--
axisVFX, the visual effects arm of Axis Studios and creator of high-end CG imagery for television and film projects, has delivered 1,350 shots over the course of 13 months on Aardman Animations' latest stop motion epic Early Man. The work included the film's dramatic prologue, epic stadium shots, the moody badlands, lava, fire and water FX.
Set at the dawn of time, Early Man tells the story of courageous caveman hero Dug (Eddie Redmayne) and his best friend Hognob as they unite their tribe against the mighty villain Lord Nooth (Tom Hiddleston) to save their home, going head-to-head in a winner-takes-all football match.
As the main VFX studio on Early Man, axisVFX was responsible for the VFX work on 1,350 shots from start to end. Over 50 people contributed, contributing to eight months of R&D and pre-production before delivering on the final shot list. axisVFX used the stop motion attributes of the film's physical puppets and constructed environments in its work, seamlessly integrating Aardman's CG and puppet worlds. Axis Studios' Glasgow HQ also contributed, providing complementary render support and simulation expertise.
Early Man VFX breakdown from axisVFX on Vimeo.
Early Man sees axisVFX continue its long-standing relationship with Aardman, with the studios having previously collaborated on Shaun the Sheep Movie and Shaun the Sheep: The Farmer's Llamas. Howard Jones, co-founder and VFX supervisor at axisVFX, was also compositing lead on The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists. With both studios based in Bristol, they enjoyed a constant creative dialogue on Early Man, meeting weekly to ensure the VFX and stop motion elements worked seamlessly as one.
Howard Jones, co-founder and VFX supervisor at axisVFX, comments: Early Man provided axisVFX with an opportunity to further flex its skill set and experiment with new technology. It was also fantastic to once again work with Aardman. It's great to see Bristol continue to grow as a creative hub and deliver amazing projects, supporting the broader UK industry as it does so.
Tom Barnes, technical director at Aardman Animation, comments: axisVFX did a fantastic job for us, delivering VFX work that blended beautifully with the look of our prehistoric and Bronze Age worlds - while working under very demanding pressure from our tight delivery dates.
The beautiful game - creating Early Man's stadium axisVFX contributed to three main stadium sequences that comprised approximately 20 minutes of Early Man's run time. There were several football pitch sets at Aardman's studio surrounded by greenscreen, and a scale model of the whole village, stadium and surrounding cliffs. axisVFX was tasked with digitally extending the stadiums and creating a reactive digital crowd containing 20,000 spectators - a visual that would have required an inordinate amount of time to achieve using stop motion. Aardman created 40 digital characters - each with 25 animation variations - which axisVFX then used to populate the stadium stands. Live action video reference was provided by director Nick Park to drive the animation of the crowd, ensuring axisVFX matched his vision. axisVFX also created virtual grass and defined the atmosphere of each sequence, building layers of smoke, fog and lighting to contribute to the stadium's sense of scale, and ensured consistency across the stadium sequences, matching colour, atmosphere and lighting across shots.
A virtual reality version of the stadium was built by Aardman, enabling the directors to enter the space at scale and communicate asset placement and perspective within the scene. This served as the starting point for axisVFX's work on the stadium.
Extinction FX - simulations with a claymation feel Early Man's prologue takes viewers on a journey through the dinosaurs' extinction event, which axisVFX augmented with CG. The sequence commences with a CG shot of the moon and planet Earth circa 50,000,000 B.C. Shots of dinosaurs are then witnessed against the background of a descending meteor. axisVFX created the meteor and its tail and the resulting cosmic explosion. Post-meteor, axisVFX artists added CG fire and smoke to the Aardman set. In other sequences axisVFX created bubbling lava across which characters hop on floating coals and geysers that shoot CG water into the air. The axisVFX team ensured that these simulations had a rhythm and movement in sync with the film's stop motion feel.
axisVFX has previously worked on the Royal Television Society Award-nominated visual effects for the BBC's Doctor Who and SyFy's recent hit series Happy!, for which the team delivered a full-CG animated character across 700 shots.
axisVFX is part of Axis Studios - a UK-based creative outfit based in the UK with a global clientele. It boasts one of the largest CGI production staffs in the UK and is on course to triple turnover to £15m between 2015 and 2018.
