![]() ![]() We actually had a really big challenge to develop that because we presented this floating blue hand to the directors, and they were like, ‘That’s too cartoony.’ So we tried making it transparent. “We did all these explorations of because it’s normally this glowy blue hand. Sofina’s necromancy is extractive, pulling life force from her surroundings, whereas Simon’s magic is more generative and spontaneous, streaking like lightning from his hands when (and only when) he has the confidence to manage it. Having a team well-versed in D&D lore allowed Snow and the VFX team to use the rules of the Forgotten Realms as a guideline and an inspiration to build their own visual flair. I remember they, ‘OK, what does Simon’s magic look like versus what does Sofina’s magic look like?’ He’s a sorcerer, and she’s a wizard, and they should deal with it differently.” ![]() “They still let the filmmakers have flexibility, but they would also push you a little bit. “Wizards of the Coast has a story group, a little similar to Lucasfilm, where they look after the canon and make sure you keep within the world that they’re creating, and they do it in a similar way,” Snow said. Snow’s own prepared spell list was then checked against the film’s proverbial Dungeon Masters’. “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” But they still ended up with a reference guide that anyone who’s read the Player’s Handbook would recognize. He and the ILM team continually tried to find physical references and logic for how the magic of the Forgotten Realms would work and let that guide the look of the film’s magic spells and beasts. VFX supervisor Ben Snow was somewhat familiar with the mechanics of the game and the history of D&D artwork, but he wasn’t submerged in the game’s lore. ![]() The spells have a long history of what they’re designed to look like, but there was no guarantee that those beloved designs would work inside the film. This was a particular challenge when it came to the many, many spells available to magic practitioners in the Forgotten Realms. “ Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” took on a big challenge as the first official D&D story to roll initiative in actual movie theaters, as opposed to playing out on tabletops and the “theater of the mind.” How the film looks - from oozes and owlbears to the towers of Castle Never to the magic missiles flung by wizards - needed to harken back to the fun of the game and work as a live-action fantasy with realistic visual logic. ![]()
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