I’m credited as ‘Virtual Art Department Supervisor’ on this show, and spent several months on set with Dimension Studios and DNEG360 in Wellington, NZ
This environment (Bingley in the Ice Age) was simply referred to as ‘Snowy Plain’. The principle challenge was the snowstorm, which I created using a volume shader for the fog, and multiple layers of animated textures for the cloud and spindrift. The distant landscape is a detailed matte painting from DNEG’s DMP team, but you can barely see it in the final frame.
This was the first project working with Dimension Studios through Bunker Digital Inc. Around this time Dimension formed a partnership with DNEG to produce virtual production content, branded as ‘DNEG360’.
Snow scenes represent a particular challenge in Virtual Production, and require a lot of care to sell the blend between the practical and digital worlds. They also look VERY different on set than they do ‘in camera’, which adds to the challenge.
Stonehenge featured several times during the show – at sunset, dawn, and night. I created and lit a large portion of this environment, with assistance from the matte painting department at DNEG. The surrounding landscape was a real location in New Zealand that was split into a multi-layered camera projection in Unreal, with CG grass and stone monoliths for blending with the practical set.
This was the last show I touched that used Unreal 4, before the switch to UE5, lumen and nanite. I can’t say I miss lightmass!
There aren’t too many ‘behind the scenes’ images of another significant chunk of my work – the Neanderthal Settlement in Ep. 7. This re-used all the snow techniques developed for ‘Snowy Plain’, as well as Houdini simulated snow buildup created by myself and Lukas Schwarzer.
The settlement is seen in three different lighting scenarios, including one at night with a realtime Aurora Borealis I created that seems to have made it to the final shot almost untouched!
The last significant chunk of work I completed on the show (and before I left Wellington) was the desert encampment for Mansa Musa’s caravan in Ep. 4
My work was primarily the BG landscape and lighting, as well as the integration of the scattered tents (courtesy of an extensive Blueprint scatter system built by Marko Seper). Four lighting scenarios were created, but I think only one of them made the final cut.