a galaxy that shaped us: Midas in Andor s2
Midas VFX Returns for Andor Season 2
Midas VFX was honoured to return for Andor Season 2, following our work on the first season with a deep sense of pride and gratitude. On the first season we delivered over 1400 final shots - this time, we delivered over 1700, helping bring the final chapter of Cassian Andor’s journey to the screen.
Andor has always stood apart in the Star Wars universe, gritty, grounded, and human. We’re incredibly thankful to Tony Gilroy for his remarkable vision, and to VFX producer TJ Falls, VFX supervisor Mohen Leo, and the entire production team for trusting us once again with such a bold and important project.
The Project That Launched Us
Andor will always hold a special place in Midas VFX’s story. Season 1 gave us our first opportunity to show what we could do on a global stage. Season 2 allowed us to build on that foundation and grow. The trust we were shown, and the space we were given to do our best work, shaped who we are as a company today.
Thank You, Andor
To Tony Gilroy, TJ Falls, Mohen Leo, and everyone who helped bring Andor to life - thank you. Thank you for the opportunity, the trust, and the collaboration. We will always be grateful.
Can you tell us the story behind Midas VFX — how it was founded?
MH The origin of the Midas Team really goes back to 2013. I began supervising at a vfx house in Covent Garden - that’s actually where I first met Paolo. Being a smaller vfx house with limited resources I tried to find a way to streamline the work and was granted a lot of freedom to start forming my own approach. That’s where the culture began, trying to work as efficiently as possible and pushing QC levels to gain work on bigger shows.
Over time we found the right team of people who adapted to our way of working but it was always a struggle to hold on to them as projects came and went. When I moved on I tried to gather my favourite artists and find a new home for the team but despite our best efforts we couldn’t find a company that worked the way we wanted to. We really had developed our own culture by then so we basically built Midas as a home for ourselves - to be able to have that control and work the way we wanted to.
Timing couldn’t have been worse - giving notice to start Midas a month before lockdown happened then vfx drying up wasn’t ideal but we grafted through - switched into the fashion and beauty industry to pay the bills. We had such a talented team that it paid off and we came up with new techniques and pipelines to make enough of an impact to keep work coming in through that tough period and also become experts at beauty and deaging - early adopters of AI assisted workflows.
Then as work slowly picked up again in vfx and shows started shooting cautiously while covid was still causing a lot of issues for filming I was approached to work on Andor season 1 as the in-house VFX supervisor. Working alongside TJ Falls, Mohen Leo and the team we had to wear covid masks and have regular testing at Pinewood during the shoot - it feels as surreal thinking about it now as it did at the time but it was also surreal to be working on a Star Wars show. We brought Midas onboard as the inhouse team and that team was able to grow quite a bit as we churned through the shots. In the end we finaled more than 1400 shots and were trusted with work including the big blaster sequence in the factory on Ferrix, lightspeed jumps and hyperspace tunnels - building custom 3D blaster setups and Hyperspace tunnels setups along the way.
We also QC’d all shots across the show from other vendors around 3800 shots. Paolo D’Arco was one of the key people in my team working as a Compositing Supervisor for me, leading sequences, helping to check work from our team and helping out on vendor tech checks. He’d already VFX supervised alongside me on other shows so I knew how capable he was.
Andor was a huge show for a new company to work on and really launched us - following up with shows like 13 Lives, Willow, House of the Dragon and Indiana Jones. Then with a new office in Covent Garden we also graduated to picking up full shows as the main vendor like Who is Erin Carter, Day of the Jackal and Steal.
When Season 2 of Andor came about Paolo’s work on season 1 made him the ideal candidate to replace me as in-house vfx supervisor.
How has the company evolved since its inception?
MH It’s evolved a lot, like I said before it really started just to be a home for our team, the ambition was very modest, just survive and work the way we enjoyed with the team we enjoyed working with. But growth came naturally - we always worked hard to find solutions for clients - something one of my old bosses used to tell me! and that snow balled - first supporting in-house, then handling sections of films, then entire episodes, and eventually full seasons of major series. Shows with 1000-2000 shots, high volumes that need complex environments and large-scale effects. None of this was in the original plan, but we adapted to meet the needs of our clients.
We’ve gathered amazing key players to the team along the way that bring something new and have now built a pipeline beyond our wildest dreams because we know artist-led can sometimes need more stringent organisation. We’ve always been forward thinking and given the budget realities of current industry pressures where keeping costs low is extremely important outsourcing certain types of work to places like India is unavoidable. The problem with that is you don’t always get the same teams or the same quality and we’ve found ourselves having to fix outsourced work to bring it up to our standards before so the solution was to take control of that process ourselves. Opening a Mumbai branch was the next logical step, a way to guarantee quality, continuity, and the kind of culture we’d already built in London.
Luckily I already had a link to Mumbai going back to 2012, while working on Dredd 3D at Prime Focus, I led part of their Mumbai team who were selected to come and work in London through some complex stereo / rolling-shutter challenges. That’s where I first met Bharat De. Since then he went on to build a strong reputation in India, and when the time came to establish Midas Mumbai, he was my first choice to head up the studio there. Bharat assembled his own trusted team much like we had done in London and oversaw the purpose built office from an empty shell.
