This film was commissioned by a collaborative organisation consisting of the Saudi Government Transport Ministry and the Mineral Mining companies in the North of the country.
Tasked with producing a film that not only provided an interesting way of relaying information about the proposed project, we also needed to provide a show piece for the opening ceremony in the desert that was attended by the King himself, to officially start the enormous operation involved in this railway project. The railway itself is the biggest engineering feat ever undertaken in the world, phase one is covered in the film, linking the North and South of Saudi Arabia from the mineral rich mountains to Riyadh and the coastal ports.

After weeks of pre production planning, storyboarding and casting, both in London and Riyadh, we split into two filming units for the project. Unit one went on a journey through Saudi, filming landscape, factory, town and building works for all the cut-aways and train plates. Unit two, shot the main visual effects and scripted parts. Starting in a tower block looking over Riyadh’s flat landscape, we created a set for an architects office, before grabbing some more material outside in the Riyadh streets. The next day we moved into the desert for the bulk of the shooting, which was a challenging environment to shoot in, especially with the wind and swirling sand. We still needed to shoot some greenscreen material for the train interior, before getting the flights back to London to begin the edit and post production.
We edited on Avid Media Composer, onlined in Avid DS and created the 3D cgi in Autodesk Maya with Thumbprint Animation. Avid DS composited a majority of the shots, along with Autodesk Discreet Flint. We used Adobe After Effects for the map sequences and some of the demonstration effects.

Client: Saudi Arabian Railways / OR Madarat

12►

A one time used sequence for the end of year EMI awards ceremony. The sequence headed up the event which was followed by each award based on album sales for the year.

The entire catalogue of the years EMI album covers were sourced and made consistent sizes in photoshop. Special mosaic creating software was then utilised to take suitable album covers from the huge number of files to recreate a specific cover artwork. The large resolution file was then taken into Maya, where the image was dissected using a grid so that each cover image could be manipulated separately. The ripple, warp and spinning effects were then added into the animation and the sequence was made to work with the music. The final result was created using Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Discreet Flint, Combustion and After Effects. DazPix also created 75 separate strap animations, countdowns, end credits and bumpers for the awards film.

Client: EMI / Maguffin

Avanti is the Italian word for ‘Go’, and it is the mission of Avanti Ministries to get the Gospel to every person in the whole wide world. The ministry of Avanti is headed up by a group of Directors passionate to reach the world, The founding Director is the internationally recognised evangelist Mr. Tony Anthony.

Client: Avanti / Jabez Production

Created entirely using Adobe After Effects, the idents were created separately but were required to work seamlessly together. This was achieved using the light transition. The sound design was then added to complement the graphics, and to work especially well for the ending of The Gospel Message animation which can be seen here.

This was a series of 5 programs for Five which counted down the 40 best movies in a variety of genres, Blockbuster, Scary, Romantic, Comedy and 80′s. We were tasked with providing 5 separate title sequences, one for each program all with different endings relevant to the genre and each with bespoke music beds to enhance the style of each countdown. As well as the title sequences, we also needed to provide all the graphics for the series, including the countdowns, bumpers, idents, interstitials, straps, credits and information and competition screens. The music was composed by Miguel d’Oliveira.

Using stock photography from the movies featured, we designed and pieced together a series of scenes encompassing a huge range of films voted for by the public. Our Autodesk Discreet Flint composited the photographic elements together with live action effects elements, such as explosions, smoke and sparks with 3d modelling and cgi renders from Maya. The series was aired on five in the build up to Christmas.

Client: Diverse Productions / Five

The Toybox Feature Film, British Horror Movie
It all began so innocently for two children growing up in England’s bulging rump – the deep, dark countryside of East Anglia. Their imaginations set ablaze by a book on local myths and legends.
Berenice convinces her younger brother Brian that she is the reincarnation of a witch with the powers to put everything right. He on the other hand, is fascinated by a mythical journeyman who once roamed the Fenlands of Norfolk, brutally murdering weary travellers who crossed his path.
As they grow up Brian becomes emotionally dependent on his sister. Years later Berenice returns home for a Christmas gathering with her new boyfriend. Brian who has been left to deal with dysfunctional family life, feels totally betrayed. As the festivities begin an overwhelming sense of impending horror surrounds the house.
Is the enemy outside or within the Usher family home…?

In the video above is a short edit of some of the visual effects DazPix created for the film, including psychadelic warping, snowfall, red burning dog eyes, mirror freakiness and light effects.
All work was carried out with Autodesk Discreet Flint.

