Creating VFX for Historical Features
VFX can help us create some amazing scenes, from imagining futuristic lands, creating the wildest of stunts, and taking us to the furthest depths of the universe, but what about going back in time?
Visual effects are excellent for helping to recreate and reimagine historical events and places, allowing the viewer to see things that previously would only be diagrams in a history book, putting you right there at the heart of the action. Here at Lux Aeterna we love recreating history with VFX and GFX and have done this on numerous projects. Here is the low down on some of our favourite VFX for historical features so far and how they came to be.
Einstein and the Bomb
This was a challenge like no other, recreating 20th century Europe for Einstein and the Bomb , this was an amazing experience for our team, the pinnacle of which was the Berlin Philharmonic Hall. Destroyed during WW2 the hall was the epicentre of the German arts scene in the early to mid 20th century. With its beautifully ornate and intricate design recreating the hall and additional cinematic VFX sequences was no mean feat.
Maya, Houdini and Nuke were used alongside extensive CGI to create a photorealistic recreation of the hall including extras as audience members. We consulted with historians and set designers to ensure that the hall was as accurate as possible. Ensuring the hall was lit correctly was another important factor in the project with our CG Supervisor Timmy Willmott using AOVs and light groups which were expertly blended together by Tav Flett and the compositing team.
Ancient Powers
How often do you think about the Roman Empire? How about the Greek, Indian, Chinese or Egyptian Empires? How do they compare? This was the question asked by Chinese broadcaster Bili Bili as they pitted empire against empire for innovative show Ancient Powers to discover once and for all who was the best.
For the programme we were tasked with creating a whole range of historical environments and assets including timelines, maps, infographics and themed icons representing each ancient power. We mostly used Maya for this project with the help of in-depth concept art detailing the look and direction of the show. Again historians and subject experts were consulted to ensure that the assets and maps made were as accurate as possible. In addition to this motion capture was utilised to create fight scenes between battling soldiers from the ancient armies.
8 Days: To the Moon and Back
A captivating space and cosmology docudrama detailing the moon landing, 8 Days: To The Moon And Back. This project for BBC Studios and PBS required cinematic VFX sequences in addition to opening credits and title sequences. Procedural VFX and CG modelling were used alongside specially shot material to create the lunar environments. This complex project also included CGI to create controls within the spaceship alongside moon surfaces, helmet cams and zero gravity objects.
Details such as flight plans from Apollo 11 were studied in great detail to ensure that the CGI and VFX created were as accurate as possible.
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