# # #
About Axis Studios
Axis Studios has one common goal: deliver the unexpected. We achieve this through creative freedom. Total transparency. A straight-talking attitude. This is the Axis way. The output and artistry differs across each of our studios, but the aims are unshakably the same. Be distinctive. Be insightful. Be challenging. We are Axis Studios. Axis Animation, Flaunt, axisVFX. axisstudiosgroup.com
About Aardman
Aardman, based in Bristol (UK) co-founded and run by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, is a world leader in animation. It produces feature films, series, advertising and digital entertainment for both the domestic and international market. Their multi-award winning productions are novel, entertaining, brilliantly characterised and full of charm that reflects the unique talent, energy and personal commitment of the very special people who make up the Aardman team. The studio's wor
Most recent headlines
04/08/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, is excited to announce Santiago Solanas as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
03/06/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, a...
28/04/2024
Mediahaus delivers the first SRT live-streaming sports production over 5G with U...
27/04/2024
On April 26, L3Harris Chair and CEO Christopher E. Kubasik joined CNBC's Mor...
27/04/2024
PORTLAND, Oregon Audinate Group Limited, the developer of the Dante AV-over-IP solution, announced significant new additions to Dante Connect, its cloud-based D...
27/04/2024
TORONTO Bell Media has launched 10 English and French-language FAST channels featuring entertainment, factual, news, and sports programming. The new free stream...
27/04/2024
An extensive new analysis of the news segments in the broadcast evening news programs of ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS has found that broadcasters devoted most of their...
27/04/2024
GERMANTOWN, Md. EchoStar's Hughes Network Systems has opened a new manufacturing facility and private 5G incubation center in Germantown, Maryland....
27/04/2024
Harry Pappas, one of three brothers who founded Pappas Telecasting Companies in 1971, died April 24. He was 78 years old....
27/04/2024
ATLANTA and LONDON Mexican telecommunications and broadcast company Televisa has selected Synamedia for an overhaul of its broadcast distribution....
27/04/2024
Participate in the Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this surve...
27/04/2024
SDVI Rally Access Workstation Earns Two Top Awards at 2024 NAB Show
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
SDVI, the leading platform provider for clo...
27/04/2024
Berklee's Music and Health Institute Launches Community Health Musician Cert...
27/04/2024
Charter Communications reported higher first-quarter profits despite continued cord-cutting and competition for broadband customers....
27/04/2024
Two environmentally-focused groups are partnering to engage the unscripted TV world in finding better ways to address climate change. Reality of Change is an ec...
27/04/2024
Sarah Garcia has been promoted to weekend anchor at KTLM McAllen, Texas, known as Telemundo 40. Starting April 27, she will anchor Noticias Telemundo 40 weekend...
27/04/2024
CBS Sports said it launched a new 24-hour free, ad supported streaming television (FAST) channel devoted to the UEFA Champions League....
27/04/2024
Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts received $35.4 million in compensation in 2023, up 11% from the previous year, according to a proxy statement filed by th...
27/04/2024
Art Happens Here With John Lithgow, which sees the actor study dance, ceramics, silk-screen printing and vocal jazz with students in Los Angeles, debuts on PBS ...
27/04/2024
Remember Leave It to Beaver? Bewitched? Dragnet? When cable ratings were rising?...
27/04/2024
Next up for the weekend binge at Catchy Comedy is Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. Every weekend, Catchy Comedy features The Catchy Binge, a marathon of a classic sitcom....
26/04/2024
Sundance Film Festival CDMX 2024 kicks-off today with screenings in 5 theaters in Mexico City and the opening-night film, FRIDA, directed by Carla Guti rrez...
