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  1. Cats: An Amazing Animal Family

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    We were commissioned by Bristol based Offspring Films to develop a signature series look to visualise the Big Cats family tree for SKY ONE. Using specialist software, we created a 4K photo-real asset that accurately represented the Big Cats family tree that could grow, animate and adapt to the editorial needs.

    Footage of cats was carefully chosen and composted into the tree to create a seamless visual narrative. Each episode tells the story of how each of these cat dynasties came to be.  The tree plays an integral part in the series as its branches grow, representing the feline lineages that evolved over time.

    Key Credits

    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

  2. Buried Secrets of the Bible

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    Moonraker are proud to have completed another series for National Geographic working with production company Caravan Media.

    Buried Secrets of the Bible, hosted by scientist and adventurer Albert Lin, uses cutting edge 21st Century technology to try to uncover the truth behind the ancient mysteries including the biblical stories of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea and also the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.

    Moonraker were appointed to create a series style to bring to life the hidden evidence that exists today and also to craft visual effects sequences reconstructing the epic stories as they are told in the bible.

    These included bespoke crowd simulations, photoreal reconstruction of ancient cities, a series lidar shader set up and a variety of Houdini techniques to realise flood simulations. Shots included meteor destruction, earthquakes, flooding and tsunamis. Moonraker also undertook dedicated photogrammetry shoots and solves to create the ancient landscapes.

  3. Big Beasts: Last of the Giants

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    Patrick Aryee checks out the biggest animals on Earth as he reveals why size matters in the natural world. Moonraker created the visual effects, graphic design and animation for this 3 part series for Sky.

    The series styling was designed to work in tandem with the editorial direction. To achieve this, we designed and created an antiquarian bible of ancient beasts. This created an atmospheric feel for the shots and provided a canvas on which to show off the amazing anatomical detail of the beast.  Human details were incorporated to make the sheer scale of these ancient animals tangible. The Megalodon was able to open its mouth to a 4ft gape!

    We started with beautiful illustrations of the beasts from talented artist Roman Uchytel. We rotoscoped and graded the images to bed them into our bespoke ancient parchment texture and then rigged the images to allow us to create subtle animation to bring the animals to life. An additional layer of lighting and particle effects were added to bring the book further to life.

    Key Credits

    Broadcaster: Sky One
    Production Company: Offspring Films
    Executive Producer: Alex Williamson
    Producer/Director: Simon Muriel
    Series Producer: Sam Hodgson
    Illustrator: Roman Uchytel
    VFX Lead Designer: Graham Watts
    VFX Executive Producer: Jon Grafton
    VFX Producer: Emma Kolasinska

  4. Barbarians Rising

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    After the epic ‘World War 2 From Space’ that won Simon Clarke and Graham Stott an Emmy with Director Simon George, we had the opportunity with October Films to turn the clock back over 1500 years to create over 400 shots for History Channels’ “Barbarians Rising” a historical 8-part drama doc that tells the story of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire from the perspective of the Barbarian rebel leaders. Filmed over 12-weeks in Bulgaria, the VFX team supervised many blood thirsty battle scenes, shooting plates and elements to provide the backdrop for digital armies of Romans and Barbarians using Goalem crowd replication software.

    3D assets were created with exacting detail to ensure that they could be placed next to the live action extras even in mid shots, this included cloth simulation for free flowing garments when fighting running and walking. Invisible effects included the piercing of skin with arrows and swords, beheading, additional blood and scars for example.

    The series also required the design and execution of a number of analytical graphics that provided the global, strategic and historical context for the drama.  For this we designed a stylised earth and infrared style camera to help explain the strategic movement of Romans and rebel hoards across the globe. See our ‘making of’ for a behind the scenes look at our work.

