Role

After collaborating with The 2D Workshop on series 13 of Doctor Who in 2021, they invited me back for some visual effects work on the Netflix docu-drama Blood, Sex & Royalty (produced by Nutopia).

My work mostly involved the removal of anachronistic objects and architecture, compositing matte-painted set extensions and correcting the colour of the castle walls.

This shot in particular became a far bigger challenge than anyone anticipated:

Since much of what we needed to remove in the background was behind fine-detailed trees and reeds, myself and the team at The 2D Workshop had to come up with a solution that would allow us to complete the shot on time and within budget.

The resulting idea was to composite in additional trees to hide some of the modern buildings in the background, with the rest being a matte painting. I sourced tree assets that visually matched the existing trees in the plate, both in terms of variety and lighting conditions, and comped them into the shot.

For the beheading of Anne Boleyn, there are multiple ways of achieving this, using a half-sword prop for example and digitally completing the sword in CG. In this instance, the two actors were shot on separate plates with a locked-off camera. It’s simple, effective solution that looks 100% realistic for a highly emotional scene that cannot be undermined by wonky visual effects.

I then combined the two plates, taking a little extra time to create a shadow of the sword on her shoulder as it swings closer, it’s a small detail but it goes a long way to bring the two plates together.

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