26/04/2024
[Editor's Note: This interview is part of a larger feature about the women d...
26/04/2024
Once again this year, SGL Carbon opened its doors to interested children and young people. On the occasion of the German Girls and Boys Day, which took place on...
26/04/2024
Orders1 of $5.5 billion; book-to-bill of 1.06x
Revenue of $5.2 billion, up 17%,...
26/04/2024
Five Considerations For Communications Modernization In The 21st Century
In the digital-enabled battlespace, the Joint Force needs to shoot, move and communica...
26/04/2024
CBS Sports has launched Champions League as a new, 24-hour streaming channel that will serve as the year-round destination for nonstop highlights of the UEFA ...
26/04/2024
Despite tough competition in the streaming space, Roku reported solid results in Q1 2024, beating revenue expectations, with total net revenue up 19% YoY to $88...
26/04/2024
LONDON AND TORONTO Pinewood Toronto Studios has appointed Sarah Farrell as general manager of the Studios in downtown Toronto....
26/04/2024
Quantum to Offer Advanced Filesharing Technology and Performance in StorNext and...
26/04/2024
FilmLight Colour Awards welcomes 2024 entries and introduces new Emerging Talen...
26/04/2024
Picture Shop Announces Chris Evans as Head of Unscripted
Brie Clayton April 26, 2024
0 Comments
Picture Shop announced Chris Evans will lead Unscripte...
26/04/2024
Participate in a Survey - The Impact of AI on Media and the Creative Industry
Pascal Wagner April 26, 2024
0 Comments
By participating in this survey,...
26/04/2024
Toy maker Mattel said it is working with Samsung to launch its first free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels later this year....
26/04/2024
Trusted Media Brands (TMB) said it named Marty Moe as president....
26/04/2024
Ron Howard is the director on Jim Henson Idea Man, a documentary that premieres on Disney Plus May 31. Henson of course created Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Big...
26/04/2024
The ice continues to melt under the regional sports network business as the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League have made a long-term deal to broadcast...
26/04/2024
Heading into the upfronts, Warner Bros. Discovery said it launched Olli, a first-party data platform advertiser can use for converged, targeted advertising camp...
26/04/2024
CBS has renewed the drama The Equalizer, which will see season five on in 2024-2025. Queen Latifah stars....
26/04/2024
The CW has entered into an exclusive multiyear broadcast partnership for the Miss USA Pageant and the Miss Teen USA Pageant. The 73rd Miss USA Pageant will air ...
26/04/2024
Fuse Media isn't mincing words in a campaign urging its young viewers to register and participate in the 2024 elections....
26/04/2024
Dead Boy Detectives, a series from Neil Gaiman about a detective agency staffed by ghosts, debuts on Netflix April 25. George Rexstrew and Jayden Revri are in t...
26/04/2024
The Story Collective has gradually repurposed the former Mortlake Brewery to include production offices, workshops and sound stages
By Matthew Corrigan
Publi...
26/04/2024
Perkett joins the company following a 25 year career in product management, product marketing, engineering and user experience (UX) across multiple industries
...
26/04/2024
Teradek, the industry leader in wireless video transmitters and receivers, announced today the launch of new Bolt 6 LT 750 and Bolt 6 Monitor Module 750 RX with...
26/04/2024
NEW YORK Amagi has appointed Richard Perkett chief product officer (CPO)....
26/04/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) has announced the results of the 2024 NAB Radio and Television Board of Directors elections. The...
26/04/2024
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. & NEW YORK Mattel has announced a deal to launch its first three 24/7 free ad supported streaming (FAST) channels on Samsung TV Plus, Samsung...
26/04/2024
PORTLAND, Maine Viewers here can now receive the NextGen TV signals of five local stations with the launch of ATSC 3.0 service from host station WPFO, which is ...
-- 
