HBO’s Game of Thrones has taken the world by storm like few television series have. A large part of this zealous fascination is owed to the incredible visuals the show captures and depicts in each and every episode.
Considering the show takes place in a massive land made up of seven kingdoms, it’s no surprise that much of the imagery is generated by computers. After all, who has room to build the entirety of King’s Landing, let alone the other scenes.
To show off just how much work goes into composing even the most mundane of clips from the show, the team behind Game of Thrones‘ visual effects, Rising Sun Pictures, has shared a behind-the-scenes video.
Throughout the four-minute visual breakdown, Rising Sun Pictures shows just how much layering, compositing, and grading is needed to create the vast landscapes and ornate structures shown throughout George R.R. Martin’s world of ice and fire. It’s a visual feast for VFX junkies, whether or not you’re a fan of the show.
While much of Game of Thrones is filmed at Titanic Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on-location footage has been shot in Croatia, Iceland, Malta, Morocco, Spain, Scotland, and the United States throughout its six seasons. We only see a small set of scenes in this particular video, but the sheer scale of the scenes shown is mesmerizing.
As a fair warning, much of the video contains scenes from the season-six finale, so if you’re working your way through the show, proceed with caution. If you don’t mind spoilers, or have already binged the entire series, carry on.
Season seven of Game of Thrones is still a year away, unfortunately, but if this video and previous seasons are anything to go by, it’ll be worth the wait. Every agonizing second.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.