Vincent London transports the 2D cartoon into a futuristic 3D world
Ben Tennyson is a ten-year-old boy whose wrist-worn Ominitrix device enables him to change into alien creatures and fend off attack from extra-terrestrial forces.
The Ben 10 animated series first aired in late 2006, and ran for four seasons until 2008. This was followed by three seasons of Ben 10 Alien Force, and two seasons of Ben 10 Ultimate Alien. The fourth instalment, Ben 10 Omniverse, has been running since 2012 and is now entering its fifth season, in which Ben comes face to face with Albedo, an evil clone created by the alien Galvan race.
To promote the new episodes, Turner Broadcast and The Cartoon Network turned to Soho-based studio Vincent London, which produced three spectacular slots for the campaign. "The project was intended to showcase Ben and his alter-ego within a dual cityscape environment," explains Creative Director, John Hill. "We wanted to create a flexible futuristic world to host the epic fight scenes between Ben 10 and his new nemesis."
The work is a slick combination of 3D environments, created with CINEMA 4D, and 2D characters, which were drawn and animated in-house using Adobe Flash. The design was one of the key challenges, states Hill. "The 3D world needed to compliment the iconic Ben 10 artwork and style and allow us to flexibly composite 2D character animation. The buildings and cityscapes had to reflect the good and the bad renditions of Ben 10 and also create awesome spaces for the fight scenes." Accordingly, the green and red outfits of Ben and his clone were used to colour-code the environment.
With all the dynamic camera moves and shifts in perspective, the melding of 2D and 3D required thorough planning to ensure all the elements matched up. "We worked up fairly detailed hand drawn animatics," says Hill, "followed by more considered pre-vis animatics for each shot. This enabled us to sync up the interactions between Ben and the 3D scenes as well as plan overall shot composition and timings."
"CINEMA 4D was easy and quick to use when realising our hand-drawn cityscape designs," he continues. "It brought us time when wanting to experiment with various sets and environments for the action."
A few of the 2D character shots were combined with the backdrops in post-production, but Hill suggests that for the most part it was all done in the 3D realm. "Although some shots were composited in Adobe After Effects, we also rendered them out with the 3D scenes to get additional GI and shadow passes. The more you can do in 3D, the better the composite and final result, we find."
This workflow makes sense when you realise that the characters are often required to produce subtle reflections on the floor and cast shadows (like when Ben is running through the explosions). To achieve this, the team applied alpha-mapped animation onto a flat plane positioned within the scene, and animated accordingly. They then used the Reflection, Global Illumination, Material, Diffuse and Shadow passes for use in the final composite.
Stylised explosions were handled similarly: "After animating them in Flash, we added them to the 3D scenes to help add GI lighting and shadows," says Hill. "We mixed 3D explosions with the hand-drawn 2D explosions to merge the styles."
An abstract cityscape of monolithic buildings makes an ominous backdrop to the action. "We sketched out quite a few cityscapes and building designs before settling on the self-illuminating futuristic style," Hill says, "as this worked best for atmosphere and premise. We used mainly geometry for the neon-style wireframes as the render is always cleaner than using textures."
He adds, "The simple cityscape complimented Ben 10s graphic style well; we had to be careful not to add too much detail as this moved the design too far away from Bens 2D artwork."
The angular buildings are lit by area lights to add subtle glows, with occasional flashes to make the city feel alive. However, the main light sources come from a network of flying cubes, which also give the city a sense of scale. These were simple boxes containing lights in conjunction with self-illuminating textures to add detail.
Lighting proved the hardest part of the project, admits Hill. "Atmospheric lighting with flicker-free GI is always time consuming," he says, adding that the challenge was to "create subtle mid-tone detail in a night-time dystopian environment so as to not end up with a flat graphic look."
Naturally, CINEMA 4Ds MoGraph tools were used for the floating cubes, with a little hand animation and keyframing to get the right results. "MoGraph is probably my favourite tool," declares Hill. "Its so flexible, and so much complex animation can be achieved with very simple scenes."
In one sequence, evil Bens influence spreads through the city, creating giant cracks in the buildings and causing explosions. The team employed CINEMA 4Ds in-built Dynamics to create the tumbling debris, then hand-animated ripples and deformations in the floors and walls for extra detail around the impact areas.
The Tron-style environment is full of bright objects and details that were required to glow, and its usually best to add these in post-production for more control. "We used the material illumination pass as an EXR file sequence, and 32-bit linear compositing," explains Hill. "The After Effects glow effect does a pretty good job with high colour depth. Blurred overlays in After Effects can also prove helpful for glows when treated well."
To sweeten the shots, lens flare effects were added to bright sources and explosions. Again, these were added in post, using After Effects plug-ins, although some were actual lens flares, photographed by Vincents team, or hand-made textures.
Depth of field is used to great effect, too, adding drama and helping to tie the 3D and 2D elements together. "Most dept
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
20/08/2026
Multiview available via SaaS for streaming platforms and operators through broadpeak.io, with live demonstrations at IBC2026
Broadpeak , a leader in streaming ...
