Visual Effects Supervisor Jelmer Boskma and his team delivered 448 shots across 10 episodes, creating previs, techvis, alien environments, the titular security android, and a giant 2-headed centipede, on the hit Apple TV+ sci-fi comedy, now streaming, that just scored a Season 2 renewal.
For brothers Paul and Chris Weitz, hacking the adaptation code for “The Murderbot Diaries — the 7-book sci-fi comedy series by author Martha Wells about a security android known as a “SecUnit” becoming sentient — into the hit Apple TV+ show Murderbot, has proven quite successful. The critically acclaimed series, starring Alexander Skarsgård in the titular role, was just recently renewed for Season 2.
Brought on to expand the worldbuilding and visual scope across 10 episodes were VFX supervisors Sean Faden and Danny McNair, who hired DNEG to deliver previs (DNEG 360), techvis, 70 assets, 27 sequences, and 448 shots. The work included a deployable helmet, worm attacks, digital doubles, dust, environmental enhancements... and a two-headed giant alien centipede.
“What stood out most about Murderbot was its distinct visual identity,” says DNEG VFX Supervisor Jelmer Boskma. “It didn’t fall into the usual gritty, desaturated sci-fi aesthetic. Instead, there was room to embrace color and lean into a tone that, while still grounded, allowed for more levity and stylization. That gave us the creative freedom to make bolder choices, which was a refreshing shift from some of the darker-toned shows I’ve worked on.”
Two to three times a week, SyncSketch sessions were held with Faden. According to Boskma, “Those sessions were essential for aligning on our goals — whether it was fine-tuning our animation, polishing a hero asset, or syncing on feedback from Chris and Paul Weitz. Sean had a strong grasp of the overall vision, but he was also receptive to ideas from our side, which made for a fluid and enjoyable creative process.”
DNEG 360 developed previs for the survey crater attack in Episode 101 and the worm mating sequence in Episode 107. “Working directly from script pages and early concept art to define pacing, staging, and creature choreography, Pablo Plaisted and his team recorded themselves performing the dialogue and, with Sean’s input, blocked out the scene in Maya,” Boskma explains. “Sean had a clear vision but was open to input from our end, which made the process of telling these scenes enjoyable creatively. We ultimately transitioned the blocked previs to Unreal Engine to add polish for our final presentation to the showrunners. For a handful of complex shots, we also delivered techvis to help the camera and SFX teams prep the rigs needed to shoot the plates.”
Concepts were provided by the production art department for key assets such as the Male and Female Hostiles, Hopper, and Preservation AUX habitat. “While the concepts weren’t fully resolved in terms of detail or materials, they clearly established each design’s intent and tone,” says Boskma. “Everything we do starts with grounding our visuals in real-world reference. For the creature work, that meant studying macro insect photography for the female worm and looking at the body mechanics of walruses, rhinos, and octopi to inspire the Male Hostile. Obviously, there’s no real-world analogue for these alien lifeforms, so it becomes about finding tactile, physical qualities — whether it’s skin textures, how mass shifts through a body, or how weight affects posture and speed.”
“Beyond researching the natural world, we referenced NASA imagery — planetary rings, for example — which helped inform subtle sci-fi cues in our sky replacements,” he continues. “It’s always about anchoring the fantastic in something familiar so even the most alien elements feel tangible and believable onscreen.”
While genre expectations like high-tech gear, alien environments, and creatures had to be met, everything still needed to feel grounded and tactile. “Creatively, that meant finding the right tone — balancing the show’s unique design sense with understated photorealism,” states Boskma. “Technically, the deployable suit tech, worm creatures, and large-scale environmental work all presented complex, interdependent challenges.”
Practical elements included the suit worn by Murderbot. “We started by building a high-res digital double, then reverse-engineered the helmet to break apart and retract in a way that felt functional,” he says. “This meant figuring out plausible articulation paths, adding internal brackets, hinges, and sliding plates to ground the transformation. The arm cannons followed a similar philosophy — less about flashy sci-fi mechanics and more about maintaining design continuity. From there, our focus was clean integration: precise body tracking, interactive lighting passes, and subtle animation work to tie the CG elements into the actor’s performance.”
Designing a two-headed, giant alien centipede proved difficult. “The two-headed concept posed design challenges, especially since the worm burrows underground, grinds through rock, and is armored with overlapping carapace plates,” notes Boskma. “The spacing and orientation of those plates had major implications for movement, particularly when executing sharp turns or rearing up — things we don’t see centipedes do.
