Visual production and VFX · Bilbao

Visual production and VFX for ideas that are hard to shoot.

Effects, digital sets and product imagery for shots that can’t be filmed, or can’t be filmed on the budget available.

Every shot has a named supervisor. Generated material is labelled and delivered with a record of how it was made.

Tell us about your project
Fig. 1Motion control on a miniature. The camera move tracked on stage (Fig. 3) is scaled down and repeated to the frame for every pass.A camera headB robotic arm on trackC programmed pathD miniature

01Services

What we do.

Four services. Most projects combine two or more.

  1. 01

    Forge

    Visual creation

    The shots a shoot can’t give you.

    Effects, compositing and set extension. When there is a plate we work on it; when there isn’t, we build the whole frame.

    Deliverables VFX shots · simulation · compositing · set extension

  2. 02

    Lab

    Look and feasibility

    See the piece before you commit the budget.

    Concept variations, look tests, previz and shot feasibility, while the budget can still move. Decisions are made on real images, early enough that changing course is cheap.

    Deliverables Look development · previz · feasibility tests

  3. 03

    Rig

    Pipelines for teams

    Your team’s workflow, set up and handed over.

    Task order, versioning and review, with the tools you already use connected to the ones worth adding. We train the team, document the pipeline and leave it running for your people to maintain.

    Deliverables Workflow design · versioning · review · training · handover

  4. 04

    Shot

    Advertising and product

    Product imagery with a campaign finish.

    Beauty, packshot, tabletop and digital still life. We build the set when a physical one costs more than it should, finish frame by frame and deliver to each channel’s spec.

    Deliverables Beauty · packshot · tabletop · still life

02Method

How we work.

If it can’t be shot,we build it.

Visual production and VFX from Bilbao, with a named supervisor on every shot.

  1. 01

    The story comes first

    Before anyone opens a tool, we agree on what the shot has to say and what it does in the sequence.

  2. 02

    One supervisor per shot

    Every shot has a named supervisor who answers for it to the client, from brief to delivery.

  3. 03

    Post-production standards

    Shots are reviewed in projection and cut in with the shots around them, to the schedules, delivery specs and review cycles of commercial and feature post.

  4. 04

    Tools where they save hours

    Generative models shorten concept exploration and segmentation shortens roto. We use them where the saving shows in artist hours, and keep them out of the rest.

  5. 05

    An artist checks every frame

    Nothing reaches the client until an artist has reviewed it and fixed by hand whatever needs fixing.

  6. 06

    A record of how it was made

    For each shot we log what was filmed, what was built and what came from a model. The log is delivered with the work, so whoever approves it has the facts.

  7. 07

    Teams that keep their craft

    Repetitive work is shrinking, and projects that budgets used to rule out are becoming possible. We train our clients’ teams so the change works in their favour.

  8. 08

    Based in Bilbao

    Bizkaia runs its own tax system, with its own incentives for audiovisual production. We explain how they work; your tax adviser confirms the figures.

Fig. 2A shot taken apart. An image from a generative model, split by a second model into eleven transparent layers. Each layer is projected back from the plate camera onto geometry: the ground and the slopes onto meshes, the cottage onto a simple volume, the mountains pushed far behind. The flat cut-outs and the rays that project them are drawn in cyan. The snow is not in the image: it is a 3D particle volume added in comp. F is a live render of that geometry with the camera moved a little; the parallax is what shows the depth. Illustrative example made for this page; on a job, each layer is logged with its origin.A sky plateB mountainsC ground mesh, cottage volumeD foreground cut-outsE snow: 3D particlesF final: camera moved

03Toolset

What each tool does.

“AI” covers very different tools. Some generate images, some analyse them, some repair them, and each one enters the pipeline at a different point. These are the ones we use, and where each one fits.

Fig. 3Camera tracking. While the Steadicam shoots the set, a witness camera reads the markers on the ceiling; the solved move drives the rig in Fig. 1.A marker ceilingB witness cameraC SteadicamD recorded move
Fig. 4Scene reconstruction. An object photographed from a ring of positions and rebuilt as a point cloud.
Fig. 5Set extension. The built set stops a few metres up; the rest of the frame is constructed to match the lens.
Fig. 6LED volume. The practical mountain edge continues on the wall; the patch inside the camera’s view is re-rendered from the tracked lens position.
Fig. 7Lighting reference. Chrome and grey balls on set, and a bracketed 360° capture to rebuild the light in CG.

Generated material is labelled and logged with its tool, its version and the decisions taken. The log is delivered with the work.

Fig. 8Fluid simulation. A real FLIP solve of a drop falling into a pool, baked: the same frame as solver particles, surface mesh and render.A solver particlesB surface meshC render
Image and video generation
Environments, concept variations, look tests and shot elements. Fast exploration, and raw material that still has to be integrated.
Segmentation and matting
Automatic extraction of figures and objects. It covers much of the roto; hair, motion blur and transparency still need an artist.
Tracking and depth
Matchmove, optical flow and depth estimation, so an added element locks to the camera move and the space of the shot.
Quality control
Adversarial networks that check every shot for inconsistencies before a person looks at it. They come before human review and never stand in for it.
Restoration and upscaling
Upscaling to 4K, compression clean-up and recovery of archive material. It rebuilds plausible detail, so we watch it closely: it can also invent detail.
Frame interpolation
In-between frames for retiming and slow motion. Reliable on clean movement; it breaks on occlusions and particles.
Scene reconstruction
Photogrammetry, NeRF and Gaussian splatting, to scan a set or a product and move the camera inside the capture.

The supervisor decides what goes into each shot and answers for the result.

More on tools, rights and labelling in the FAQ

04Supervision

Who answers for the shot.

Ignacio Lacosta

Founder · VFX supervisor and second unit director

Full filmography on IMDb lacostavfx.com

Ignacio started in advertising, making the effects himself on hundreds of commercials, from modelling and rendering to compositing, before moving on to lead teams. He now supervises visual effects for film and series and directs second units.

In 2004 he helped define the interface and working approach of a fluid simulator that the Academy later recognised with a technical award. He is the supervisor who answers for ExMachina’s shots.

Selected credits as VFX supervisor

  • Las niñas de cristalFilm · 2022
  • IratiFilm · 2022
  • ZorroSeries · 2024
  • Cristóbal BalenciagaSeries · 2024
  • MontecristoSeries · 2023
  • La noche más largaSeries · 2022
  • Alta marSeries · 2019
  • FariñaSeries · 2018

05Contact

Tell us what needs shooting, or building.

Send the script, brief or reference you have. We reply with an approach and a price.

info@exmachina.digital