Simon Percy from Little Shadow talks to TVBEurope about how the animation studio used a mobile virtual production setup to create a VFX shark lab for the second season of the Disney series
By Jenny Priestley
Published: July 1, 2024 Updated: July 2, 2024
Simon Percy from Little Shadow talks to TVBEurope about how the animation studio used a mobile virtual production setup to create a VFX shark lab for the second season of the Disney series
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> Simon Percy from Little Shadow talks to TVBEurope about how the animation studio used a mobile virtual production setup to create a VFX shark lab for the second season of the Disney series
https://www.tvbeurope.com/production-post/taking-a-bite-out-of-the-vfx-for-shark-attack-360 title=Share via Email class=share-email>
Arrow Media's Shark Attack 360 returns for a second season this week, as it investigates why sharks bite people.
The show uses cutting-edge VFX technology to analyse data and understand, in forensic detail, the reasons behind shark attacks.
The producers worked with Little Shadow to create the effects for the series. Simon Percy, director at Little Shadow, talks to TVBEurope about the company's work on the show.
How did Little Shadow get involved with Shark Attack 360? We first worked with Arrow Media on Season One of Shark Attack 360. We were brought in later in the production to work on a series of visual effects clean-ups, blood augmentation, and experiment explainers. We managed to complete these tasks in an expedient manner over the Christmas period and must have made an impression with the Arrow Media team because, in May 2023, we received a call to pitch on all the CGI in season two.
It was clear from the outset that Arrow Media had big ambitions for series two and really wanted to raise the bar. So, our initial task was to deliver a pitch that would meet expectations and then exceed them. Being all about the visuals, we created a 2-minute sizzle reel and a series of bespoke images and dev films that showed the scope of our vision. We were elated that our ambition was rewarded and we were brought onto the Arrow Media team and made welcome.
What were you tasked with? We were tasked with developing and delivering the visual effects for the series, including creating realistic and interactive virtual sharks, integrating them into a hybrid virtual production setup, and ensuring a smooth production pipeline that could handle the project's demands.
From the start executive Producer, Nick Metcalfe and series producer, Laura Offer made it clear that there needed to be a new post/VFX pipeline that would not only create greater flexibility within the Lab but enable more impressive cinematic shark encounters. Linked to that was the desire to make a more immersive presenter/collaborator experience within the Lab by enhancing its use to explain and investigate the attacks. And finally, enable the shoot and post process to become more efficient, avoiding pickup, shot redos or delays in seeing previs in the edits.
Challenge accepted!
How did you go about delivering that? From the outset, our desire was to have a digital replica of our shoot location and from the moment that was chosen - we leapt into action. One of our trusted partners, Lidar Lounge captured a lidar scan of the set to create a 1:1 replica of the multi-level structure to allow shot planning, previs and final shots to be crafted ahead of the shoot and commencing edits.
We generated a pipeline using our hybrid virtual production technology. This method did not involve a full LED volume but instead used our bespoke virtual production setup, including camera tracking, live green screen keying, monitoring and recording in one box. Bringing all the high-end VP tools to bear, allowing augmented AR elements, such as our sharks, into the live scene in real-time.
Intricate planning with the DoP, director, and producers was critical to pre-visualise each sequence ahead of shooting, giving us a clear 3D template for every scene while maintaining flexibility for adjustments on the fly. This is where our mobile VP setup came into its own, it allowed the previs to inform lighting and camera setups well ahead of the shoot, meaning shot setups were incredibly quick. But more importantly, it gave Diva a comfort screen displaying the sharks and other key props accurately into frame in real-time, ensuring correct eye lines and appropriate heights for hand gestures and pointing.
This process allowed framing of shots and the takes to be set up and run through rapidly. We could easily capture the raw clean footage, a matte pass and a composite of the scene with the sharks and props. This enabled the rushes and full-scene composites to be edited within minutes of the turnover of the camera cards. A major benefit was ensuring all the material was shot correctly, eliminating the need for reshoots and avoiding the long wait for 3D compositions that typically follow weeks after the shoot. Double tick against the brief's challenge.
One of our desires was to enhance the energy, realism, and motion of the sharks. We spent considerable time improving the detail and accuracy of the shark models. This included retexturing, re-topologising and adding a new animation rig that allowed for a greater range of subtle motions. We created new mouth, jaw, and eye controls layered on top of a soft body system to simulate the near-cloth-like movement of shark skin during violent movements. Additionally, we developed a particle simulation system to generate bubbles through the gills and mouths during attacks.
