When Creating an Entire Planet is Just Another Day at the Office
For the second season of Raised by Wolves, Spin VFX didn't just have to design an alien planet... but make it strange enough to justify all that existentialist philosophy floating around the series 🪐. The result was Kepler-22b: a place where the rocks have more personality than some supporting characters.
Ingredients for Cooking Up a Sci-Fi World
Spin VFX's recipe included:
- Houdini as the head chef - generating terrains that even the most creative nature couldn't imagine
- Matte paintings with multiple moons - because a single one is for boring planets
- Substance Painter to give it that "abandoned yet photogenic technology" look
The best creative accident: a rock formation that looked like a giant thumb, left as a secret wink amidst all the philosophical seriousness.
Technology That Seems Straight Out of the Future (Because It Is)
The futuristic elements required:
- Complex mechanical rigs in Maya - so the drones moved with that robotic elegance that inspires envy
- Custom shaders - because clean metal is for other, less existentialist franchises
- Holographic effects that glow just enough - not too opaque, not too Power Rangers
The team managed to give even the most sinister androids that photogenic je ne sais quoi... if robots can even have it 🤖.
Lessons for World Builders
This project teaches that:
- Good procedural design can save you hours of manual modeling (and creative crises)
- Atmospheric lighting is the best ally of sci-fi mystery
- Even the most serious worlds have room for a humorous wink (like thumb-shaped rocks)
So next time you need to create a planet from scratch, remember: it's not enough to make it believable, you have to make it so interesting it justifies two seasons of philosophical debates... or at least looks good in 4K 🌌.