Let’s talk about a secret force powering “Common Side Effects.” Nope, it isn’t nanotech or some sci-fi serum. It’s a pair of artists: Magali Dunyach and Elbert Gu. Together, these two mapmakers of the mind crafted every drop of mist, every steel-blue lab bench, and each neon slice of city night. Their work hits all ten episodes, rooting the show’s wild ambitions in locations that feel vivid, lived-in, and just unhinged enough to be believable.
Why the Show’s Heart Beats in the Backgrounds
For anyone who clicked play on Peacock on October 5, 2024, the first impact was mood. Even critics couldn’t shut up about it. The AV Club called the show “mood-forward sci-fi that smells like wet soil and burnt plastic.” Atmospheric vibes punch out of the screen long before a character utters a single line. You see dew balancing on highland grass, blue laboratory lights that feel cold to the bone, and cities that sway on the edge between utopia and a panic attack.
Let’s get real: these places shape the story more than a plot twist ever could. And guess who’s responsible? Time to get to know Magali and Elbert.
Meet Magali Dunyach: Color Wizard from Paris
Magali Dunyach comes from the 18th arrondissement, a part of Paris buzzing with artistic roots. She basically inhaled French comics before grade school. Instead of doodling in the corners of her notebook, she dove deep — studying at Gobelins, l’école de l’image, France’s mecca of animation. By 2021, she walked away with a master’s degree in Animated Filmmaking and a hot-ticket short film under her belt.
That film, “Blue Curry,” packs heart in just six minutes. It’s about a mother and son butting heads — and eventually connecting — over a cookpot. The short screened everywhere, including Annecy 2022, Ottawa Animation 2023, and Reelworld Pride Film Fest 2022. Magali didn’t just pull background duty — she co-directed, handled layouts, and splashed emotion into every plate of food.
Gobelins handed her a diploma, but the real door-opener was her knack for coloring feelings. Her USA industry debut popped up at Titmouse LA, where she did character designs for “Scavengers Reign.” By late 2023, GreenStreet Pictures hired her to lead background painting for “Common Side Effects.” That job was no quick sketch gig. She painted the actual bones of the show, bringing Highland drizzle and high-tech dread to life.
“I love stupid loud color,” she joked during an April 2024 Twitch session. But Magali didn’t just douse every scene in paintbox chaos — she dialed things back. Highlands needed drama through subtlety, so she trimmed down her trademark saturation by 30 percent. For every splash of sunset or neon, she committed to a whisper instead of a shout.
Here’s another fun trick: After building her layouts in Clip Studio and painting in Photoshop, she always runs a final pass in DaVinci Resolve. Why? To make sure every episode feels unified. Because let’s face it — if the color energy swings, the story stumbles.
Meet Elbert Gu: Vancouver’s Stealth Architect
And on the other half of this dynamic duo? Elbert Gu, who hails from Richmond, BC, by way of about a million hours spent experimenting with perspective and shadow. Unlike Magali’s out-there online personality, Elbert keeps it mysterious. If he tweets, fans miss it. He prefers Discord. His pals there? They call him “the perspective cop” because, honestly, he can lay out a three-point environment that would make M.C. Escher beam.
Elbert took an Entertainment Design track at ArtCenter College of Design in California, graduating in 2020. But his real boot camp was an internship at Sony Pictures Imageworks, where he learned the old tricks behind matte painting. After that, he did background keys for “Karma Kat,” a preschool show that probably taught him all about bright color and simple forms. Still, the real fun began at GreenStreet in October 2023, when he joined “Common Side Effects.” He’s been credited on every single episode for both designing and painting backgrounds.
Elbert’s workflow is all about blending tech and touch. He blocks out his spaces in Blender — yes, actual 3D — but pulls everything into Photoshop where he layers hand-drawn linework. That’s how those sprawling city vistas still feel painterly and organic instead of sterile.
How the Highlands Rose Out of Pixels and Paint
Let’s step into those thick Scottish-inspired highlands. Episode one sets the tone, but episodes two and seven dig in deep. Magali started by raiding photo banks, mixing Isle of Skye shots with digital brushwork. She then hammered away with desaturation and color tweaks. Elbert made sure every hill and horizon made sense from shot to shot, building a 3D terrain mesh that kept geography honest.
