, it was then a simple process of colour correction and adding lit windows to create the night version.”

“I was able to keep both of the layouts the same and worked on the matte paintings concurrently so that we could maintain continuity and reuse the projection setup for both sequences,” Myers continues. In fact, the team were able to use the same DMP for most of the shots, with compositors adjusting the perspective as needed.

“Using the same DMP for multiple shots always seems like a straightforward solution,” Outpost Compositing Supervisor, Jimmy Jewell adds, “but when you start to look at colour, lighting direction and possible lens effects like lens flares or dirt, the complexities of the shots are increased greatly.”

The plates involved a number of blue screens that presented a challenge: “A lot of the blue screens did not cover the whole area that it needed to so in most cases the challenge became maintaining the silhouette of the set.” Jewell continues.

“Luckily, we have great rotoscope and paint teams to help us with this, as well as a great matchmove team tracking all of our cameras so the projected matte paintings move with the set buildings.”

“Temperance required a lot of meticulous work from all the different teams and the end result was a seamless and believable environment for Westworld season 4,” Jewell concludes. Myers adds: “It really felt like we were creating one cohesive world, it was almost like we were the park runners making our own little Westworld.”

Watch the team's work on Temperance in Westworld season 4, streaming now on HBO Max.