On Sunday April 22, 2007, BAFTA handed out the prizes at its Craft Awards. MPC won the category for Visual Effects for its work on Terry Pratchett's HOGFATHER, directed by Vadim Jean and produced by Sky One and The Mob.
On picking up the trophy, vfx producer Oliver Money commented, "This is such fantastic news, I am extremely proud of the whole MPC team who worked tirelessly to create the effects seen in HOGFATHER. Thanks also to everyone at Sky One and The Mob for giving us such a great project to work on."
The 2x120 minute episodes of HOGFATHER star David Jason, Joss Ackland and Nigel Planer. MPC created character animation and visual effects for 315 shots and undertook a digital intermediate color grade setting the atmosphere for the show.
HOGFATHER was shot using an Arri D20 camera, as 4:4:4 HD to allow a greater dynamic range and a richer color which was enhanced in the IQ during the digital intermediate color grade setting the dark and somber mood.
MPC was involved with HOGFATHER from the outset, during planning and pre-production vfx supervisor Simon Thomas created a detailed previs of the shots and along with Money advised the production team. After attending the 54-day shoot at East London's Three Mills Studios, an intensive four-month vfx production schedule was put in place. Much of MPC's work on the project involved creating the fantasy characters described in the book -- the sock eater, death of rats, five different types of hog and 'discworld' -- a planet riding on the back of four elephants and a giant turtle. Each of the different characters required different skin textures -- whether fur, skin or clothes and the MPC R&D team created plug-ins accordingly. The team performed set extensions of collapsing buildings, which required 'PAPI' MPC's in-house shattering and bending software, and created fully CG environments -- one shot, with a full length of three minutes, is completely CGI -- which were enhanced by more than 35 matte paintings, all of these elements were composited together with the live-action back plates in 2D software, Shake. 3D FX work was carried out on four long and complex shots of collapsing buildings.
HOGFATHER aired initially on December 17, 2006 on Sky One.
The other nominees in the visual effects category included:
* Lola -- DEATH OF A PRESIDENT (Borough Films/More4)* The Mill -- DOCTOR WHO (BBC Wales/BBC One)* Lola & Model Unit -- KRAKATOA: THE LAST DAYS (BBC/BBC One)
For a complete list of winners, visit www.bafta.org/site/Jahia/cache/offonce/pid/132.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
