Digital Domain Journeys Through The Electric State

At the height of its adventure on The Electric State (Netflix), Digital Domain had 245 artists working simultaneously. The innovative, award-winning studio served as the lead visual effects (VFX) vendor, completing 857 shots and contributing to over 1,000 shots on the grab-your-popcorn Russo Brothers’ film set in post-war, retro-futuristic 1990s America. 

The team entered the pipeline during pre-production to assist with concept and previz, played a role in the motion capture process, and handled environments, FX simulations, and CG characters. Their artists relied on Mocha Pro and Silhouette to help achieve the art of the unseen — rotoscoping, tracking, background replacement, and paint — on the VFX-heavy project.

Courtesy of Digital Domain & Netflix: Millie Bobby Brown & the troupe of mocap actors on set of The Electric State

“It’s very essential for us to use Mocha Pro and Silhouette in our day-to-day work. Silhouette is the only tool we use for roto as the user interface and in-built tools are more in sync with our project requirements,” says Pavan Kumar Sutraye, Paint Supervisor. “And, on average, we used Mocha Pro’s 2D tracking on one in every three shots as it has very good flexibility, and the ability to subtract occluding objects.”

Deciding which tool to use first on any given shot is discretionary. “We choose based on a shot’s complexity and its camera movement,” notes Hareesh Pola, Roto Supervisor. “We begin the work with Silhouette, but if the shot has lots of noise/grain, we use the Mocha Pro standalone for tracking as it always gives us a great result.”

Digital Domain VFX breakdown

Mocap, Roto & Paint

During production, the main robot characters were portrayed by top motion capture actors, adding a realistic layer of physical and emotional depth to their robot counterparts. Digital Domain helped develop the mocap process, guided its use on set, and created many of the film’s memorable CG robots, including Cosmo, Herman, Mr. Peanut, and The Marshall. 

“We had a comfortable schedule on this one. I was on the show for roughly two and a half years,” states Joel Behrens, Visual Effects Supervisor. “We partnered with Super Alloy, who set up the Moven Xsens suits and captured all the data on set while we shot. They then cleaned up the data and passed it to our animation team, who would then pick and choose what to keep and what to animate.” 

The roto and paint team leaned heavily on the powerful duo of Mocha Pro and Silhouette to complete mocap-related tasks, including a key scene where Michelle (played by Millie Bobby Brown) is communicating with Cosmo in her quest to find her younger brother. 

Courtesy of Digital Domain & Netflix: Cosmo, The Electric State

“In that sequence, the character walks away from the camera and then circles back toward it, which created a complex tracking scenario, especially due to the fine hair details and constant parallax shifts,” notes Sutraye. “We used Mocha Pro for planar tracking and roto assist, while Silhouette was essential for extensive paint work. This included reconstructing Michelle’s body and background elements behind the mocap. Silhouette also helped us address occlusions, apply multiple layers of paint, and refine edge transparency — particularly for removing mocap and managing hair interactions.”

The crew also used both Boris FX tools in the sequence that introduced the character Mr. Peanut. The team had to bridge mocap actor performances with their CG character replacements. “Mocha Pro helped us establish solid tracking data from body parts that were partially obscured or in fast motion,” continues Sutraye. “And Silhouette played a critical role in cleanup and paint, especially for removing mocap, reconstructing overlapping areas, and ensuring smooth transitions where live-action and CG elements intersected.

Courtesy of Digital Domain & Netflix: Mr. Peanut, The Electric State

Background Replacement

One of the most challenging shots the roto team faced was a background replacement on a particularly long shot. The shot featured massive towers and a character cycling from close to the camera (pictured below). “We had to rotoscope it with all the details in the wheel spokes and remove the moving cars in the background,” comments Sutraye. “It’s only possible to achieve these types of complex shots with the help of Silhouette and Mocha Pro, as these are very handy and pliable apps. Otherwise, it might have taken closer to double the time.”

Courtesy of Digital Domain and Netflix: BG replacement shot on The Electric State

“The Electric State was a tremendously fun project to work on and one of our largest character shows to date, with so many variations of robots,” ends Behrens. “The team did a fantastic job of giving each robot its own character and attitude. We got to experiment a lot with them and had a very good rapport with the directors, which allowed us to give many suggestions, which they were very open to.”

Watch The Electric State — streaming now on Netflix.

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