Kevin Costner's The West
Client
History Channel
Production Company
Radical Media
Project Type
Virtual Set
From Executive Producers Kevin Costner and Doris Kearns Goodwin, Kevin Costner’s The West is an eight-part series that provides a fresh look at the epic history of the American West by delving into the desperate struggle for the land itself –and how it still shapes the America we know today.The West has fired the imaginations of Americans since the end of the Revolutionary War, when settlers first began their relentless push
My Role – 3D Environment Designer
I was responsible for creating all of the photorealistic 3D environments used as backdrops during the show’s expert interviews. These digital sets were projected behind interviewees to appear completely natural—so seamlessly integrated that viewers wouldn’t realize they weren’t filmed on location.
Key contributions:
-Designed and rendered historically accurate 3D interiors, such as frontier homes, saloons, and period-appropriate institutional spaces.
- Ensured true-to-life lighting, depth, and material accuracy to make the digital scenes indistinguishable from physical sets.
- Collaborated closely with the creative team to translate narrative needs into custom-designed visual atmospheres.
- Ensured true-to-life lighting, depth, and material accuracy to make the digital scenes indistinguishable from physical sets.
- Collaborated closely with the creative team to translate narrative needs into custom-designed visual atmospheres.
Why 3D Was Essential
The production team was based in New York City, far from the types of environments needed to match the era and setting of the show. To achieve the same result physically, they would have had to:
- Fly the entire team and crew across the country
- Rent and extensively modify locations (repainting walls, replacing décor, hiding modern elements)
- Revert all changes after filming
- Cover the costs of travel, hotels, meals, and local transportation for both crew and interviewees
- Navigate all of this within a tight production schedule
- Rent and extensively modify locations (repainting walls, replacing décor, hiding modern elements)
- Revert all changes after filming
- Cover the costs of travel, hotels, meals, and local transportation for both crew and interviewees
- Navigate all of this within a tight production schedule
Instead, creating everything digitally allowed for:
- Complete creative control over lighting, architecture, furniture, materials, colors, windows, and more
- Significant cost savings, avoiding travel, rentals, and location modifications
- Efficient scheduling, since filming could happen locally without compromising the vision
- Flexibility to iterate and adjust visual details as needed, without the constraints of a physical location
- Significant cost savings, avoiding travel, rentals, and location modifications
- Efficient scheduling, since filming could happen locally without compromising the vision
- Flexibility to iterate and adjust visual details as needed, without the constraints of a physical location
By leveraging 3D, we delivered cinematic-quality environments with both creative precision and logistical efficiency—supporting the show’s powerful storytelling without sacrificing historical integrity or production agility.