Client: Brandnew Films

Big Brother is a reality television show in which a group of people live together in a large house, isolated from the outside world but continuously watched by television cameras. Each series lasts for around three months, and there are usually fewer than 15 participants. The housemates try to win a cash prize by avoiding periodic evictions from the house. DazPix was asked to supply all of the launch show title sequences in the lead up to the shows commencement for three series. Autodesk Discreet Flint was heavily employed to build the sequences as well as additional graphics created in After Effects.

Client: Channel 4 / Endemol UK

BBC2 afternoon reality show Safari School saw eight celebrities undertake a gruelling, four-week ranger-training course at Shamwari Game Reserve in South Africa.
The four men and four women selected as the Safari School Trainees were former EastEnders actress Brooke Kinsella, actors Jeremy Sheffield (Holby City, Wedding Date), Paul Usher (Brookside, The Bill) and Blair McDonough (Neighbours, The Vegemite Tales), Fame Academy vocal coach Carrie Grant, Claire King (Emmerdale and Bad Girls), Olympic athlete Jamie Baulch and broadcaster Jan Leeming.
The rookie rangers lived together in a rustic lodge in the heart of the African bush, and trained from dawn to dusk under the guidance of a crack team of instructors.
In the wild and unforgiving African landscape, the novices tried to learn in four weeks skills that take professional rangers years to master. TV animal expert Dr. Charlotte Uhlenbroek presented the celebrities’ trials, tribulations and triumphs as they competed to keep their place at Safari School.
The programme logo was the first task undertaken by DazPix, as this was needed to make the decals and wooden signage for the location shoot in South Africa. Once footage from the shoot was sent back to London we began editing the sequence and creating the graphics and animation in Autodesk Discreet Flint. We also supplied an entire series graphics package, including, celebrity profile screens, bumpers, idents, credit bed, wipes and transitions, scoreboards and strap lines.

Client: BBC2 / Endemol UK

The Safari School Logo as a Decal on location in South Africa

This is a music video Directed by Duckeye for Production Company Rokkit. It was another example of the close association between The Fallout Trust (Now named The Corrections) and the artists/directors. Using filmed material printed onto cardboard cut-outs and then re filmed in stop frame animation, the strong style is evident, and a particular favourite shot is the hand releasing Joe Winter the vocalist at the beginning of the video. Post Production, online edit and additional lighting and effects touches were done with DazPix using Discreet Flint.

Client: Duckeye / Rokkit

Rogue Traders is a prime-time BBC One presenter-led investigative consumer affairs television series starring Matt Allwright an investigative journalist and presenter and his side-kick, 1.93 m (6’4″) Dan Penteado who also works as a private investigator around Europe and the UK. Rogue Traders began in 2001 and is currently on its seventh series run on BBC One.
The pair secretly film unscrupulous door-to-door tradesmen and salesmen using hidden cameras and actors playing the “victim” (often elderly widows) and then use their evidence to confront them at the end of the programme. They usually use an honest tradesman to provide expert knowledge.
This episode was all about unscrupulous driveway builders and layers, and the idea was to do a homage to the gangasta rap video look for the opening sequence, to kick off the show in typically humorous Rogue Traders style. We used Photoshop and After Effects to create the elements and animation and the whole sequence was composited, graded and enhanced in Autodesk Discreet Flint.

Client: BBC1

Rogue Traders is a prime-time BBC One presenter-led investigative consumer affairs television series starring Matt Allwright an investigative journalist and presenter and his side-kick, 1.93 m (6’4″) Dan Penteado who also works as a private investigator around Europe and the UK. Rogue Traders began in 2001 and is currently on its seventh series run on BBC One.
The pair secretly film unscrupulous door-to-door tradesmen and salesmen using hidden cameras and actors playing the “victim” (often elderly widows) and then use their evidence to confront them at the end of the programme. They usually use an honest tradesman to provide expert knowledge.
Each programme has a theme, this was the first episode of the new series all about dodgy solar power marketing, and the BBC were keen to make a big impact for the first programme. The idea to shoot at Stonehenge arose and at dawn one morning the crew got the necessary footage to create this 3d cgi collapse of the famous stone ring. We first edited the footage and selected suitable texture shots and lighting references. We built the stones to match the real Stonehenge in Maya and gave them a realistic texture before animating them collapsing like dominoes. Matt and Dan had to be rotoscoped out of their original shots in order to interact with our cg stones and the whole sequence was composited, graded and enhanced in Autodesk Discreet Flint.

Client: BBC1