Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Water, water everywhere

13/03/2024

Vine FX blends practical and CGI elements for ITVs After the Flood, crafting immersive world-building crucial to the post-disaster thrillers authenticity, writes Robert Shepherd

By Contributor

Published: March 13, 2024 Updated: March 14, 2024

Vine FX blends practical and CGI elements for ITV's After the Flood, crafting immersive world-building crucial to the post-disaster thriller's authenticity, writes Robert Shepherd

target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>

Vine FX is cementing its reputation in compositing and water-focused effects. Fresh from its notable creation of stormy seas in Boat Story, its latest work sees it play a crucial role in a mystery thriller set in a town hit by a devastating flood.

In the six-part ITV drama, After the Flood, Sophie Rundle portrays Joanna Marshall, a PC fixated on an ostensibly benign flood fatality. Police attribute an unidentified man's demise in a submerged lift to rising waters, but Joanna questions the circumstances, pondering his mysterious presence and anonymity.

The titular flood scenes were shot at Tees Barrage, a specialised white water rafting facility in Stockton. With the capacity to pump 14,000 litres of water per second through an international standard course, it provided the perfect backdrop.

Standout among shots that received the VFX treatment is a drone pull-out above the flooded village. Part of this dramatic reveal was achieved in-camera, with the production building and filling an enormous water tank and placing building facades around its edge. But the rest was realised with CGI.

We took the drone footage and ran it through Reality Capture photogrammetry software, explains Matt McKinney, senior 3D generalist at Vine FX. That gave us a starting point - a sort of virtual set - and we built 3D geometry around it. The plate from production was like how they used to shoot Westerns - building facades with nothing behind them. We masked out the tank and built an entire town around it in 3D geometry.

To enhance the realism of CG elements, Vine FX applied textures derived from the drone footage, projecting real world buildings onto the geometry in Maya, blending pre-existing overcast lighting for a cohesive visual outcome.

It wasn't as easy as it sounds. The water in the wider shot is interesting, adds Jake Newton, senior 3D generalist at Vine FX. It didn't really call for a full simulation, so we used Maya to generate animated vector maps to create the water surface. You get this really nice, believable texture without having to render out an overly detailed simulation. It's all about efficiency and making sure that you do what's needed for the scene at hand.

Along with building a full village environment, Vine FX incorporated CGI elements such as trees, cars, and buildings to give the sense of a lived-in place. The team also included personal belongings in the back of cars. We made a huge library of assets, things like garden furniture and litter, cars, trees, bushes, and ivy that we could use on the buildings. Those small details are what people don't usually take to be CGI, but it's absolutely crucial to making a believable scene, McKinney adds. You get to a point where it doesn't look artificial because there's just so much in there.

During the flooding sequences, people are caught in fast-moving, dangerous water - from drivers becoming stuck in cars to a baby being swept away. To accomplish this, Vine FX turned to its trusted compositing software, Nuke, and some AI-powered tracking plugins. Achieving an accurate 3D track of the prop baby proved challenging, with water and other practical elements often occluding the carrier and hindering the track.

One of the challenges was identifying matte lines that didn't naturally exist. We had to invent areas where a roof or guttering would typically be so we could seamlessly blend live-action footage with computer-generated imagery, adds Newton. Then we added those items in to hide any joins. Visual effects is about staying invisible, working with in-camera footage. And when you have a show that gives the right amount of attention to production and post production, it's going to be something special.

After the Flood is available on ITVX.
LINK: https://www.tvbeurope.com/production-post/water-water-everywhere...
See more stories from tvb

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

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

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

21/08/2026

Avid Brings Agentic Media Production to IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Avid brings agentic media production to IBC2026

Avid will unveil how it is transforming production to help media organizations unite content, agentic workflows, and business insights at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterda...

21/08/2026

Grass Valley Connects SDI IP and Software as One Unified...

New routing, modular processing, orchestration and monitoring capabilities bridge dedicated hardware and software-based processing as part of the Dynamic Media ...

