Archive

1. Monkeys: An Amazing Animal Family

   November 9, 2022 11:04 am Comments Off on Monkeys: An Amazing Animal Family

   VVFXAfter the success of SKY ONE’s Cats: An Amazing Animal Family, we were commissioned by Bristol based Offspring Films to create an iconic family tree that would house all the primate species of the world in a single scene to help tell the story of Primate evolution through a sequence of shots for a SKY ONE family audience.

   Delivered in UHD and filmed across 3-continents, footage was carefully selected that would allow us to extract the primates from their original environment. These were then scaled and repositioned and integrated fully with our CG tree that was created using specialist software. This provided the flexibility to grow and animate the the tree in an organic way from sapling to fully grown.  Wind movement was also applied to the branches and the leaves for realism and optical effects applied to emulate lens characteristics.

   Detailed texturing was captured with hi resolution HDRI photography and mapped to the model for added photorealism and to provide a complimentary style to the live action. The tree model had to be sufficiently detailed to allow ‘hero’ tracking shots of primates on single branches.

   Environments were crafted with photogrammetry and detailed modelling, all the vegetation had to be created as CG models but based on real references.

   

   

   

   

   Key Credits

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   Broadcaster: Sky One
   Production Company: Offspring Films
   Executive Producer: Alex Willamson
   Series Producer: Sam Hodgson
   VFX Creative Director: Simon Clarke
   VFX Supervisor: Graham Stott
   3D Supervisor: Jem Grimshaw
   VFX Producer: Jon Grafton

2. Earth From Space

   November 4, 2022 4:32 pm Comments Off on Earth From Space

   Earth from Space is a landmark BBC One four-part series that sets out to provide new insights into our planet by expanding the range of perspectives we can view it from. This has been achieved by capturing imagery from satellites in different orbits as well as shooting via more conventional vantage points: from helicopters, drones and on the ground.

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   Moonraker VFX were commissioned by BBC Studios to maximise the impact of the pioneering footage being captured for the series. The team worked with satellite image providers to capture stunning new images of the Earth.

   The satellites act as a camera within the series narrative that provides a unique and ground-breaking view of life on earth. A pioneering part of the production process was shooting an event by drone or on the ground, while the same event is being captured simultaneously in real time from space.

   In addition, Moonraker worked with the BBC to replay lapsed time satellite footage in the clearest way possible to achieve the greatest impact.

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   Graham Stott, Creative Lead explains: “One of the greatest challenges we faced on Earth From Space was executing the drone to Earth orbit pullout shots. Technically it’s a question of precise alignment of tracked drone footage and ground survey, multiple satellite image captures and our Earth asset. Furthermore, it takes a huge amount of accuracy and control to send a camera smoothly down from orbit, to a drone shot only a few metres above the Earth.”

   “Fortunately we had a great collaborative relationship with the Earth From Space team in the pre-shoot phase allowing us to plan the drone flights well in advance. This ensured we had superb material with which to execute the shots to an unprecedented standard.”

   Jon Grafton, Managing Director says: “Earth From Space has been a joy to work on. The footage being captured by the producers is breathtaking and the seamless transitions we’re creating from one camera to another are producing shots that have never been seen before”

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   Simon Clarke, Creative Director adds: “We are delighted to be working with the BBC again at the cutting edge of film making and camera technology to deliver new arresting views of our planet. As satellite and aerial capturing techniques have evolved, so has our approach to the integration of this into our pipeline, the detail of the imagery we are creating now is mind blowing”.

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   Key Credits

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   Broadcaster: BBC
   Production Company: BBC NHU
   Executive Producer: Jo Shinner
   Series Producer: Chloe Sarosh
   Series Director: Barny Revill
   VFX Creative Director: Simon Clarke
   VFX Creative Lead: Graham Stott
   VFX Producers: Jon Grafton And Scott Metcalfe

3. Ancient Apocalypse

   11:35 am Comments Off on Ancient Apocalypse

   Moonraker created the titles, graphic and VFX sequences across this 8 part series for Netflix,
   bringing these ancient sites and myths to a new audience.

