The Legend of the Thousand Ends is a 52-episode series in the form of humor and modern history. The director of this historical and fantasy series is Shahab Abbasi and it is written by Hassan Varasteh. This parody comic collection was made from 2017 to 2019. The Legend of the Thousand Ends series is a situational satire and fantasy comedy that tells the life story of families who travel under the pretext of preparing a wedding dowry, but their way of life changes when bandits attack their caravan. To escape the clutches of the bandits, they enter the heart of the salt marshes and deserts and embark on wonderful adventures. Adventures take place in an ancient city after walking an erosive path in the heart of arid deserts. In the old city, events are combined with humorous themes to tell the story differently and unbelievably.
The Legend of the Thousand Ends required a wide variety of visual effects throughout the construction due to the vastness of the storytelling and the many different events that take place for the main family of the story. These effects included performing chroma key in very complex situations, using 3D objects, 2D animations, particle effects, destruction, amplification, and simulation. The most used visual effect was chroma key and desert substitution behind the characters.
Due to the absence of a visual effects supervisor during filming and chroma key scenes, the visual effects team faced many challenges in removing the green screen and replacing the desert behind the characters. Challenges such as the lack of marking for image tracking, the presence of very high and detailed foreground images, the very poor quality of the green screen, and even in some cases the lack of green color of the chroma key curtain due to sunlight. In some shots, the camera was moving very fast, and due to the low shutter speed of the camera, the images were flowing a lot and it was almost impossible to track it. The bigger challenge was time. All of these issues had to be resolved in a very short time because the deadline for the delivery of the series was fast approaching and the series should not be delayed from its delivery time. The Sefidgooy team of visual effects, by inventing different and new ways, we’re able to overcome all these challenges and, despite many difficulties, replace the green screen with 2D and 3D images.
Time Hole is one of the most beautiful visual effects performed in this series. Female characters have driven men out of the city to hold women’s meetings and engage in scientific work away from men’s eyes. Men who are tired of being in the desert decide to go back in time and eliminate the primary factor in the formation of women’s meetings. The visual concept of opening a hole was an important challenge. Conceptual design artists presented nearly 20 designs to implement this concept, one of which was eventually selected by the director and the art group. The concept was taken from images of space black holes. A ring that wraps around itself quickly and is made up of particles separated from time. Particles that seem to connect the current space to the space of a few weeks ago.
Other visual effects performed in the Legend of the Thousand Ends include the execution of vertical celestial lights, while bandits are searching for underground treasures, the execution of curses on the hands of people who have turned into zombies, and the creation of battle scenes.
Visual effects have been used in all episodes of The Legend of the Thousand Ends series. This is a very long time to use visual effects in a series due to the high number of episodes of the series (52 episodes). Finally, in The Legend of the Thousand Ends, 280 minutes of visual effects have been done.