Wētā Workshop’s work on Blade Runner 2049 offers a glimpse into the meticulous process of blending traditional craftsmanship with modern filmmaking technology. The team constructed miniature cityscapes to create the film’s dystopian environment, using laser-cut designs, LED lighting and found objects to achieve a layered, weathered look. These models, some only partially built, were designed to mimic buildings developed over decades, adding realism and depth to the scenes.
By integrating 3D modeling tools like Maya and scanning the miniatures for VFX enhancements, the team achieved a seamless blend of physical and digital effects. The result was an urban landscape so convincing that many viewers didn’t realise miniatures were used. Wētā Workshop’s contribution underscores the enduring value of practical effects in creating visually compelling narratives.
Miniature sets from Blade Runner 2049 feature in our must-see exhibition.
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Video transcript
Christopher Menges, Wētā Workshop Model Maker and On Set Standby:
The filmmakers wanted real textures on real models shot with real light. And that's something you can do really quickly with miniatures.
Jake Evill, Wētā Workshop 3D Concept Designer:
The original Blade Runner was done with miniatures. And I feel like by doing this sort of sequence with miniatures, you get added nuances and realism that you would otherwise lose through VFX.
Christopher Menges:
I always think of us film technicians, as actually toolmakers for storytellers. So we look into, exactly what they're trying to convey, and then we break down what's needed in order for them to tell their story appropriately.
In this case, that would have been, basically playing architect. They're going to be building all of these buildings digitally, and turning them into like, flat pack laser cuts and all kinds of different pieces for us to assemble.
Jake Evill:
So, the process and the work that I predominantly had to do was designing the buildings from scratch, also managing the previous shots where I would essentially use a program called Maya to block out the placements of every single building with the path that the camera track leading up to the LAPD building.
When you're working through conceptually with brainstorming in a 3D way, we would stick to sort of silhouettes and block modeling. We draw inspiration from everyday objects or inspiration from other movies
Christopher Menges:
What we need is a variety of different styles of building that look like they've been built over the series of different decades, eras, budget constraints. What we want is for the audience to inhabit a environment the same way the characters are.
Jake Evill:
It's a very dark scene with fog and lighting. The buildings need to not only fill the area, but also look a certain way and feel a certain way.
Christipher Menges:
one of the big visual cues that we were given was this place is rundown and barely standing, and those who are still there trying to make it work.
One of the things, we wanted was there to be a lot of, digital noise on top of the buildings.
So, [inaudible], nurnies and greebles were all of the things that you just glue on the sides of these buildings.
Those can be made up of all kinds of found objects that we either mold to replicate or just glue together and put together.
One of my favorite building toppers was made out of a drill bit holder with a flashlight glued on top, and then the guts of the flashlight glued on top of those. And then we ran fiber optics through all these things, to give you that, that ping of light.
Jake Evill:
The simplistic execution of it might surprise some audiences. The fact that they're made with almost traditional woodworking methods and the fact that some of them aren't even fully complete. like we've got hollow open sections out in the back,
Christopher Menges:
So, all of the buildings are built essentially like lampshades. On the inside is just really long LED strips. All of the windows are able to be lit, but they're all blacked off with foam board and tape, anywhere we didn't want light to come out. And that meant that we could change which lights are on and off without actually moving any lights.
If you look in, some of those windows actually have rooms behind them and everything that was really close to camera, we built what we were referring to as parallax rooms, and we did that with little laser cut wooden boxes we taped to the inside of the building, and then we'd have a kind of a printed background of a living room and wanted to pop that in. So if we had happen to fly by, you would actually see somebody's window.
Jake Evill:
We would scan the models again. So, they had a kind of start and end process. Those were then handed off to essentially be used for VFX to help populate the scene a little bit more, but also as the base models to have their sort of screens and other lightings and effects applied on to them.
Christopher Menges:
People were appreciating the film in isolation before they knew there were miniatures in it. Once people learn there were miniatures, they went, oh my god, of course, they looked so good. But that also means that nobody stepped out and went, oh, look, miniatures. So that means that the blend was done really appropriately through the editing, through the storytelling itself. Then we were recognised through the visual effects society and, the team won a visual effects award for our work on this.
The entire movie is just eye candy for dystopian cyberpunk future. And we just had a little part of it, and our little part of it was still recognised. That's awesome.