The Original Scott Expedition Image

The process involved creating a 3D model of the ice cliffs and the ice and sea around them.  The image is then projected onto the 3D model, similar to frontal projection as used films.  With some adjustments to the texture and the way it’s applied to the model it’s possible to move the camera off axis and even up over the ice cliffs.  I also added some reflection and surface movement to the water.

We also decided to retain some of the photo’s antique feel.  So I mimicked some of the dust and scratches and placed them as layers in the scene which the camera can fly through as though they’re suspended in the

Foreign Office animator Matteo Manzini created the looping skier animations.

About six months later I had an email from Amnesty International’s Irish section.  They liked the ad and asked if I’d come to Dublin and make a new version specifically for Ireland.  The video was shown at the world premiere of The Boy in Striped Pyjamas in Dublin and then ran alongside the film in Ireland for several months.  Here’s the final spot:

Keen-eyed viewers of the original History of Ancient Britain series on BBC Two may have noticed something missing. While covering Orkney’s colossal neolithic stone circles, the Ring of Brodgar and the Stones of Stenness, presenter Neil Oliver made no mention of the active archeological dig going on right between them. In fact the site, known as the Ness of Brodgar, had been extensively filmed but was deemed too big and too interesting to slot into a short segment in the series. Instead the Ness of Brodgar would be given a full hour of its own. The result is the one-off Orkney’s Stone Age Temple.

A map from History of Ancient Britain

Ness of Brodgar Aerial Map

I designed and animated the aerial maps for the original series.  For the Orkney special I was asked to do something a little more complex.  The Ness of Brodgar is a long, low peninsula slicing between two lochs on the Orkney Mainland. The archeological dig covers only a small square right in the middle of the Ness, containing 14 structures.  But geophysical surveys have picked up anomalies over the entire peninsula suggesting that close to 100 buildings once stood there.  My job was to bring some of this vast buried world into the daylight.

The Ness of Brodgar

Ness of Brodgar with Geophys overlay

We decided early on not to attempt a full rendering of the site. There is still a lot left to learn about the way these buildings would have looked, so to present them in some sort of full colour composite seemed wrong.  Instead we chose a graphic approach, focusing on aspects of the structures that the archaeologists working there felt certain about. The shape and texture of the stones used, for instance was beyond dispute, as was in many cases the width of the structure and perimeter walls. So I spent some time coming up with a look that would hopefully emphasize these elements.

An impression of the Ness of Brodgar Temple

The producers wanted to the see the site in its geographical context. To achieve this they shot take after take of helicopter footage circling the Ness.  I matchmoved this and then added the structures on top. A particularly tricky part of this was removing most of the modern world from the shot. Buildings, a well used road and the site itself had to be covered with a believable field of stone and wild grass. We left perimeter objects in the background, which give a good sense of scale.

The original shot

My favorite shots are where we see the dig in progress, with all its scattered stones and partial walls, and then superimpose the complete structures. Even when walking on the site, it’s very hard to see the forms among the disarray.

The excavation of Structure 8

But just by gradually fading in a bit of the complete building you start to see the shapes and the building’s design emerge.

Structure 8 superimposed

We then fade out the live action and look at the buildings in detail.

Structure 8 fly-through

Structure 01

Another sequence shows presenter Neil Oliver walking through a 3D impression of the temple.

Neil Oliver enters the virtual temple

Neil Oliver walks through the virtual temple

Blue screen footage and backplates were shot on location. I think this set a new standard for tricky keying. Neil’s long hair flying about in the Orkney wind was a struggle to key. Also the handheld blue screen flapped about so much in the wind that tracking it was impossible. In the few shots where some clean background was visible beyond the blue screen I managed to matchmove the camera which was a huge help. But in most cases I simply had to dead reckon the camera moves.

Presenter Neil Oliver with a handheld bluescreen

In all I produced over 45 shots, covering about 12 minutes of screen time.

The special airs January 1, 9pm on BBC Two.

In early discussions about the show, the producers and I talked about ways we could depict the site.  An obvious choice was a complete 3D render of the site and the environment around it (this was eventually replaced with 3D models composited atop live action, usually shot from a helicopter.)  With this in mind I produced a few CGI landscapes.  These were all produced in Cinema 4D and rendered in Vray.  The terrain below uses a lot of noise layers for displacement on the water and the coastline, and the excellent SurfaceSpread plugin for distributing rocks and shrubs.

A CGI landscape wideshot

CGI dunes and seagrass

The image above also uses the Real World Plants collection – which is great – and SurfaceSpread for distributing the grass.

We also wanted to add imagery on top of live action so that the animations didn’t feel to distinct from the show itself.  The team shot well over an hour of stabilised helicopter footage.  I matchmoved these shots in PFTrack and modelled a new ‘untouched’ version of the peninsula onto which we could add buildings and walls.  Vray’s displacement was very handy here, creating a lot of detail to break up the smooth geometry of the 3D landmass.

Helicopter shot of the Ness of Brodgar

Helicopter shot with 3D terrain added

I tend to build 3D maps using real world data such as elevation models as a starting point.  But for the small peninsula featured in the show, I needed more detail than was available online.  So I started looking at 3D terrain creation applications.  In the end I went with a programme called World Machine.   It has a great 2D vector system for drawing out landmasses.  So for this image, I traced the peninsula with a vector path and then added elevation and erosion.  The render was done in Cinema 4D with the Vray renderer.

A 3D render of the Ness of Brodgar

Prior to the shoot I traveled to the site and photographed, among other things, small sections of stone walls.  These imagesformed the basis for the stone wall texture used in the show.  The images below use a very simple 3D model with a high resolution texture displacing the surfaces to create the stone wall effect.

3D model of a neolithic building

3D model of a neolithic building without roof

Rough scale guide

A final image of a neolithic building

This final image shows how the graphics eventually looked in the show.

I was asked to produce a new show open and a graphics package of backgrounds, stings and straps to go with it.

NEWSHOUR Creative Director Travis Daub designed a new logo and colour scheme.  I used this as the base for the new open.

Frame from PBS NEWSHOUR Open

Frame from PBS NEWSHOUR Open

Frame from PBS NEWSHOUR

Frame from PBS NEWSHOUR

Final frame from PBS NEWSHOUR