   Journalist Graham Hancock visits archaeological sites around the world looking for
   evidence of a lost civilization dating back to the last Ice Age.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   Key Credits

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   Broadcaster: Netflix
   Production Company: ITN Productions
   Executive Producer: Bruce Kennedy
   Director: Marc Tiley
   VFX Production: Hannah Lewis, Rosanna Thorn-Lees
   VFX Supervisor: Olly Hagar
   Illustration: Emily Grace

4. Royal Mob

   November 2, 2022 3:49 pm Comments Off on Royal Mob

   Royal Mob tells the saga of the extended royal family that once ruled the whole of Europe, and how their loves, marriages and feuds dragged the continent into the world’s first total war and violent revolution.

   Moonraker created the titles and graphic sequences across this 4 part series for Sky History, bringing the faded grandeur of Europe’s royal houses back to life.

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   Key Credits

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   Broadcaster: Sky History
   Production Company: Nutopia
   Showrunner: Tom Stubberfield
   Art Director: Alex Dilworth
   Production: Alex Briggs/Lucie Stepney

5. Mankind from Space

   September 27, 2022 8:16 am Comments Off on Mankind from Space

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   Mankind from Space is an epic journey of discovery using real satellite data and astonishing CGI to reveal how we have transformed our planet and produced an interconnected world of extraordinary complexity.

   

   

   By looking at the earth today and travelling back and forth through time, Mankind from Space explores our ceaseless quest to build better, more prosperous, safer and interesting lives.

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   Working with VFX company Intelligent Creatures in Canada we were tasked with designing and animating a series of complex data webs that could be layered over the Earth, revealing the conncected global activity of humans through shipping, roads and air.

   

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   Credits

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   Broadcaster: Discovery Channel
   Client: Darlow Smithson
   Executive Producer: Iain Riddick
   Produced And Directed By: Duncan Copp
   VFX Creative Director: Simon Clarke

6. Hostile Planet

   7:15 am Comments Off on Hostile Planet

   Credits

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   Broadcaster: National Geographic
   Production Company: Plimsoll Productions
   Executive Producers: Tom Hugh-Jones, Martha Holmes
   VFX Creative Director: Simon Clarke
   VFX Creative Lead: Graham Stott
   VFX Producers: Jon Grafton, Scott Metcalfe

7. Night on Earth

   7:07 am Comments Off on Night on Earth

   Moonraker produced the branding, title sequence and enhanced grading for this ground breaking Netflix original produced by Plimsoll Productions.

   Key Credits

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   Broadcaster: Netflix
   Production Company: Plimsoll Productions
   Series Producer: Bill Markham
   Chief Creative Officer: Martha Holmes
   VFX: Ryan McGrath, Alex Rumsey, Blake Laing-Smith, Carl Chittenden, Dan Radford
   Motion Graphics: Matt Denne
   Production: Hannah Lewis, Emma Kolasinska

8. Gathering Storm

   6:53 am Comments Off on Gathering Storm

   

   Moonraker collaborated with Keo West for this 6 part documentary series for National Geographic.

   

   As Earth’s climate changes and storms grow more intense with every season, this global series offers a significant new perspective on the world’s biggest storms.

   Hundreds of cameras were given to people who work at sea wherever maritime traffic intersects the path of monster storms, from the Gulf of Mexico to the South China Sea and Bermuda to Philippines.

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   Moonraker was given data from several weather and shipping agencies and asked to come up with a graphical device that could easily convey this to the audience.

   

   Credits

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   Broadcaster: National Geographic
   Production Company: Keo West
   Creative Director: Matt Cole
   Series Producer: Nick Head
   VFX Creative Lead: Simon Clarke
   VFX Producer: Emma Kolasinska

9. Earth At Night In Colour

   6:37 am Comments Off on Earth At Night In Colour

   Key Credits

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   Broadcaster: Apple TV+
   Production Company: Offspring Films
   Executive Producer: Jon Grafton
   Creative Director: Graham Stott
   
   

10. Mars

    January 6, 2022 2:32 pm Comments Off on Mars

    Moonraker were appointed as one of Framestore’s Creative Partners to help deliver VFX shots for Mars and the newly released Mars 2 on National Geographic.

    The series follows an epic mission to Mars set in 2033 and was Executive Produced by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer.

    Moonraker worked on clean up and screen replacement shots as well as a bespoke series of shots creating photoreal CG marbles in a sequence showing the distance between planets in the solar system. In Mars 2 we also created a dramatic sequence showing close up detail of the surface of the sun.