Here's how one of the dragons on "Game of Thrones looks:
Since the series debut, they've grown to be pretty large.
It was up to the Pixomondo visual effects artists in Germany to design concepts of what they would look like.
Since there's nothing to model them after, the dragons were inspired by eagles and bats.
"The eagle is used more for soaring and gliding motion and more of a bat kind of motion when the dragons were taking off," says fxguide.com co-founder Mike Seymour.
Here's the final effect of the dragon soaring through the sky in season 3.
You can really see the inspiration of the bat when the dragon's spread open their wings to take flight.
Here's how it looked after the effects.
Other than getting the intricate animation down ...
... they had to ensure Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) was interacting properly with non-existent animals.
Let's take another look at that.
Before they become the dragons we see on television ...
... and even before they're digital versions on a computer screen ...
... the dragons are nothing more than tennis balls on a stick.
Here's a great example of how the dragons morph from concept to television:
Watch how the dragons were brought to life in full below:
Check out more behind-the-scenes visual effects ...
