Puppets, previs and prehistoric creatures

Issue #61 of befores & afters magazine covers the visual effects of Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age.

DIGITAL MAGAZINE members can download the issue right now from the shop post.

Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age, the third series in the Apple TV natural history series, focuses on the world of Pleistocene megafauna. Tom Hiddleston narrates the season, which was executive produced by Jon Favreau and Mike Gunton and produced by the BBC Studios Natural History Unit.

The world revealed in this series—one first shaped by ice and then giving rise to iconic megafauna—was realized via a unique collaboration between the BBC Studios Natural History Unit and Framestore. The visual effects studio was called upon to deliver more than 40 scientifically accurate creatures and make them inhabit a vast array of environments. All the while, Framestore had to pay close attention to the filmmaking language of natural history documentaries that audiences are so familiar with, despite so many of the creatures and their worlds existing only in digital form.

In this special issue of befores & afters magazine, we go deep into the production of Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age with several members of Framestore’s team. First is a Q&A with production visual effects supervisor Russell Dodgson. Then, we break down different aspects of the project, from scientific research, to art department, visual development and visualization contributions. We also detail the on-set shooting approaches, including via the use of puppets. Finally, we explore the creature builds, animation, environment work, FX simulations and compositing of this mammoth production.