Severance — Season 2 / arice.xyz

Brief

I had the absolute pleasure of diving into one of my all-time favorite series, Severance. For Season 2, I had the chance to collaborate with an amazing team to create a teaser video that really captured the show's unique tone and atmosphere. It was an incredible experience working with the team and contributing to a series I'm such a big fan of.

During the Christmas holiday season last year, I was thrilled to be contacted by the team handling the teasers and advertising for the upcoming Season 2 of Severance. They asked if I'd jump in to create a 50-second teaser video for the new season. They already had a storyboard and a concept in place, and my role was to bring it to life visually.

01 / Final Teaser

Final cut.

Severance Season 2 — final teaser poster

50-Second Teaser Direction · CGI

Concept

The storyboard concept was straightforward but fun: the iconic blue balloon with the mark on it would float out of the elevator, get stuck in the closing doors, and eventually be squeezed until it popped, revealing the Severance logo and title.

That was the core idea the team pitched to me, and it was my job to make it as visually striking as possible.

02 / Animatic

Animatic.

First pass · Cinema 4D

First pass of the animatic. This is where I started to lock in the camera angles, the balloon's position, and play around with different focal lengths to set the overall feel of the scene.

Final animatic · 25mm lens

Here's the final animatic that was approved by the creative director. You can see we ultimately went with a slightly wider 25mm lens for a subtler, more immersive look. We also finalized the balloon simulation and the animation of the doors to really nail that final touch.

03 / Balloon Simulation

Squeeze.

Physics Simulation + Manual Keyframe Cinema 4D

Process

Animating the balloon getting stuck between the elevator doors might sound easy on paper, but it was actually quite a challenge. The creative director wanted a combination of physics simulation and keyframe animation so we could have artistic control over exactly how the balloon moved and interacted with the doors.

Cinema 4D was super handy for this. I started by keyframing the initial part of the animation to place the balloon exactly where we wanted it. Then, as the elevator doors started to squeeze the balloon, I turned on the physics simulation to get that realistic squish and pop effect. With a few tweaks, we nailed the exact look the director was going for.

04 / Texture

Texture.

Texturing Substance Painter

Detail

With the squish locked in, I moved into Substance Painter to add the final layer of detail — pushing the balloon's surface toward photoreal, where the squashed face could land cleanly.

Credits

Client

Apple TV+

Production

Leroy & Rose

Director · CGI

Arice

Software

Cinema 4D

Year

2025

Apple TV+ Severance Season 2