Just a few weeks after it originally aired, Goodbye Kansas Studios has shared a behind-the-scenes video of its work on The Walking Dead episode “What Comes After,” where Rick, with some help from a pile of dynamite, blows up a bridge full of approaching zombies.
Creating one of the series’ most complicated shots required extensive post-production work, but surprisingly, no actual bridges were harmed in the process.
A real-life bridge was used as the setting for this climactic scene, as well as several shots involving close-ups of the zombie horde, lead characters, and a giant fireball explosion. But everything else, from a repaired section of the bridge being blown to bits again, to zombies flying through the air, to even a raging current below, were all added by Goodbye Kansas Studios as digital embellishments.
It’s particularly fun to see what the motion capture performers went through to help bring the digital zombies to life, including what appears to be a lot of fun trampoline work to simulate being hurled off of that bridge.
[h/t Art of VFX]