Web Series VFX
Taj: Divided By Blood
Taj – Official Poster
VFX – Creative Director / VFX Supervisor
Web Series – Season 01 – Released in March – 2023
As the VFX Supervisor and VFX Director for the recently released web series TAJ on Zee5, I am thrilled to have had the opportunity to conceptualize and design the VFX from pre-production to execution.
I have always dreamed of designing something for a period drama, visualizing stunning new locations through matte paints, war sequences involving animals, set extensions with different compositing techniques, and when TAJ came along, I was excited to push the limits.
VFX Planning to Execution
This series is an absolute visual feast, with a ton of VFX packed into every episode.
As always, one of the biggest challenges we tackled was crowd multiplication, and we relied on serious VFX magic to make it happen. We needed to create huge crowds of Army and animals for some of the big scenes, such as the war and fight sequences of War, and the arena sequence in episode 2.
However, with great planning at the pre-production stage, I was confident that we could pull it off and make it look seamless. Each scene was pre-planned and discussed with the show director Ron, and it was my pleasure to work with him. He is well-versed in planning and the amount of effort required for doing VFX, and he always provided a free hand to conceptualize the VFX in the right way.
The war sequence was huge, with the formation of an army, elephants, camels, crowd multiplication, explosions, and Army/crowd chaos all over the place. We planned to execute it with a mix of practical effects and VFX to make it look as realistic as possible.
I personally loved the Bala Hissar fort, as it came out well, just as I had imagined from the planning stage. I still remember sharing the first sketch after researching about Bala Hissar with Ron at the storyboard level, and he was very happy looking at the fort’s design at the pre-production stage.
After the fort design was locked, we created many extensive matte paintings to showcase some of the amazing locations in the web series. We wanted to transport viewers to different parts of the world and make them feel like they were really there, so we put a ton of effort into creating these stunning landscapes.
Overall, I am excited to have been a part of this project and enjoyed my role as VFX Creative Director and VFX Supervisor. The post-production team at Illusion Reality did an excellent job in making it seamless, and I was always confident that some truly breathtaking visuals were possible with great planning and execution.
Do watch TAJ on Zee5, as it’s going to be something special for the Indian web series.
#VFX Supervisor #VFX Director #Visual Effects Creative Director #VisualEffectsSupervisor