MPC WORK ON NEWS AT TEN TITLES
Jane Thomson of ITN has directed an updated version of the seminal News at Ten ‘fly-through’ opening titles; the project was designed and overseen by ITN Creative Director, Glenn Marshall and his team. The 16 second sequence consists of a photo-real aerial sweep through central London and gives a stylised view of the city. Based on ITN’s design, MPC created the London skyline environment using extensive 3D computer graphics.
To achieve the look required, the MPC team painstakingly built the London Thames area skyline as a fully 3D environment; this included specific 3D models of key city attractions. Intricate 2D texture maps of building facades and finishes were created by the Digital Matte painters with these textures later projected onto the city model to emulate the real-life buildings. Certain ‘hero’ landmarks, such as Big Ben, were ‘clothed’ in exact replicas of real surface finishes. A time-lapse effect was attributed to traffic lights to give movement and life to the city, with lights and reflections added to the river to create atmosphere. The 3D elements were composited together with 2D in Flame. "Most people regard high end 3D as a bit of a mechanical process, but working at MPC was like working with artisans or craftsmen. The attention to detail and dedication of the team was beyond expectation" explained Glenn Marshall.
When talking about the premise of the titles, Glenn Marshall added; "we wanted to move away from the usual very graphic news titles and create something more filmic and epic. MPC were a natural choice with their international reputation for high end visual effects. We really have ended up with a sequence that wouldn't look out of a place in a multi million dollar Hollywood CGI movie."
The sequence aired for the first time, opening News at Ten on January 14th 2007.
Credits:
Director; Jane Thomson, ITN
Production Company; ITN
Creative Director: Glenn Marshall, ITN
Post Production: MPC
Post Production Producer: Paul Branch
VFX Supervisor 2D: Eileen Chan, Chrys Aldred
VFX Supervisor 3D: Andrew Lodge
VFX Team: Richard Morris, Henrik Holmberg, Liam Griffin, Carsten Keller, Clare Pakeman, Anthony Bloor, Ziggy Zigouras