So thats been the evolution so far! - offices in London and Mumbai, adding key members to the team with a strong pipeline and next gen AI tools. I think we have a strong foundation and I’m excited to see where the company goes from here - Paolo’s Emmy nomination shows the hard work is paying off so congrats Paolo - well deserved!
An interview with Marc Hutchings Head of vfx and Paolo D’Arco VFX Supervisor at Midas,
bringing grounded sci-fi realism to Andor Season 2
First of all Paolo, congratulations on the nomination. What does this recognition mean to you personally especially being named alongside such iconic VFX supervisors from studios like ILM, Scanline and Hybride?
PD It's crazy to be honest, it is something that I wasn't expecting at all. I knew the show was likely to be nominated, of course, but I never stopped to think about being on the list myself alongside such brilliant people.
The show has always been about collaboration, which makes this nomination feel even more special. It’s a real honour, and I see it as a meaningful recognition of the incredible work the Midas team put into the show.
You worked on Andor Season 2 as part of the Midas team — can you tell us about your role on the show?
PD I was fortunate to be part of the Andor team from Season 1 as a Compositing Supervisor. Helping review our team’s work and performing tech checks on vendor deliveries. This gradually expanded my responsibilities and gave me a strong understanding of both the creative and technical aspects of the show. So when I transitioned into the VFX Supervisor role for Season 2, it was a natural progression. I was already familiar with the project, the pipeline, and had built a strong working relationship with the Team - TJ, Mohen and their crew which made the shift quite smooth.
What kind of sequences or challenges were you personally responsible for?
PD In terms of work We have done a lot on the show, from green screens and set extensions to blaster fights, hyperspace sequences, and a wide range of screens and graphics. One moment I really enjoyed working on was a hologram for a Coruscant shot in Episode 4. Contributions like that made rewatching the show especially fun, seeing our work across the season.
Andor is known for its grounded, cinematic tone — very different from the typical visual style of Star Wars. How did that affect your VFX approach?
PD As mentioned we have been part of the Andor family from the very beginning, so in that sense our vfx approach wasn't affected really, in that we have had a strong direction of the show’s aesthetic from Mohen from the show's start.
Representing Midas, how did it feel to collaborate on a franchise as globally beloved and technically demanding as Star Wars?
PD It is a privilege really, you know as you work, that you are producing something special, I didn't anticipate how well season one would be received to be fair, but we were aware of how demanding the Star wars fan base can be, so we had to make sure that our work was perfect, and the same was for the tech checks we did for the whole show, the QC level was very high. What was great though was that I had the chance to work closely with the production team, and that meant that for any problem, any question, I could just go next door to TJ or Mohen and check with them.
It didn't matter how busy they were, and believe me they were Busy! But they always found time to answer questions.
Can you share a moment during production that was particularly challenging — or especially rewarding — from a creative or technical standpoint?
PD I think the main challenge on the show, was the shot count, we went on to produce more than 1700 shots, I don't want to be wrong but I think the exact shots count was 1731, this on a total of 4000 vfx shots.
So I would say that was our biggest challenge, but I have been fortunate enough to have one of the strongest teams I have worked with in my career, they all really helped deliver some of Midas best work.
In terms of rewarding, I believe nothing beats a blaster fight, although the hyperspace was fun too.
You’re originally from Naples, Italy — how has your background and journey influenced the way you approach storytelling through visual effects?
PD I think that being Italian, especially Neapolitan, prepares you for everything life can throw at you, you do see the world with different eyes, hard work comes easy/natural in a way because you are simply used to having to fight, doing your best to get nothing in return (laughs).
It might sound harsh but it is a reality of my birthplace, on the other end you grow surrounded by beauty and art and that obviously it is something that you carry with you.
As someone working at an independent studio, what perspective or strengths do you think Midas brought to Andor that complemented the work of larger vendors?
PD I think the great thing about Midas is that it is a studio made by artists that worked well together had high standards and kept pushing for quality over quantity, on Andor i believe we managed to do both.
What kind of collaboration was involved across VFX vendors on Andor Season 2? Was there a unified visual language you all followed, or did you have room to bring in your own interpretations?
PD Well of course we are talking about an extensively developed world, so of course there is a language to follow.
Visually obviously we followed Mohen's lead, and obviously ILM is our reference for all of Star Wars work, they have all the knowledge when it comes to the star wars universe and Mohen especially with the Andor world, having been in charge of rogue one and now Andor. In every shot we developed it is more about workflow and problem solving as visually you want to be as consistent and faithful to the show's image.
Looking back, is there a particular shot or sequence you’re most proud of — something that really represents your contribution to the show?
PD I have had the privilege of tech checking every single shot on this show as well as producing shots, I have to say I feel attached to every episode/sequence. Whether it was recreating a talk show on an old crt looking monitor or shooting blasters during the Ghorman massacre, they were all important.
I love how this season has intense and meaningful moments in every episode.
Do you think this nomination reflects a broader recognition of the incredible work being done by independent studios like Midas in high-end television?
PD Sure, I think there has been a shift throughout the pandemic we have seen a lot of artist lead studios coming up, doing some pretty impressive work.
What advice would you give to emerging artists or supervisors who aspire to work on projects at this level?
PD Keep grinding, stay interested, open scripts, ask questions, keep learning.