    Key Credits

    Broadcaster: History Channel
    Production Company: October Films
    Executive Producers: Adam Bullmore, Jos Cushing
    Series Producers: Michael Waterhouse, Chloe Leland
    Drama Directors: Declan O’Dwyer, Maurice Sweeney
    Edit Director: Jim Greayer
    VFX Creative Director: Simon Clarke
    VFX Supervisor: Graham Stott
    VFX Producer: Clare Tinsley, Scott Metcalfe
    3D Supervisor: Jem Grimshaw

  5. America: Promised Land

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    America: Promised Land is an epic tale that begins in 1600s New Amsterdam and takes us through nearly 400 years to more recent waves of migration post WW2. This 2-part, 4 hour documentary special for History Channel was produced by Nutopia and broadcast on Memorial Day and was a fascinating project to work on at Moonraker.

    The team thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of bringing the census data to life in an engaging and stylised way. The bold design enabled the key elements of the stories to be told clearly and helped the maps to tie in with the overall feel of the series. We used multiple two dimensional and three dimensional techniques to achieve the unique look and to ensure that the maps were accurately conveying the census data.

    Key Credits

    Broadcaster: History Channel
    Production Company: Nutopia
    Executive Producer: Dominic Crossley-Holland
    Series Producer: Hereward Pelling
    VFX Executive Producer: Jon Grafton
    VFX Creative Director: Simon Clarke
    VFX Producer: Emma Kolasinska

  6. Test Project

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    test

    Moonraker worked with Emmy and Bafta award winning production company Talesmith to produce thirty minutes worth of photoreal CGI for this ambitious two-hour feature documentary.

    Life of Earth is a spectacular film that delves into the planet’s extraordinary 4.5 billion year history, as never seen before, from the unique vantage point of space.

    Shots produced ranged from thermal imaging of the first humans crossing the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, to views from the International Space Station, which have been transformed to show Earth as it would have been seen over a span of billions of years..

  7. The Life of Earth from Space

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    Moonraker worked with Emmy and Bafta award winning production company Talesmith to produce thirty minutes worth of photoreal CGI for this ambitious two-hour feature documentary.

    Life of Earth is a spectacular film that delves into the planet’s extraordinary 4.5 billion year history, as never seen before, from the unique vantage point of space.

    Shots produced ranged from thermal imaging of the first humans crossing the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia, to views from the International Space Station, which have been transformed to show Earth as it would have been seen over a span of billions of years.

    Key Credits

    Broadcaster: Smithsonian Channel
    Production Company: Zee Entertainment
    Executive Producer: Martin Williams
    Series Producer: Ruth Roberts
    Series Director: Luke Wiles
    VFX Creative Director: Simon Clarke
    VFX Creative Lead: Graham Stott
    VFX Producer: Emma Kolasinska

  8. The Last Czars

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    When social upheaval sweeps Russia in the early 20th century, Czar Nicholas II resists change, sparking a revolution and ending a dynasty. From exploding houses and carriages to large CG crowd simulations and a foreboding title sequence Moonraker collaborated with Nutopia to elevate the drama in this 6 part Netflix Original series.

    Key Credits

    Broadcaster: Netflix
    Production Company: Nutopia
    VFX Creative Lead: Graham Stott
    VFX Producer: Emma Kolasinska
    3D Supervisor: Tom Downes
    Titles: Alex Dilworth

  9. History 101

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    Moonraker helped bring big History to a new generation in this Netflix Original series of rare ITN archive and radical animated sequences.

    History 101 dives head first into a disparate range of subject matter from Robots and AIDS to Feminism and Nuclear Power delivering bite size lessons on game changing developments in our world.

    We created a bold, contemporary graphic universe for the series that visualises crazy statistical data, binding the weight of the archival narrative spine with vivid, dynamically fluid punctuations.

    Key Credits

    Broadcaster: Netflix
    Production Company: ITN Productions
    Director: Simon George
    Production: Kate Hampson, Gabriella James
    Art Director: Alex Dilworth
    VFX Producer: Scott Metcalfe

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