Secrets of the Neanderthals

They are our closest relatives, yet much of their lives remains a mystery. This is what Secrets of the Neanderthals sets out to uncover.

Using state of the art technology and leading experts in the field helped to make this one of the most historically accurate programmes about Neanderthals made to date. 

Lux Aeterna completed VFX for the project, this included recreating the interior of the Shanidar cave in northern Iraq, the site of one of largest ever discoveries of neanderthal remains. The highly complex project utilised Lidar scans and photogrammetry to recreate the cave. The LiDAR scan data came in as 3D point cloud data with the Lux Aeterna team having to develop algorithms to convert the data into polygons that could be utilised to create a reconstruction of the cave. 

Neanderthal remains were also recreated alongside the cave, posing a unique challenge for the team as some remains had been badly damaged and moved from their original positions. A combination of reference drawings, photographs and expert advice from professors at Cambridge and Liverpool John Moores Universities were used to make the representations as accurate as possible. The skeletons were positioned using inverse kinematics ensuring that they would interact with the ground in the most natural way possible. 

Using Houdini, procedural sections were made in order to isolate areas of LiDAR point cloud so that the data could be meshed together and brought back together like a 3D jigsaw. 

Lux Aeterna: 

Creative Director:  Rob Hifle
FX Supervisor:  Clive Llewellyn
2D Supervisor:  Steve Burrell
VFX Artists:  Paul Greer, Gabriele Grigoletto, Joe Hockney
Compositors: Tav Flett, Steve Burrell, Ferriol Tugues, Mike Sadd, Dan Blore
VFX Producer:  Dan Elston
VFX Production Coordinators: Tommy Reeday, Tish Marsh

Executive Producer:  Gideon Bradshaw
Director:  Ashley Gething
Line Producer: Jenni Shaw Producer: Clementine Cheetham Director of Photography: Brendan McGinty