In this Special Session of the second season of Halo, the 3D, FX and Compositing departments of El Ranchito will show the work done by the company and that has meant a significant leap in quality compared to the first season.
The 3D Department will show from the creation of the assets to the rendering of the shots, addressing key moments of each of the different disciplines during production. They will talk about the handling of the Reach environment, the internal workflow, the tools they already had and what had to be developed to make this possible, as well as the workflow between 3D and FX to facilitate the destruction of buildings.
From the FX Department, they will show how El Ranchito approached the creation of the multiple effects that this second season of Halo has, focusing on the process of creating the Beam and Glassing by the Covenant ships and how they faced the fall of Reach. Through various examples, we can learn about the different processes and difficulties that the FX department had to face. On the one hand, sticking to some of the effects of the series at the level of what was expected in terms of the art of the franchise and on the other hand how to manage with the 3D department the high amount of geometry for further processing.
Regarding the Compositing Department, they will present how, thanks to a previous layout, they were able to generate an environment that helped them to place all the 3D and 2D elements correctly in the space for all the sequences.
Finally, they will also explain one of the main challenges of the production, which was to generate the photorealistic look of the most characteristic elements of the Halo series such as the Beam, the Glassing or the planet Sanctuary.
Carlos Hernández
Carlos Hernandez began his career in the field of visual effects working in an event production company, where he was dedicated to graphics, video editing and 3D modeling. His talent and versatility led him to Ink Apache, where he worked as a generalist, covering a wide range of disciplines within visual production.
Subsequently, Carlos assumed the role of CG Supervisor at Oink Studio, where he supervised and guided complex projects. His career took a significant turn when he joined El Ranchito, where he specialized in Look Development and Lighting. In 2019 Carlos was promoted to Head of 3D at El Ranchito, a role that marks a new chapter in his career.
Álvaro Moya
His professional career as a visual effects compositor began in 2015 passing through several studios in Madrid. Two years later, he decided to go to the UK to work in bigger studios like Outpost VFX, Framestore or Milk Visual Effects where he contributed his bit in projects like The Avengers: Infinity War, Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald or Mowgli.
After this time, in 2018 he returns to Spain where he begins his stage in El Ranchito. During the next five years, he continues to grow as a composer and adding projects such as The Mandalorian, Jhon Wick: Chapter 3, Carnival Row or See until reaching the position of Lead Composer.
In 2022, he realized one of his greatest dreams and movedto Australia where he has the great opportunity to work in Weta FX and projects such as Avatar: The Sense of Water and The Last of Us.
Finally, and since 2023, he returns to El Ranchito as Supervising Composer starting this period in a project as ambitious as Halo.
David Blanco
David Blanco, began his career as a compositor and motion graphics designer, later specializing in visual effects.
After starting his adventure at Lightbox Animation Studios, in the animated feature film Atrapa la Bandera, he was part of the El Ranchito team for 5 years, a period of continuous learning and great growth as an artist and professional. There he specialized in volumetric effects and carried out the development of fire, smoke and explosions for series such as Game of Thrones, The Long Night (season 8), Locke and Key or Shadow and Bones (season 1).
Later, he had the opportunity to face new challenges and continue growing again in Lightbox Animation Studios as FX Supervisor of Tadeo Jones 3. Once this great challenge was over, it was time to take another big leap and he did it as FX TD in WetaFx in ambitious projects such as Black Adam or The Last of Us.
Finally, it has been like a homecoming and he returns to El Ranchito as FX Supervisor, having led a great effects department in the episodes of Halo season 2 in which El Ranchito has been involved.
