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Netflix Series
Kings of Joburg Season 3
Led on-set and post-production VFX and CG supervision for Season 3 of the Netflix supernatural crime series. Working within a tight TV budget, Luma Animation served as the principal VFX studio, delivering photorealistic creature design, complex digital environments spanning Jo'burg cityscapes to underwater worlds, and seamless VFX integration for intense action sequences. Every creative decision was driven by the need to maximize production value while keeping costs under control.
Houdini
Karma
Nuke
Fusion
Blender
My Contribution
On-Set Supervision
Before cameras rolled, we invested heavily in pre-production planning: storyboards, previs, and concept art for every major VFX sequence. On a tight budget, this upfront work was essential to avoid costly surprises in post. On set, I provided real-time VFX guidance including camera and lighting setup for VFX-heavy scenes, tracking marker placement, HDRI capture, and reference photography. I collaborated daily with the DoP on framing and lighting for VFX plates, coordinated with the art department on practical elements, and worked closely with showrunner Samad Davis and the team back at the studio to execute what we had planned.
Post-Production & Creative Direction
Oversaw the full CG and compositing pipeline from matchmove through to final delivery, coordinating across animation, FX, lighting, and compositing leads to keep every department aligned. The work spanned photorealistic creature design and animation, complex digital environments from Jo'burg cityscapes to underwater worlds, and seamless VFX integration for intense action sequences. To stretch the budget further, I personally executed key hero shots in lighting and compositing rather than farming them out, keeping quality high where it mattered most.
Technical Pipeline
Established a rigorous LIDAR scanning process for key environments, allowing the 3D team to match camera moves precisely against real locations. We ran a USD-based pipeline to move assets between Houdini (FX and environments) and Maya (animation) without data loss, keeping the entire chain non-destructive. Budget constraints meant render farm hours were limited, so every technical choice had to be efficient. The biggest challenge was "Mo," a Hollywood-level digital double required for the final battle sequence. We had roughly two months to take it from scan to final shots, delivering photoreal skin, cloth, and performance that had to hold up in close-up. I worked closely with the modeling, rigging, and LookDev leads to hit that bar on a timeline and budget that left zero room for error.
AI-Driven Face Replacement
One of the most sensitive challenges on the show was bringing back the character of Simon "Mogagabe" Masire, originally played by Shona Ferguson, the series creator and lead who passed away after Season 1. To honour his legacy and allow his character to appear in Season 3, I researched and integrated AI-based face replacement tools into our compositing pipeline, transplanting Shona's likeness onto a stand-in performance. The process involved training on reference footage from earlier seasons, careful matchmoving, and extensive manual cleanup in Nuke to ensure lighting, skin detail, and expression tracking held up across different angles and lighting conditions. It was technically demanding work that required a respectful, considered approach at every step.