Beast masters

Go behind the groundbreaking VFX and creature FX of YT Industries’ Return Of The Goat II: New World Order

Return Of The Goat II: New World Order is a 20-minute film from mountain bike brand YT Industries starring none other than Hollywood character actor Mads Mikkelsen.

The film was directed by Otto Bathurst of Peaky Blinders fame and presented the team at London’s Absolute Post with a ton of extensive VFX. Among the project’s challenges were turning a man into a goat with CG, a limestone quarry into the Utah desert with set extension and a host of bells and whistles across CG, effects and colour. With a shot count of over 90, Return Of The Goat II is among Absolute’s biggest projects to date.

To find out how the team at Absolute solidified their groom and creature FX pipelines whilst building upon the portfolio of their ever-evolving film and TV department, 3D World caught up with CG artists Ameen Abbas and Craig Healy. Read on to discover how the pair helped Absolute to make this ambitious film a reality.

The transformation sequence looks like the biggest VFX challenge in the film. How did you do it?

Before getting stuck in, we worked closely with the director, Otto Bathurst, developing many iterations of skull shapes and textures for the goat, before landing on an aesthetic. The entire pipeline was reliant on how the concept looked and behaved, so it was important that we started on the same page. The visual treatment needed a delicate balance between what the viewer expects and what the brand needed to convey. On one hand, it’s horror-themed with a satanic Baphomet as the hero character. But it’s also a branded film, meaning the goat form needed to be treated a certain way. Despite horror tropes, the transformation was a change our character goes through willingly and has done many times before, so it shouldn’t be grotesque, shocking, or too graphic. It needed to show control, evolution and strength.