The 8,000 frames long tracking shot into Trinity’s mushroom cloud, Laura and Sarah Palmer taking their faces off, and the mesmerizing air vortices. That’s just some of the eye candy visual effects company BUF was responsible for in the third season of Twin Peaks.
3D model of Part 8's frog moth by @bufvfx (via https://t.co/3UjzblgqKZ). #TwinPeaks pic.twitter.com/OnM7dlQIr2
— Welcome to Twin Peaks (@ThatsOurWaldo) January 17, 2018
After first working with the French company on a Gucci commercial and admiring their work on a Fondation Cartier project, David Lynch trusted Pierre Buffin and Stéphane Vogel to make his dream world come to life and granted them exclusive access to the entire script of the new Twin Peaks. The director then worked closely with their team, showing them paintings (eg. The Fireman’s Home by the Sea), drawings (eg. the parasitic frog moth) and sculptures (eg. the Evolution of the Arm) as a basis for their 3D special effects.
This official VFX reel shows how some of BUF’s work was used in season 3. Does it include any of your favorite moments?
Twin Peaks Season #3 – BUF Making of
Supervisors were Pierre Buffin & Stéphane Vogel. Producers were Kristina Prilukova and Coline Six. The showreel was made by Charles Labriet and the music is “Can’t Leave the Night” by the excellent Toronto-based jazz group BadBadNotGood.
Fire walk with 
I thought the effect were pretty lo-fi and a bit cheesey on purpose. Hey if that was what he wanted and what they were directed to do, then good job!
While the 3D/CGI effects were created by BUF, David Lynch and his team created most of the 2D effects, eg. the BBs emerging from the tulpas and the Red Room clouds hovering over the slot machines, etc.
I think so as well, with the exception of the mushroom cloud and bug, which I think were way out of the league of any tv CGI I’ve seen, albeit the only other show I ever really watched was LOST, whose cgi ranged from OK to truly and unforgivably awful.
Of the effects that were lo-fi and cheesy, I thought of them as carrying on the lineage of the old show’s weird, very 90s SFX, such as the owl cave painting superimposed into the robed figure, the owl onto BOB’s face, the Giant putting the glowing orb into cooper, Josie’s doorknob face, among others.
So great. THanks for posting !!!