Our work began with the great white shark, focusing on the mouth region to ensure accurate animation of its distinctive overbite. We needed to balance the jaw's movement with the anatomical structure of th
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
02/06/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, announces its new Model 385 Mic/Intercom Beltpack. The Mode...
02/06/2026
The Riedel Group today announced the appointment of Gudrun Scharler as CEO of Riedel Networks. She succeeds Michael Martens, who has led Riedel Networks since 2...
02/06/2026
More signals, higher quality, and outstanding ingest and streaming flexibility deliver professional results in a small, all-in-one footprint...
02/06/2026
farmerswife will be featured on the Modena Media & Entertainment stand at this year's Mediatech Africa 2026, giving visitors an opportunity to explore the l...
02/06/2026
PTZOptics will showcase a new generation of intelligent video workflows at InfoComm 2026, June 17 19, Las Vegas. Visitors to booth N8227 will see how PTZOptics ...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
02/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
In its sixth year, the broadcaster's coverage has become a global brand and ...
01/06/2026
Designed to solve a common problem in broadcasting, the automated workflow detects, identifies, removes, and documents copyrighted music
AudioShake has introdu...
01/06/2026
The sports-analytics company combines its data with proprietary AI to help leagu...
01/06/2026
Category line-up & sponsors announced
Photo: Paul Clarke
The Production Music Awards (PMA) have announced that submissions are now officially open ahead of...
01/06/2026
New hybrid sample/synthesis instrument revealed
Excite Audio have just released the latest instalment in their Evolve series, which has been developed in co...
01/06/2026
Latest TONEX expansion captures three rare vintage amps
The newest addition to IK Multimedia's ever-growing TONEX line-up introduces a set of three incr...
01/06/2026
Musically intelligent soft synth gets upgraded
Scaler Music will be probably be best known to many for their music theory tools, but their product range al...
01/06/2026
SBS confirms its broadcast sponsors for FIFA World Cup 2026
1 June, 2026
Media releases
SBS has secured Hyundai, Hisense, Macca's, Rexona, bet365, Com...
01/06/2026
Rohde & Schwarz Satellite Industry Days 2026 guided by the motto From Earth to ...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Marshall Electronics is showcasing a comprehensive lineup of next-generation POV cameras, purpose-built to power today's connected AV environments, at InfoC...
01/06/2026
Adobe Announces Concept to Vector
Deepa Subramaniam June 1, 2026
0 Comments
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from designers is how difficult it...
01/06/2026
Vampire Feature Night Patrol Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton June 1, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist shapes dark, gritty tone for horror thri...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/06/2026
Luxembourg, June 1, 2026 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Viva, Mexico's ultra low-cost airline, launched fast and reliable multi-orbit satelli...
01/06/2026
Agentic AI is getting physical.
At COMPUTEX on Tuesday, NVIDIA announced NVIDIA JetPack 7.2 and NVIDIA NemoClaw support on NVIDIA Jetson.
JetPack 7.2 brings a...
01/06/2026
Financial institutions have spent years building AI: fraud models, credit models...
01/06/2026
Mardi 2 juin 14h00
FilmLight (ARRI), 10 rue Ren Boulanger, 75010 Paris
Rejoignez-nous pour d couvrir comment FLAPI (l'API FilmLight) peut transformer e...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
31/05/2026
Olivia P rez-Collellmir to Premiere Original Work at Gaud Centennial in Barcelona The Berklee graduate and faculty member will debut her choral symphony with...
31/05/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Wins 15 Awards at the Canadian Screen Awards - See Pho...
31/05/2026
Taiwan is home to more than 500 NVIDIA ecosystem partners. More than 1 million N...
31/05/2026
As factories move from isolated automation to plant-wide intelligence, manufacturers need AI systems that can connect live machine signals, quality systems, wor...
31/05/2026
The NVIDIA AI Cloud ecosystem is accelerating the global buildout of AI factory infrastructure. Partners are expanding capacity to meet growing demand from ente...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
30/05/2026
Zero in on one that says yes (and no)
Andy Marken May 29, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image courtesy of Deposit Photos
For content creators the most difficu...
29/05/2026
With InfoComm 2026 just weeks away, NDI is giving attendees plenty of reasons to...
29/05/2026
Reaffirming a partnership that has defined Canadian sports broadcasting since 19...
29/05/2026
Mobile/tablet is No. 2 device for watching TV, suggesting that the sports-production industry needs to take another look at the format
Ring Digital's Sprin...
29/05/2026
Berliner Ensemble, one of Berlin's five major theater companies, has expande...
Simon Percy from Little Shadow talks to TVBEurope about how the animation studio used a mobile virtual production setup to create a VFX shark lab for the second season of the Disney series
