Visual effects reel breaks down how much work went into creating The Mandalorian

See how The Mandalorian season 1 came together in this VFX reel.

For any visual effects artists wanting to learn “the way,” this is it. Look no further than The Mandalorian visual effects reel. Or for those who are VFX artists and want to see some television magic before their very eyes, this is also the way.

The creative studio PXO recently released its VFX reel for season 1 of The Mandalorian, and it looks absolutely astounding. Of course, we all know a lot of Jedi tricks have to be pulled in order to bring The Mandalorian to life, but the visual breakdown of said work really puts it into perspective.

Take, for example, adding blurrgs into scenes. Those are the formidable beasts that Mando learns to ride from Kuil in episode 1. Layers upon layers have to be added to turn the invisible creature on set into something lively on screen. Landscapes, too, are largely all stitched together virtually. Thank goodness, of course, because we wouldn’t want our actors getting hurt in a lava-filled location like the one in the final episode of the season. To see how all that came together and more, you can check out the visual effects reel down below.

Watch The Mandalorian season 1 visual effects reel

As you’ll see, just about everything imaginable was created an edited into the series. Ships, creatures, landscapes — but not The Child. Thankfully, they decided not to go full prequels and make The Child a CGI creature like Yoda once was. The decision to keep him as a puppet and not use any CGI magic was partially due to Werner Herzog (The Client), who encouraged the team not to use visual effects on The Child. Thank goodness for his suggestion because it’s evident the world loved (and still loves) this adorable child.

The Mandalorian was also creative in the visual effects department when it came to filming. Many scenes, as revealed in Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian, were filmed on a huge set that used a curved set of screened that can basically become the virtual set of any location.

“It’s exactly the same sort of technology as the large LED screens you see in Times Square,” visual effect supervisor Richard Bluff said to StarWars.com. “What we wanted to do was shoot on a small stage with small physical sets that could be wheeled in and out fairly quickly and then extend those physical sets on the wrap-around LED wall.”

With so much technology used in season 1, it’s exciting to see how they’ll use that and expand on it in season 2. The new season will begin streaming on Oct. 30 on Disney+, and hopefully there will be more episodes of Disney Gallery as well.

For more news, updates and spoilers for The Mandalorian, follow The Mandalorian category on Dork Side of the Force.