The creature development began with blocking a 3D model of the female worm in ZBrush while previs was being developed, which allowed the DNEG team to consider form and function simultaneously — staying close to the spirit of the original designs while testing if it could perform the required actions. “Once the basic form was working, I moved into Photoshop to explore surface texture and skin details,” Boska shares. “Working on previs and creature design in parallel was a huge advantage. We could present Chris and Paul with both a fully blocked-out sequence and polished concept illustrations that clearly communicated the final look and feel.”
Animating dozens of legs interacting with uneven terrain was technically demanding. “We needed a rig that could handle high limb counts efficiently and let animators maintain grounded, believable contact with the environment,” says Boskma. “Our rigging team did a fantastic job, which made a real difference and was met with great relief by our animation team, led by Supervisor Andrew Doucette.
“The final technical hurdle came from tracking the worm’s progression throughout the crater attack,” he adds. “As soon as it bursts from the ground, it’s under attack from Murderbot’s arm cannons. We had to track wounds, burns, scrapes, and severed limbs throughout the scene—including transitioning to a version of the worm with a large hole blasted through it, revealing Murderbot lying inside its throat.”
For the dead worm scene in Episode 102, DNEG CG Supervisor Marc Austin developed a procedural system that augmented the worm models with varying levels of decay based on proximity to the alien artifact. “Model deformation and texture degradation were handled by this process, introducing increasing deflation and necrosis in worms closer to the nucleus,” explains Boskma. “We applied this effect over final layout and posed worm models, then ran FX simulations to embed the creatures into the soil — those nearer the center were partially buried in more sand than those farther out.”
The Hopper was treated like a fully functional vehicle. “A lot of our animation tests focused on believable weight and mechanical logic,” says Boskma. “How the landing gear would compress on contact, how turbines behaved during hover or descent, and what kind of secondary motion would result from landing or takeoff. We tested articulation of louvers, hatches, and turbines, ensuring everything felt grounded in aerospace logic. Once satisfied, we built reusable rigs and setups to apply across sequences.”
Changing weather was another challenge, with scenes shifting from clear skies to full cloud cover. “To normalize this, we rendered lighting passes using our LiDAR scans and added CG cloud shadows or sun direction shifts based on original light sources,” Boskma notes. “The goal was always to preserve natural lighting on the actors and adjust only the environment. If filmed on a cloudy day, we’d add sun to the landscape but leave the actors in shadow, suggesting they were under cloud cover. It’s subtle, but it helps with scene cohesion.”
Continuity was also a concern for Preservation AUX, seen under different lighting in multiple episodes. “It made the most sense to build it entirely in CG, based on reference Sean shot in Utah and photogrammetry scans. For Deltfall, we enhanced the practical location with hundreds of alien trees and plants. Most vegetation was detailed 3D assets; some trees were rotoscoped and color graded from plate photography. We also added sulfur deposits, steam, Hopper platforms, a refinery, and extended the Deltfall habitat with an upper level, two hubs, and connecting hallways in CG.”
Simulations were particularly heavy during large worm attack sequences and scenes involving dust, debris, and blood. “We layered multiple sims — rigid body, soft body, fluid, particle — depending on each shot,” says Boskma. “Hopper shots needed volumetric dust, heat ripples, steam, and atmospheric compression to sell weight and thrust. We used a mix of bespoke and cached sims to optimize performance and manage render capacity.”
A certain death moment was especially complex. “The shot of the GrayCris SecUnit being crushed by the Hopper at Deltfall was a late editorial change,” he recalls. “We didn’t have coverage to pull it off practically, so we used a full-frame digital double and animated it walking toward the camera. Without access to the actor for mocap, it was entirely keyframed. It took a lot of subtle work by lead animator Justin Henton — gait, posture, arm swings, finger movement — to make it feel natural and photoreal.”
The biggest challenge? The survey crater attack. “It had just about every element in play,” says Boskma. “Creature interaction, digital doubles, environment extensions, multiple FX sims, complex lighting continuity across plates shot under different conditions. Balancing all those moving parts while maintaining clarity and momentum was a constant juggling act — it pushed every department to deliver at their best.”
The sequence is also a standout. “It stands out for its tension and how well the creature animation and environment work came together,” he adds. “But I’m also proud of the more subtle work — our Hopper extensions, the layered vegetation at Deltfall. Those quiet moments, where the audience doesn’t realize what’s VFX can be rewarding too. Our worm mating sequence in Episode 107 comes to mind — if only because it’s something we truly haven’t seen on screen before. Honestly, I’m just looking forward to people watching and enjoying this beautifully unique story unfold.”
Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer best known for composing in-depth filmmaker and movie profiles for VFX Voice, Animation Magazine, and British Cinematographer.
