A grassy Texas landscape became a vast, battle-scarred environment for the premiere episode of Lioness Season 3, immersing audiences in a world shaped by three grueling years of conflict. Putting their trust in Framestore, Production’s VFX Supervisor Lesley Robson-Foster and VFX Producer Anthony Ceccomancini collaborated closely with Framestore VFX Supervisor Thomas Montminy Brodeur, who led our New York team in helping realize the scale and intensity of Episode 1’s opening sequence, creating an environment designed to convey both the physical devastation and emotional weight of the story.

Across 180 shots, we created a fully 3D battlefield designed to integrate seamlessly with the production’s 138-acre practical set, filling the landscape with trenches, debris, drones, and explosions and evolving the environment across three distinct times of day.

With extensive camera movement throughout the sequence, maintaining convincing parallax and scale made a fully 3D approach essential. Beginning with detailed concepts for key moments, we developed a versatile master environment that integrated with the practical photography while transforming the landscape into a cohesive battlefield.

Our CG, FX, DMP, and Compositing teams worked in parallel to build a consistent visual language across Episode 1’s opening sequence. The scale of the work also presented an opportunity for our Generalists to develop an effective environment-building methodology that could support the complexity of the battlefield from multiple perspectives.

The ambition went beyond creating a visually impressive action sequence. The battlefield needed to feel grueling, uncomfortable, and lived-in, with every element reinforcing the toll of a conflict that had already been raging for years.

“The battlefield sequence in Lioness was designed to be much more than a standard action scene; our goal was to create an immersive experience that captures the devastating reality and emotional weight of war. We wanted the imagery to serve as a visceral reminder of the real-world conflicts happening today. To achieve this, we guided our incredibly talented VFX team not by focusing on the technicalities of pixels, but by chasing the raw emotion we needed every frame to evoke.”

–Thomas Montminy Brodeur, VFX Supervisor

“Whenever I have a big, ambitious sequence, my first call is to see if Thomas is available. Working with him and his team at Framestore is always a remarkably smooth experience. He has a great eye, and we communicate extremely well about what the story needs, what the filmmakers are asking for, and where we can push the work further and bring additional value. The work on Lioness was enormous and highly complex, and Thomas handled it brilliantly, bringing clarity, creativity, and excellent judgment throughout.”

–Lesley Robson-Foster, Production VFX Supervisor