Moonraker produced the branding, title sequence and enhanced grading for this ground breaking Netflix original produced by Plimsoll Productions.
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
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.
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.
Broadcaster: National Geographic
Production Company: Keo West
Creative Director: Matt Cole
Series Producer: Nick Head
VFX Creative Lead: Simon Clarke
VFX Producer: Emma Kolasinska
Broadcaster: Apple TV+
Production Company: Offspring Films
Executive Producer: Jon Grafton
Creative Director: Graham Stott
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.
In this compelling two-hour special, investigative journalist Beth Karas follows Sam Little, America’s most prolific serial killer who confessed to murdering over 90 women in 17 states, in hopes to identify how he got away with murder for so long.
Our team tracked and logged his crimes using a dynamic map that showed the scale of his crimes as the story unfolds.
Little has confessed to 93 murders, and FBI analysts believe his confessions are credible.
Broadcaster: Oxygen
Production Company: ITN Productions
Executive Producer: Ian Russell
Series Producer: Kate Hampson
Art Director: Alex Dilworth
VFX Producer: Emma Kolasinska
Moonraker collaborated with Blink Films for the National Geographic series, X-Ray Earth. The three-part series looks deep inside the earth at the origins of volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis, and how their movements underground impact life on the earth’s crust.
The team at Moonraker used raw data from some of the world’s leading geologists to create 3D shots of tectonic plate movements, magma chambers, the earth’s mantle and the composition of material at the planet’s core.
Moonraker worked closely with Blink Films to create shots that were faithful to the original data and designed to work in an overall series style. The VFX studio used an innovative process that blended high-end simulation modelling with an X-Ray series look to bring scientific raw data to life and creatively conceptualise what’s happening beneath the earth’s crust.
Dan Gold, Executive Producer at Blink, commented, ‘The work Moonraker produced was terrific and it lifted the show into something really special. They all went the extra mile.”
Broadcaster: National Geographic
Production Company: Blink Films
Executive Producer: Dan Gold
Series Producer: Ian Hunt
VFX Creative Lead: Graham Stott
VFX Producers: Scott Metcalfe/Hannah Lewis
Moonraker were commissioned as lead creative partner to collaborate with Framestore’s Television Department on the intricate and thrilling CG sequences for this ten part series for National Geographic.
Produced by Nutopia, with Executive Producer Darren Aronofsky, the series takes the viewer on a journey exploring the wonder and awe-inspiring stories that make up the unique and fragile planet Earth.
The series was hosted by Will Smith and guided by an elite group of astronauts who have a unique perspective on earth.
Moonraker were also commissioned to develop the overall series style, creating a brand guide for the series covering off all areas of VFX. We combined a palette of magical, organic, spectacular and sci-fi effects which operated across our 4-key worlds to reveal the planet’s interconnected life-support systems in all their strangeness.
The key challenge was to develop a style to visualise both micro and macro elements of life that cannot be seen with the naked eye, for example in the episode ‘Gasp’ we helped to explain the process of transpiration, depicting water’s journey from the rain forest floor, through the trees and into the clouds. In the ‘Shield’ episode we created views inside and outside our planet, revealing how life on Earth is protected. Our numerous VFX sequences illustrated the deadly radiation given off by the sun, the atmosphere, weather systems and planetary core.
From the magnetosphere surrounding earth to the inside of a coil of DNA, we created a look that felt as though it could have been captured in camera. We achieved this by using a combination of CG elements with real purposefully shot FX elements by specialist Chris Parks to create a very organic and optical feel to the visual storytelling.
”It was a fantastic project to work on and to collaborate with Framestore, Nutopia and Darren Aronofsky. The visuals across the whole series are stunning and we are proud that Moonraker has played such a part in that” – Simon Clarke, Creative Director.
Broadcaster: National Geographic
Production Company: Nutopia
Executive Producers: Darren Aronofsky, Jane Root
Series Producers: Nigel Walk, Arif Nurmohamed
Directors: Graham Booth, Nic Stacey, Oli Twinch, Nat Sharman, Chris Riley, Nick Jordan, Alice Jones
VFX Creative Director: Simon Clarke
VFX Creative Lead: Graham Stott
VFX Producers: Jon Grafton, Scott Metcalfe
3D Supervisor: Tom Downes
Broadcaster: National Geographic
Production Company: Caravan Media
VFX Creative Director: Graham Stott
Head Of Production: Hannah Lewis
Each and every 24 hours, 30 volcanoes erupt across the earth. These magnificent and terrifying wonders are both a danger to, and a source of life on our planet.
Moonraker collaborated with True to Nature on this enlightening story, telling the fascinating truth behind one the greatest natural phenomena of the world.
Using NASA data sets we developed an aesthetic to illustrate the sheer volume and significance of volcanoes on earth providing UHD shots that helped tell the story in a compelling way. We also created atmospheric shots showing the molten Hadean Earth as it was 4.6 billion years ago.
Broadcaster: PBS
Production Company: True to Nature
VFX Producer: Scott Metcalfe
Producer: Alex Ranken
Creative Lead: Graham Stott
We were commissioned by Blink Films to create revelatory graphics and Visual effects for a documentary mini-series exploring the largest animals ever to exist on Earth. Our team built a number of photorealistic creatures and stylised motion graphics depicting such beasts as a Dragon fly the size of a small child, a snake that could swallow a man whole, and a marine reptile with a bite twice as powerful as a T-Rex.
One of our biggest challenges was putting feathers on the Pelagornis, a bird with the wingspan of a fighter jet. We used specialist software to achieve this and then analysed the motion of other soaring birds to help us understand the way in which these huge beasts flew. We worked with Blink Films to ensure a high level of scientific accuracy when modelling and rigging from scratch and we were fortunate to work with many academics and specialists as our interpretations of it evolved.
Our branding and design skills also played strength to the overall look of the film, including the design of the titles and break bumpers.
I can’t recommend Moonraker highly enough. I was bowled over by what they created for us and I’d work with them again in an instant. On a tight turnaround, and with a demanding brief they delivered stunning VFX with wow factor. Their creative flair, and great communication meant that working with them was always a pleasure.
— Oliver Twinch, series producer Blink Films.
Broadcaster: Channel 5
Production Company: Blink Films
Series Producer: Oliver Twinch
VFX Creative Director: Simon Clarke
VFX Supervisor: Graham Stott
