‘Sea of Testicles’: Creep’s Libby Orrett and Hugo Rosado Share Stories from Their Work on Sex Education Season 4
We get into the nuts and the bolts of VFX testicles, nudes and flying fish with Hugo (VFX supervisor) and Libby (VFX producer) of Creep, who were the lead VFX vendors on the final season of Netflix’s smash hit, Sex Education.
Q> What were some of the challenges and opportunities working on this season of Sex Education?
Libby> I think for us the biggest challenge, which also presented the most interesting opportunities, was the wide variety of VFX that we needed to deliver. There was a huge range of different tasks and types of shots, so that meant leaning on a team of really strong generalists. One person might be called on to do a bit of everything, from roto and tracking, to digital matte painting, to 3D modelling, to really high end compositing. We needed a lot of breadth and a lot of creative thinking to deliver challenging tasks against some often tight deadlines.
Hugo> Agreed - a key challenge was being flexible and adapting quickly. We had to wear different hats all the time, from workflow management to dealing with different techniques across such a range of tasks. It was a good challenge, because every Monday was different.
Q> What was the most funny or memorable shot or secrets your team worked on on this season?
Libby> There were many… Sex Ed is a very cheeky show, as its viewers will know. Some of the conversations that we were having in the office daily were probably some of the weirdest conversations that I’ll ever have in my career. One highlight was creating a sea of testicles in 3D - and I must say, I think they turned out really quite beautiful.
Hugo> Yes - you don’t necessarily turn up to work one day with an idea of how you’re going to create a sea of testicles, so the R&D for that one was particularly unusual - and it was cool to be a part of a different environment...
Libby> There were also a lot of nudes that had to be comped into screens, so we had to get up close and personal with those on a large 4K monitor on a very, very regular basis.
Hugo> Another entertaining challenge was a scene where a couple of key cast members ended up in a scene they shouldn’t have been in, so we had to create new characters by building 3D heads and comping them onto their bodies in multiple shots - I’ll never say who they were, but if you know, you know.
Q> There are a few standout moments this season where VFX is used to construct the central set piece of the episode. What was your experience creatively of building some of those key moments?
Libby> One that comes to mind is the dream sequence on the bridge, at the opening of episode six, featuring a tropical fish and God (told you there were some weird conversations!)...We did a little R&D into fish with the director, Alyssa, and then found ourselves on a bridge in South Wales at 7am on a very frosty February morning. We had a rough idea of what we wanted to achieve with the fish, so we were there to ensure that we captured the various elements of the scene in a way that ensured we would be able to deliver the creative ambition in VFX.
Hugo> That sequence was fun because the storyline by itself was very abstract, so there were lots of directions we could have taken the VFX in. We had some guide references when we were shooting, and as we got into VFX, we had to find a way to make the worlds come together and to realise Alyssa’s vision, to deliver a sequence that was surreal and otherworldly but also in some way believable. There was lots of healthy back and forth with the director, and it was a really nice creative process for us, having our VFX play a big part in telling the story.
Q> How did the effects contribute to the bright punchy style and look of this season?
Libby> One of Sex Ed’s charms is that its location and time period are both ambiguous, which allow it to be beautifully stylised and distinct in its look. Part of that aesthetic is that it’s an almost-perfect world; it should always be clean, bright, sunny, and crisp - so a lot of the work that we did was neatening up the floors around the school, replacing skies, tidying up buildings and generally cleaning up the world that these guys are living in. Seeing the final product of our VFX combined with the vibrant grade, I think we definitely helped to achieve that look.
Hugo> Yes, I agree. The world of Sex Ed is supposed to be this perfectly tailored world where everything is bright and the walls are always popping. VFX is definitely not the main star of the show but we were able to enhance their world by making the grass and trees more alive, making it look like a sunny spring day when it was actually raining - these moments you may not have even noticed because they blend so seamlessly into the show, which is what we spent months perfecting.
Q> How did you balance the need for realistic VFX for the show's often surreal and stylised elements in this season?
Libby> I think it’s about bringing attention to detail in everything you do. So any elements we created needed to be technically perfect - whether that was 3D models or screen replacements - but it was then refining and reworking those elements to ensure they fit the brief. So whether that was making ashes swirl in a more surreal pattern, making bird poo splats bigger and bolder than usual, or making that grass greener; we were always mindful of the tone of the shot we were working on, and always started in a place of accuracy - and then got playful.
Hugo> For me, as a VFX artist, it’s really about being able to wear different hats. In one way, VFX needs to create the environment of the show, and needs to be subtle, so you have to have an eye for that - you can’t cut any corners. Everything has to be tidy and solidify together - so I can spend one day of the week making sure that the shots are correlating to the world that they’re living in - but then the following day I'm working on some crazy, 3D element that adds to the story telling and allows me to get creative. You have to be capable of switching your functions for a show like Sex Ed.
Q> Okay, so the final question is VFX technology is constantly evolving. Can you share any new techniques or tools that your team employed for your VFX work on Sex Education?
Hugo> Obviously, technology is constantly changing, and we’re in times where new or enhanced tools are becoming available to us all the time - so we definitely made use of that. We built a team that were comfortable and curious to use these new technologies, to help us explore the new possibilities with VFX. We saw it as an opportunity for our teams to grow and improve their skills, adding to their experience rather than using it to reduce the amount of work that they are doing.
Libby> Exactly - AI is obviously a hot topic at the moment in the film & TV industry, and I think that AI tools, if harnessed correctly, will enhance and elevate our work but will never replace the need for a VFX artist. We used various softwares and plugins to help speed up some of our tasks - for example to help with removing some backgrounds, some roto and colour correction, texturing of 3D assets, etc. We found that using these softwares could help us deliver on our briefs quicker, and still to the highest creative level - always under the scrutiny of the irreplaceable human eye, of course.
Image credit: Netflix
