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Monday, March 09, 2026
How Wētā FX made young Will, Vecna 2.0, the Mind Flayer and some badass Demogorgons in ‘Stranger Things 5’
befores & afters: In this wide-ranging interview with Wētā FX visual effects supervisor Martin Hill, we dive deep into the studio’s work for Stranger Things 5. This is in addition to befores & afters’ earlier coverage in issue #51 of the magazine on the final series of the show.
6 comments:
Emily R
said...
As someone who watched the final season, I was not too fond of the storyline, but I did love the visual effects. The whole sci-fi aspect of this show creates a world not just practically with sets, but with having to bring to life aspects of a world that is not our own. Reading about how Weta walked through the process of creating the younger version of Will was honestly kinda mind boggling. The idea that they had spent so much time editing and creating his younger self for such a small amount of screen time in the show. I am honestly surprised that that scene was in there because I feel it didn't add that much other than to show a tad bit more backstory to Will, which we could have already assumed. This interview made me realize I don't think I could ever be an editor or work on the visual side of things when working in film, especially on a show as complex as this.
Something I find fascinating is how shows like stranger things, that have so many fantastical elements in them go about creating their affects. I really appreciate what they did in season 4 with vecna, being mostly practicals, I think it allowed the actor to be so much more genuine and expressive than when alot of it is cgi. The makeup required inorder to pull something like that off its really insane and takes so long, which is unfortunately a downside, I know that doing the vecna makeup took hours, and so then every time you film with something like that it adds up very quickly. I also find the way that they created the younger version of will to be quite fascinating. I think that they mostly did a good job with it, and the child looks remarkably like the way the character looked in season 1. They also had a young version of eleven in season 4, and I wonder if they used some of the same strategies.
I really hated the last season of Stranger Things, and it taught me that honestly? It's been bad since the beginning. But, something that I was always amazed by was the special effects -- with such a high budget for both practicals and digital SFX, there's so much budget that can be used to make the work look as creative and realistic to their concepts as possible. I am also really happy about the use of practicals, it makes me happy to see the actors being able to be super realistic and act at something else, as opposed to just a guy with golf balls attached to him. The concept of Vecna being based on barbecued meat is absolutely hilarious and also incredibly creative! I'm obsessed with the fact that creatives use such unorthodox ways to get the things they need. I mean, there's nothing really in the world that exists that looks like Vecna, acts like him, etc. So I understand how that would work really well.
Say what you will about the final season of stranger things, but the SFX team did a pretty incredible job throughout. The sheer level of detail that these animators and artists have to put into every single frame of this show is mind boggling. The way they talk about all the steps and hoops they had to jump through to de age Will is so interesting, taking past footage along with using a physical stand in, and the added details of adding bruising and making him paler are all things that could so easily be forgotten, but these artists don’t let those details slip through the cracks and it does create a pretty incredible result. It’s also interesting to hear what gets changed from the actual footage to create a more dramatic scene such as the demogorgon invasion of the Wheeler house where they speed up certain shots for maximum suspense.
When I was watching this with my sister, we both said "wow they really nailed the casting with young Will." He has a distinct look, especially in the eyes, and I was surprised they found such a close match. But I guess I really shouldn't be surprised at all that they used technology to match his face. I wonder how it would feel to be an actor but then just completely have your face covered and replaced with someone else's. I mean at the end of the day, the kid was still in Stranger Things, so good for him. But it would probably be weird to watch that back and not see your own face. It is pretty cool that we have technology that can do that. I wish they didn't use AI at all in this process, but it sounds like they mostly just used it to get an idea of what the final product should look like, and then based their own work off of that.
6 comments:
As someone who watched the final season, I was not too fond of the storyline, but I did love the visual effects. The whole sci-fi aspect of this show creates a world not just practically with sets, but with having to bring to life aspects of a world that is not our own. Reading about how Weta walked through the process of creating the younger version of Will was honestly kinda mind boggling. The idea that they had spent so much time editing and creating his younger self for such a small amount of screen time in the show. I am honestly surprised that that scene was in there because I feel it didn't add that much other than to show a tad bit more backstory to Will, which we could have already assumed. This interview made me realize I don't think I could ever be an editor or work on the visual side of things when working in film, especially on a show as complex as this.
Something I find fascinating is how shows like stranger things, that have so many fantastical elements in them go about creating their affects. I really appreciate what they did in season 4 with vecna, being mostly practicals, I think it allowed the actor to be so much more genuine and expressive than when alot of it is cgi. The makeup required inorder to pull something like that off its really insane and takes so long, which is unfortunately a downside, I know that doing the vecna makeup took hours, and so then every time you film with something like that it adds up very quickly. I also find the way that they created the younger version of will to be quite fascinating. I think that they mostly did a good job with it, and the child looks remarkably like the way the character looked in season 1. They also had a young version of eleven in season 4, and I wonder if they used some of the same strategies.
Arden
I really hated the last season of Stranger Things, and it taught me that honestly? It's been bad since the beginning. But, something that I was always amazed by was the special effects -- with such a high budget for both practicals and digital SFX, there's so much budget that can be used to make the work look as creative and realistic to their concepts as possible. I am also really happy about the use of practicals, it makes me happy to see the actors being able to be super realistic and act at something else, as opposed to just a guy with golf balls attached to him. The concept of Vecna being based on barbecued meat is absolutely hilarious and also incredibly creative! I'm obsessed with the fact that creatives use such unorthodox ways to get the things they need. I mean, there's nothing really in the world that exists that looks like Vecna, acts like him, etc. So I understand how that would work really well.
Say what you will about the final season of stranger things, but the SFX team did a pretty incredible job throughout. The sheer level of detail that these animators and artists have to put into every single frame of this show is mind boggling. The way they talk about all the steps and hoops they had to jump through to de age Will is so interesting, taking past footage along with using a physical stand in, and the added details of adding bruising and making him paler are all things that could so easily be forgotten, but these artists don’t let those details slip through the cracks and it does create a pretty incredible result. It’s also interesting to hear what gets changed from the actual footage to create a more dramatic scene such as the demogorgon invasion of the Wheeler house where they speed up certain shots for maximum suspense.
When I was watching this with my sister, we both said "wow they really nailed the casting with young Will." He has a distinct look, especially in the eyes, and I was surprised they found such a close match. But I guess I really shouldn't be surprised at all that they used technology to match his face. I wonder how it would feel to be an actor but then just completely have your face covered and replaced with someone else's. I mean at the end of the day, the kid was still in Stranger Things, so good for him. But it would probably be weird to watch that back and not see your own face. It is pretty cool that we have technology that can do that. I wish they didn't use AI at all in this process, but it sounds like they mostly just used it to get an idea of what the final product should look like, and then based their own work off of that.
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