Netflix’s The Night Agent is based on Matthew Quirk's novel and centers on a low-level FBI agent who works in the basement of The White House, manning a phone that never rings. Until, one night, when it does, propelling him into a fast-moving conspiracy that leads all the way to the Oval Office.
Season 2 debuted on January 23rd and spans 10 episodes. The series picks up after the high-octane events of Season 1, and with Peter's successful effort to save the President, he has now earned the opportunity to become a Night Agent.
Ingenuity Studios (www.ingenuitystudios.com) delivered 491 shots for the second season, serving as its primary VFX vendor, a role that it also held for Season 1. The studio's VFX responsibilities included enhancing action by providing props, sets and effects that could not be captured in-camera. Ingenuity handled set extensions, a mix of CG and DMP for the industrial building set in 107, as well as a fully-CG simulated net asset in 103 that catches the tires of a semi being driven by villains.
In Episode 208, a glass vial of toxic liquid smashes and spreads, leading to a villain developing blisters from its contents. Ingenuity created the CG vial and liquid simulation, the glass shattering effect, and the progressive blistering and reddening of the skin.
Some of the studio's highlights are featured in Episode 209, for which the Ingenuity team was called upon to deliver a deeply dramatic look with gas/smoke effects. It was important to ensure continuity as the episode progressed. The smoke was initially supposed to appear in a handful of shots, but grew in scope and volume to over a hundred.
The gas/smoke sequence required overseeing a look and continuity across 106 shots, with characters moving from room to room, evading villains and searching for a way out of a large warehouse. To approach this scene, the Ingenuity team needed to break down the action into rooms and assign the necessary level of gas/smoke for that room. This also required custom FX simulations to show the billowing effects coming from the source. Here, Ingenuity kept the gas thicker and with more visible detail, but as the action moves further away from the source, the gas dissipates and becomes thinner with less visible billowing details. To avoid time consuming custom simulations for every shot, Ingenuity got creative by mixing generic CG smoke simulations with 2D elements to enhance the existing practical smoke in the footage. Ingenuity relied on Foundry's Nuke, SideFX Houdini and Autodesk Maya to complete the effects.
“Ingenuity Studios did a fantastic job," states Joel Sevilla, who serves as VFX supervisor for the show. "In one of my favorite sequences this season, in Episode 9, we see gas filling up a warehouse. We had some practical smoke and planned to have Ingenuity fill it in. They really delivered. The interaction of the smoke as it settles in and moves across the space is spot on. The Netflix executives loved it, too."
"We are especially proud of the gas/smoke effects in Episode 209," shares Hallana Paula Barbosa, VFX executive producer at Ingenuity Studios. "The painstaking effort paid off, resulting in a highly-nuanced look, almost as if the smoke is its own character. What was really fun for us to show was the interaction when characters move through the gas. We did this by enhancing specific moments like doors opening or rapid arm movements that would push the gas around and make it swirl as it interacted with characters and practical elements in the scene."
The Ingenuity Studios team included partner/executive VFX supervisor Grant Miller, president/VFX supervisor David Lebensfeld, VFX producer Rebecca Smith, VFX supervisor Ahmed Hassan, compositing supervisor Unggyu Choi and CG lead Mariia Osanova. In addition to its Los Angeles headquarters, Ingenuity Studios has offices in New York, Vancouver, London, and Atlanta.