Now & Then: when the most important VFX are the ones you don't see
In Apple TV+'s Now & Then, the real magic trick wasn't in the time travel, but in making it believable 🕰️. The Spanish studio Entropy Studio proved that sometimes the best visual effect is the one that goes completely unnoticed.
Their technical arsenal included:
- Autodesk Maya for modeling what would never be seen directly
- Nuke as the Swiss army knife of invisible compositing
- Houdini for atmospheres you wouldn't even notice
"The biggest challenge was erasing the present without leaving digital traces"
From removing satellite dishes to adding trees that no longer exist, every shot required precise visual surgery 🌳➡️🗑️. The night scenes were particularly complex, with digital fog that had to behave like that of the 90s (yes, even the haze has to be era-specific).
The most ironic detail: they spent more hours cleaning modern traffic signs than any viewer will spend noticing their absence 🚦. That's the glamorous world of invisible VFX.
If there's one lesson from this breakdown, it's that sometimes the best special effect is the one that makes you think "are you sure this has special effects?" 😏.