Pixomondo

PXO was founded in Pfungstadt, Germany as a design studio in 2000 by Thilo Kuther. The company began its work creating video installations and 3D-animations for high-end corporate clients such as Porsche and Bertelsmann. By the end of 2003, PXO consisted of its one office in Pfungstadt and 40 employees. In 2005, the company first began working in the entertainment business by producing the visual effects for the German television film Atlantropa - Der Traum vom neuen Kontinent. In 2005, a second location, specializing in feature films, opened in Ludwigsburg, Germany. At this location, the company produced nearly all the visual effects for the international feature film The Red Baron, which was released in 2008, and earned PXO its first international recognition. In the same year, the first studio abroad opened in London. In 2007 and 2008, studios were opened in Frankfurt and Los Angeles, respectively. Also in 2008, Pixomondo was commissioned by director Roland Emmerich to produce over 100 complete CG-environments for his feature film 2012. PXO's first offices in Asia, specifically in Shanghai and Beijing, were opened in 2009. In 2011, the company expanded its London office and added two studios in Munich and Hamburg, as well as one in Toronto in 2011.

PXO closed its London office in February 2013. In 2013, PXO closed its Shanghai and Berlin offices, naming restructuring processes as a reason for the closures. In 2014, the office in Shanghai reopened. In 2018, Mayfair Equity Partners completed a majority investment in PXO. The deal valued PXO at $65 million. Less than a year later, Jonny Slow was appointed as global CEO. In early 2019, PXO opened its Montreal office. In June 2021 PXO closed its Beijing and Shanghai offices and by September had announced a new London division that will offer virtual production services.

In October 2022, Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired 100% of Pixomondo from Mayfair Equity Partners.

In March 2026, it was reported that Sony Pictures Entertainment would wind down Pixomondo after it completes its last remaining contracts. All of Pixomondo's units would be integrated into other areas of Sony Pictures, such as its VFX division being absorbed into Sony Pictures Imageworks. On September 29, 2026, it was reported that Dark Slope had acquired Pixomondo's virtual production studio.

Virtual production

In September 2020, PXO announced it began construction on a virtual production studio in Toronto, Canada, with Mayfair backing the new venture with a significant new financial commitment. PXO assembled a team of technical partners for the studio that included Epic Games' Unreal Engine, LED manufacturer ROE Visual, Nvidia, and Brompton Technology among others. In January 2021, the inaugural project to shoot on the virtual production stage was Star Trek: Discovery (season four) followed by the spin-off series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. In July 2021, PXO, in a partnership with Canadian TV and film equipment rental business William F. White International, opened a second virtual production studio in Toronto. Known as Stage 6, it is designed for shorter duration shoots, including commercials and music videos. In November 2021, Netflix announced it partnered with PXO on a custom-built virtual production facility in Vancouver for its live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. In 2022, the Vancouver stage was named the Largest LED Stage by Guinness World Records and is featured in the “Guinness World Records 2023” print edition.

Game of Thrones

PXO was brought on to the HBO television series Game of Thrones in Season 2 and remained through the final season. PXO VFX Supervisor Sven Martin and his team worked closely with the show's VFX group. Martin told Forbes Magazine that they wanted to depict the dragons as "living animals with just enough expressions to understand their feelings…similar to the emotional connection with pets." "We started with a base model, which was established in season 1, but we went for a darker, grittier approach," Martin told Entertainment Weekly. "We did a lot of redesign, made them more spiky, even in the baby state. It was a little bit of a relaunch, but we still kept it believable for the audience."

The key to grounding these mythical creatures, which do not exist in real life, was to give Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion real-world animal counterparts the audience could identify with. "The dragons were always in close contact with the actors," says Martin. "And we were shooting outside on real locations. So everything is real and not meant to be a fantasy. We wanted to transfer that." Studying bird and bat anatomies influenced the dragons' wingspan design. The PXO team even dissected a supermarket chicken to get a sense of how the wings could move. Observing geese on the ground playing with their own wings was later emulated when the dragons were shown sitting down at ease. Color patterns were gleaned from frogs and cheetahs, while crocodiles, lizards, and other reptiles were used for skin structure.

Martin's team met with the show's VFX Supervisor Joe Bauer at the start of each season to discuss new design elements, as the dragons were maturing and growing. For example, they became more guard dog-like as they grew into their roles as Dany's guards. When they got angry or wanted to threaten the enemy, gills popped out of their necks. "That idea came from the fruit lizard, which does exactly the same thing, just in a different direction," Martin told Entertainment Weekly. When Danny started riding Drogon, more spikes were added to him so she'd have something to hold on to.