Mammals

The Brief

To create title sequences and VFX work for new Sir David Attenborough series Mammals, exploring the most diverse species of animals the world has ever seen. Mammals occupy some of the most extreme environments on earth from the Arctic Tundra to the Sahara Desert. The reign of mammals is a fascinating one and made possible by the extinction of the dinosaurs with the asteroid strike that caused this being a key part of our work for the series. 

Client

BBC NHU

Year delivered

2024

What we did

For the opening episode, Dark, our team created a scene in Houdini and Nuke showing the Chicxulub asteroid crashing into earth and changing the course of history. With it being such a significant event it was important that the asteroid strike be as accurate as possible with large datasets being used to ensure this accuracy. The scene features in the opening pre titles sequence with Sir David Attenborough sitting down to watch the collision. In addition to this we made an ice age simulation in Houdini which shows the progression of the ice age across the globe. These key events are essential for understanding how mammals came to survive and thrive across the globe. 

Alongside these key global events our team created title cards, graphics and completed compositing work for the series, helping to tie together all of the amazing footage the BBC captured of animals from across the globe. 

The Results

Title sequences, compositing, clean up and VFX work all went into creating this amazing show. This project provided a great opportunity for us to work on a project for Sir David Attenborough once again. We have previously worked on series with Sir David during our time as BDH, these include Our Planet , Planet Earth, Blue Planet II, Frozen Planet and David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet.

Using Houdini allowed us to push the creative possibilities when creating complex sequences such as the asteroid collision and ice age scenes. In addition to this Nuke enabled us to create a high level of compositing for the iconic title sequence. 

Take a look at some of our other projects here.