21/08/2026

Indiana Pacers Selects DAZN As Exclusive Streaming Partner

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Chyron To Showcase Newsroom Advancements At IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Broadpeak to Launch Multiview as a Service at IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

University of Maryland Deploys Sony FX30 Cameras

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Study: FAST Sports Programming Surges

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Spectrum SportsNet LA Launches in Former Cox Markets

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

ESPN Airs Its Most-Watched WNBA Game

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

21/08/2026

Wisycom Wireless and DPA Microphones Support Pope Leo XIV...

When hundreds of thousands of people gather to hear a single voice, there is no room for compromise. Every word must be delivered clearly, every wireless transm...

21/08/2026

Telestream and ScorePlay Turn Live Sports into Immediate...

Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, today announced a strategic partnership with ScorePlay, the AI-powered media infrastructure that spo...

21/08/2026

NUGEN Audio Launches New Post and Producer Subscription P...

NUGEN Audio announces the launch of its new Post Plan and Producer Plan, two flexible subscription offerings designed to give audio professionals short term acc...

21/08/2026

Join the Screen Currency 2026 Ask Me Anything (AMA) Online

Join the Screen Currency 2026 Ask Me Anything (AMA) Online 20 August 2026 (L-R): Adrian Coates, Grainne Brunsdon, Deirdre Brennan, Rachael Perkins Got questio...

21/08/2026

The Late Late Toy Show kicks off search for this year's stars

The countdown to the most wonderful night of the year has officially begun! Host Patrick Kielty is gearing up for another unforgettable Late Late Toy Show nig...

21/08/2026

New children's series Bellie and Whizz at Big School set to air on RT KIDSjr & RT Player from Monday, 24th August

Meet puppet duo Bellie and Whizz, who are about to explore all the big feelings ...

20/08/2026

NEP's Summer of Soccer Didn't End at World Cup: 1,100+ Domestic Productions Follow the Final

From host-broadcaster and rightsholder support in June and July to MLS, NWSL, US...

20/08/2026

SVG GameDay, Ep. 27: San Jose Sharks' Emily Garner - Production Tales From the Shark Tank

In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: Veritone To Showcase Enterprise AI and Media Supply Chain Automation

At IBC this year, Veritone (14.A56) is bringing two connected themes to the booth: architectural independence in enterprise AI, and the automation of the media ...

20/08/2026

Telestream and ScorePlay Partner to Connect Live Sports Ingest with Media Management

Telestream and ScorePlay have announced a partnership combining Telestream's...

20/08/2026

Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League Sign Multi-Year Deal with ESPN

The Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League have announced a three-year agreement with ESPN, bringing more than 300 hours of live curling coverage to U.S. audienc...

20/08/2026

Nielsen Announces Measurement Enhancements Ahead of Fall TV Season

Nielsen has announced a series of enhancements to its Big Data + Panel currency measurement methodology, taking effect August 31. The updates were developed in ...

20/08/2026

ORF Deploys Net Insight Nimbra Platform for Nationwide IP Contribution Network

Net Insight has been selected by service provider Big Blue Marble (formerly ORS Group) to provide its Nimbra platform as the core media transport solution for a...

20/08/2026

2026 US Open Launches Fan Activations Across New York City

The 2026 US Open will bring a series of free fan activations across New York City ahead of and during the tournament, which runs August 23-September 13. We...

20/08/2026

Bridge Technologies Adds TS Playout to VB330 and VB220 Monitoring Probes

Bridge Technologies will announce a transport stream (TS) playout feature for its VB330 and VB220 compressed monitoring probes at IBC2026 (Booth 1.A71). The fe...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: ENCO To Showcase AI and Automation Solutions

ENCO will demonstrate solutions across captioning, translation, AI production tools, automation, and virtual production at IBC2026 (Stand 7.A34, Amsterdam RAI, ...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: MultiDyne MRMC To Exhibit for First Time as Part of MultiDyne Organization

MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will demonstrate camera robotics and mot...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: Chyron Showcases Newsroom Workflow Solutions

Chyron will demonstrate news workflow solutions at IBC2026 (Stand 7.A23), marking the company's 60th anniversary. Highlights include updates to PRIME HTML, ...

