With such an impressive blend of VFX techniques converging to bring the Vaults to life, it’s almost more exciting to see what technical feats were accomplished practically. One such feat comes at the end of the first episode, when Lucy takes her first step out into the Wasteland. The Vaults of the “Fallout” world can only be opened by a large, complicated unlocking mechanism which sees a massive gear slowly roll out of the way to reveal the outside world. Getting this shot right was crucial, as it’s how “Fallout” players start their own journeys in games like “Fallout 4.”
The VFX team wasn’t able to recreate this moment entirely with practical effects, but it got pretty close. As Lucy stands in front of the Vault 33 door, that’s a real gear rolling to the side — at least, something shaped like a real gear. It’s much more plain than the one seen in the show, made from a bland material that likely weighs significantly less than a real metal gear.
While this surely heightened the moment for Ella Purnell as a performer, the use of a practical “gear” probably had more to do with getting the lighting right. After all, recreating the shadows of a giant moving gear is likely more of a headache than just making one and casting real shadows. Once the scene was shot, VFX artists came in and added the iconic Vault-Tec designs, as well as finer details to make the gear look metal.