Color scripts, direct from Magali’s digital hand, play a huge narrative game. Highland dawns start teal, slide into mossy green as the morning wakes up, and end in purple twilight when memories get raw. There’s always logic behind those hues. These aren’t just pretty pictures — every color change signals an emotional shift for the characters.
Inside the Labs: Sterile Blues Meets Microbe Mischief
“Common Side Effects” spends plenty of screen time in cold, scary labs. These spaces required more than just a steel-gray color pick. According to production designer Julia Saulnier (Animation Magazine, Nov 2024), these labs cover 32 backgrounds, all tweaked episode to episode.
- The color palette stays tight: oxidized blue steel, complemented with hazard orange. Why orange? It zings against human skin and keeps warnings visible.
- Magali found room for play, too. She painted tiny microbes onto glass panels — background information for biology nerds and eagle-eyed viewers.
- Elbert added fungus growth, with parallax, beginning in episode six. It signals time passing quietly but distinctly.
Add some handy background details:
- Lab glass always sits at 40% opacity.
- If you look, episode four hides the label “Lot CSE-042.” Reddit went nuts with theories about its meaning!
- Lighting shifts so characters pop and rooms hum. That’s pure background flexing.
City Lights and Neon Nights: Building Metro Morrow
Alright, now we dive into the cityscape — Metro Morrow. This urban tangle appears in episodes three, five, eight, and the finale. Elbert built towering street grids in Blender, feeding finished images into the animation pipeline as layered PNGs. That allowed moving elements — those crazy airborne taxis!—to dart in and out during post-production.
Magali painted a custom gradient running from magenta to acid lime, plus a rich navy blue. That combo anchors the city visuals, making every signage flicker memorable. Critics noticed: Polygon called the city “electric cotton candy dystopia.” If that doesn’t make you want to move in, nothing will.
Keeping It Consistent: The Two-Artist Tango
“Common Side Effects” zigzags between rural and urban, lab and wilderness, but somehow, every location feels part of the same world. This is where workflow matters. During CTN Expo 2024, Magali and Elbert spilled a little of their behind-the-scenes sauce.
Here’s the weekly run-down:
- Script pages come in Monday. Both hop on a Thursday morning Zoom for a “drawing jam” where they thumbnail ideas side by side.
- They divide and conquer: Magali tackles trees, fog, and rocks; Elbert jumps for steel, glass, and right angles.
- Color reviews on Friday with the production designer keep things sharp.
- Final painted files (layered PSDs, for the art nerds) land with the comp team by Tuesday.
They cranked out an average of nine fully painted backdrops each week with just two junior assistants. That’s efficiency dressed in a beret.
The Fandom Notices Everything
You know you’ve nailed the visuals when the fans obsess over the backgrounds. TikTok blew up thanks to a clip by @SideFXgirlie comparing a show Highland shot to real photos from Cuillin Ridge in Scotland. That video snagged 1.3 million views. On Reddit, the r/CommonSideEffects art thread has over 200 fan repaints of signature background scenes.
Collectors rushed in, too. In April 2025, Magali put up a limited run of giclée prints from the episode ten sunset alley. They sold out in four minutes flat! Art books are rumored, with Titan Books circling for a holiday 2025 “art of” release.
What’s Coming Next? A Little Tease for True Background Buffs
Season two is officially a go, announced by Deadline in February 2025. Magali locked herself in, telling fans on Insta-story she’s dying to paint “more mushrooms.” Elbert teased on Discord that he’s building a procedural cloud rig in Houdini, hinting that we’ll soar even higher than the highlands next time around.
If you’re heading to Annecy Festival this June, you can catch Magali and Elbert spilling more secrets at a making-of panel. They go live at 14:00 on June 12, Salle Ravel. Bring questions and get them to spill about those infamous RGB tricks.
So, as you sit back and let “Common Side Effects” dunk your senses in moss, glass, and neon, raise a glass — or maybe a Wacom stylus — to Magali Dunyach and Elbert Gu. Drop your favorite establishing shot in the comments, and let’s see who’s caught all their slyest little background winks.