20/08/2026

Spectrum SportsNet LA Now Available to Customers in Former Cox Markets

Spectrum SportsNet LA, the exclusive television home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is now available to Spectrum customers in former Cox markets following the clos...

20/08/2026

IBC 2026: swXtch.io Launches Expanded SRT Distribution and Native Multicast Services

swXtch.io will unveil expanded Global SRT Distribution and native multicast tran...

20/08/2026

Transformation Church Deploys Riedel Artist Intercom System

Riedel Communications has announced that Transformation Church in the United States has deployed a communications system built around the Artist intercom ecosys...

20/08/2026

Apple at 50: Author and CBS Sunday Morning Correspondent David Pogue on How a Tech Giant Became a Media Powerhouse

The bestselling author and longtime Apple observer explores how product launches...

20/08/2026

Orlando Magic's David Storm Reflects on the Franchises First Year With Its New ST 2110 Control Room and Massive Center-Hung Videoboard

The Orlando Magic entered last season with a dramatically upgraded in-venue prod...

20/08/2026

Indiana Pacers Name DAZN Exclusive Streaming Home Beginning 2026-27 Season

Pacers Sports and Entertainment has announced a partnership with DAZN, making it the exclusive streaming home of Indiana Pacers basketball. A team-branded strea...

20/08/2026

Ratings Roundup: Scotty Scheffler Win Tops the Week, ESPN Posts Most-Watched WNBA Game Ever on Cable

Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...

20/08/2026

NHL Announces Germany Expansion with FC Bayern Partnership and 2027 Global Series Games in Munich and Cologne

The NHL has announced two major developments tied to its Germany growth strategy...

20/08/2026

SoundBridges TURN server tutorial

Set up your own private remote collaboration infrastructure SoundBridge have recently put together a tutorial video that provides users with a step-by-step ...

20/08/2026

Neyrinck revive Avid D-Control surfaces

New V-Control Pro features restore basic functionality Neyrinck's V-Control software has long been keeping older Avid control surfaces compatible with n...

20/08/2026

ROSE AYLING-ELLIS BEGINS FILMING SERIES TWO OF ITVS BAFTA-WINNING THRILLER CODE OF SILENCE

TV, BritBox and Mammoth Screen have announced that filming is now underway on th...

20/08/2026

Nielsen Incorporates New Enhancements To Improve Its Data Measurement Leading Into The New Fall TV Season

New York August 19, 2026 Nielsen today shared a number of key enhancements t...

20/08/2026

FAST Sports Programming Surges at More Than Twice the Rate of Sports Channel Growth

New Gracenote Data Hub analysis finds sports program titles up 31.2% and individ...

20/08/2026

Charter Completes $34.5 Billion Cox Acquisition

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

20/08/2026

SubtitleNEXT makes a significant leap in localisation eff...

At IBC, Profuz Digital will showcase at stand 8.A88 the SubtitleNEXT platform delivering innovative AI transcription integrations and stunning new features boos...

20/08/2026

Transformation Church Elevates Production Communications...

Riedel Communications today announced that Transformation Church, one of the fastest-growing and most influential digital ministries in the United States, has d...

20/08/2026

QuickLink Showcases New 4K Capabilities Across StudioEdge and StudioCall at IBC 2026

QuickLink Showcases New 4K Capabilities Across StudioEdge and StudioCall at IBC ...

20/08/2026

The Boys Season Five Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio

The Boys Season Five Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio Brie Clayton August 20, 2026 0 Comments Colorist Siggy Ferstl uses Depth Map to bring a three ...

20/08/2026

Adobe Firefly expands its creative AI studio: generate music, speech, and sound effects in one place

Adobe Firefly expands its creative AI studio: generate music, speech, and sound ...