Join us as Oscar-nominated visual effects supervisor Tim Crosbie gives us all the glorious — and gory — insights into the aeschna monster attack on the chain ferry in The Witcher Season 3. See how the sequence evolved from concept art and pre-visualization to Henry Cavill (Geralt of Rivia) and Freya Allan (Princess Cirilla of Cintra) fighting crew members wearing blue-screen bodysuits — and armed with pool noodles, naturally — before the final visual effect touches were applied.

Believe it or not, this pivotal scene was also on the chopping block, as showrunner Lauren Schmidt-Hissrich told Tudum in April.

“I fought so hard… Because the boat obviously, was an entire set that had to be built. Every single scene has VFX in it. Even apart from the monster. There’s sky, there’s water, it’s on a back lot here for us. So it was an all hands on deck. We all had to join hands and say like, yes, this is what we’re investing in. And it’s so worth it because it’s a monster fight we’ve never seen. We’ve never watched something like that happen before.”

If you want to learn more about The Witcher Season 3, click here.

Additional reporting by Ariana Romero.