Emerson talked a Turin View Conference audience through a 265-week production involving 2,776 shots, 142,030 replacement faces and a nightmarish sequence dubbed the ‘Sam Raimi shot’
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Laika’s ‘Wildwood’ VFX Supervisor Steve Emerson at View Conference, Oct. 13, 2026. Courtesy of View Conference Laika’s “Wildwood” took more than five years of stage animation and visual-effects work, with 2,776 shots requiring a carefully orchestrated mix of handmade puppets, miniature sets and digital imagery. But for production VFX supervisor Steve Emerson, the defining challenge of Travis Knight’s fantasy epic was ensuring that the technology served the stop-motion performances rather than overwhelming them.
At View Conference in Turin on Tuesday, Emerson walked audiences through the Portland-based studio’s most elaborate production yet, from rebuilding a local landmark to creating a nightmarish, seemingly sentient mass of ivy.
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