20/08/2026
Techex, a leading provider of live broadcast infrastructure solutions, has appointed Stuart Almond as Chief Revenue Officer, further strengthening its executive...
20/08/2026
Avid today announced that MediaCity Studios has upgraded its production infrastructure with an enhanced end-to-end Avid production ecosystem, including the dep...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
IPC Expands Brazilian Presence with New Channel Partner CCATech
Industry veterans Carlos Abrah o and Bruno Lopes strengthen local support and expand IPCs prese...
20/08/2026
Zixi Enters Mauritius Market Through Strategic Deployment with MTC Jockey Club
Worlds Oldest Horse Racing Club in the Southern Hemisphere Selects Zixis Softwar...
20/08/2026
LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research assistant professor Tiantian Liu has received a five-year NIAID DP2 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Di...
20/08/2026
Audiences reveal appetite for multicultural Australia on-screen 20 August 2026
Dr Georgie McClean, Dr Rebecca Huntley (L-R)
By Dr Georgie McClean and Dr Rebec...
20/08/2026
How Mavis Studio Is Expanding Live Production Teaching at Sussex
Brie Clayton August 19, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image displays a student about to mix be...
20/08/2026
Vertical Unscripted Series Legal Queens Captured with Blackmagic Design
Brie Clayton August 19, 2026
0 Comments
Reality TV veteran Eric Gardner create...
20/08/2026
It's a new way into the cloud.
GeForce NOW welcomes Firefox support to the cloud, opening up another way to jump into high-performance PC gaming straight ...
19/08/2026
As the cost of IP nears price parity with traditional SDI, Reynolds argues that ...
19/08/2026
A private 5G bubble was chosen instead of traditional broadcast RF for the race ...
19/08/2026
(L-R) Rafael Manuel and Isabel Sicat attend the Filipi ana premiere during the 2026 Sundance Film Festival at The Ray Theatre on January 23, 2026, in Park Cit...
19/08/2026
Studio owners invited to have their say on rates cuts
The Music Producers Guild (MPG) are inviting UK-based studios to take part in an in-depth survey that ...
19/08/2026
Vintage-inspired desktop interface revealed
Harrison's latest hardware offering sees them head into the world of audio interfaces, delivering a 10-in/12...
19/08/2026
Granular effect remains locked to scale and tempo
Described as your dream granular effect , Minimal Audio's latest creation is capable of turning any s...
19/08/2026
First polyphonic SWAM instrument incoming
Audio Modeling's latest physical-modelling orchestral instrument is just around the corner, and is now availab...
19/08/2026
World Cup Games Generate 84 Billion Minutes Across FOX, Fox Sports 1 and NBCU...
19/08/2026
July brought typical peak-holiday drops in viewership, driven primarily by viewers stepping away from screens and a visible decline in reach across both traditi...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Henry joins BCE as the company accelerates its commercial strategy and expands its international presence across the media, broadcast and technology markets. He...
19/08/2026
iWedia, a leading provider of software solutions for connected TV devices, today announced a major milestone in Android platform optimization with the successfu...
19/08/2026
NTP Technology announces that ST 2110-30 audio-over-IP connectivity with AES67 and RAVENNA capabilities is now available for the brand's world-class audio i...
19/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected to provide its Nimbra platform by the service provider Big Blue Marble, formerly ORS Group, as the core media transport solution f...
19/08/2026
LiveU has supported Coventry City FC and several other top-flight UK football clubs through one of their most demanding live production challenges of the year, ...
19/08/2026
Nature Seekers Documentary Shot with Blackmagic URSA Cine 12K LF
Brie Clayton August 18, 2026
0 Comments
Filming endangered turtles required camera...
19/08/2026
Neyrinck Brings D-Control Consoles Back to Life on Apple Silicon with D-Control ...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
19/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Edith Cowan University (ECU) in Perth, Australia, implemented a comprehensive communications infrastructure that brin...
19/08/2026
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, will spotlight a major leap forward in remote guest con...
19/08/2026
Integrated platform melds media asset management, playout automation and newsroom workflows
EMAM, PlayBox Neo and SNEWS have officially launched Nuvex, a conne...
19/08/2026
Screen Australia releases the Private Investment Toolkit to strengthen screen in...
19/08/2026
Do Aussies truly value local content? Unpacking Screen Currency 2026 with Deirdr...
19/08/2026
There's an early Christmas gift for Bookish fans, as UKTV confirms the re-commission of the hit U&alibi drama, created by and starring Mark Gatiss. Viewers ...
19/08/2026
Wednesday 19 August 2026
Sky gives sports fans the chance to watch multiple liv...
19/08/2026
On Saturday September 5 Katie Taylor will step into the ring for the fight of her life against Flora Pili in front of 80,000 fans in Croke Park. A legendary fig...
18/08/2026
SportStream 2026, a free three-day virtual event, will take place September 15-17. One registration provides access to all three days of live programming and on...
18/08/2026
BeckTV will introduce BeckFlow to the European market at IBC2026, demonstrated on the Providius stand (10.F53).
BeckFlow is a web-based schematic documentation...
Vincent London transports the 2D cartoon into a futuristic 3D world
