BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Being awarded by the Visual Effects Society for a sci-fi masterpiece like “Dune,” is a childhood dream come true for compositing supervisor Francesco Dell’Anna.

Growing up in Italy, it was science fiction epics that began his fascination with visual effects.

“It probably started with ‘Jurassic Park’ when I was very little, then ‘Star Wars,’” Dell’Anna said.

But there were many challenges to overcome for the compositing and lighting teams in the pivotal attack on Arakeen scene in “Dune.”

For one, the entire scene takes place at night in the dark.

So the biggest task was sticking to photorealism, making the gigantic explosions and the silhouettes of different shapes look real.

“With not much light in the scene, the only source of light was about the explosions, so — flames and that kind of stuff so it was all about this moody look,” Dell’Anna said.

To pull off the look, they researched war footage in order to portray the massive scale of explosions.

They also worked alongside the special effects team that built real gasoline flames on set.

Compositors then timed the temperature evolution of their CG pyro elements.

It was an intense scene to create for Dell’Anna and the team at DNEG studios, but doing it all from home in the pandemic was their biggest achievement.

“Nowhere in the history, a studio this big was able to work from home for many reasons, but thanks to the team at DNEG, it all became possible,” Dell’Anna said.

So their hard work and contribution to “Dune” paid off, placing them in the Visual Effects Society history book.