National Aviation Day was established in 1939 to celebrate the birthday of aviation pioneer Orville Wright. Wright, with his brother Wilbur, created the first controlled and powered flight with their “Flyer” aircraft in 1903.
Over a century later, millions of people travel by aircraft every single day. And much like the Wright Brothers, we at CoSA VFX have found their own way to take to the skies with visual effects.
To mark this day, we want to look back at the many landmark visual effects shots involving airplane, helicopters, and drones that we’ve created for multiple primetime television series including Gotham, CSI, Minority Report, and Westworld.
One of our favorite shots to showcase is from the Gotham Season 4 episode “A Dark Knight” in which Oswald Cobblepot flew over Gotham City in a zeppelin. The shot started with a practical plate with actor Robin Lord Taylor in a partial gondola on set surrounded by a green screen. From there, we built the airship in full CG to match the practical set. The bridge and the foreground city were modeled, lit and rendered by our CG team, and our Environments team created a matte painting for the distant city. All of these complex elements were put together by our Compositors to make everything look seamless; cohesively maintaining the signature look of the show.
In another pivotal moment from Gotham, we saw young Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz) taking off from Gotham City. When this was shot, it was just the actor and his chair surrounded by green screen – the entire interior and exterior of the plane were recreated in CG. For the exterior of the plane, our Compositing team added layers of detail which included exterior reflections, dirt, dust, and falling raindrops to fully create the dramatic scene. Outside the plane window, the Environments department created layers of the city from the sky with matte paintings to show the character’s point of view.
On Westworld Season 3, when we see Aaron Paul’s character Caleb boarding Engerraund Serac’s (Vincent Cassel)’s plane, it may look inconspicuous, as if it’s a simple establishing shot. What viewers may not realize is was that there was really only a practical set of stairs that he was walking up. Most of the elements of the scene, including the entire plane, was a visual effects shot; the plane which our concept designers helped visualize was full cg and the hangar itself was extended with matte paintings.
Finally, with drones becoming more and more popular and expected to become even more prominent in a science fiction future, we’ve had the opportunity to create advanced versions of these unmanned aerial vehicles. While our CG team would usually handle the creation of the drones themselves, our Graphics team assisted in bringing the UI (user interface) to life. The FOX television series Minority Report afforded us the opportunity to create drones with multiple applications, from security to selfies!
For National Aviation Day, we salute aircraft enthusiasts, pilots, and travelers everywhere, and here at CoSA, creating flying machines is all in a day’s work for bringing some of your favorite sci-fi shows to life!
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ABOUT CoSA VFX
Founded in 2009, CoSA VFX has grown from a small boutique into a thriving visual effects studio with offices in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Vancouver. The CoSA VFX team has received Emmy nominations and wins for their work on TV series including Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Almost Human, Revolution, and Gotham, and currently provides visual effects for multiple studios, networks and streaming television services.
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