Making a new set of idents for a channel is always a challenge, but making new idents for twelve new channels at the same time is pretty much as challenging as it gets!
When The Mill was approached to work on the Sky Movies re-brand by design agency Dunning Eley Jones, the brief looked deceptively simple. Rather than have the channels branded one, two, three etc as they have always been historically, Sky Movies wanted to create specific ‘movie themed’ idents for the different genres such as Comedy and Drama. The enormity of the project dawned on the 3D team when they were presented with a deliverables list of well over one hundred items – this was going to be a big job!
The design concept was to take the iconic image of the flickering cinema projector and turn it into a massed lighting ‘rig type’ set up. Each of these different lighting set ups would then represent a genre specific challenge.
Starting with a long period of research and development, lead artist Rob Petrie took Dunning Eley Jones’s designs and created a distinct 3D look with director Matt Penney. Following on from that it was matter of organising the next five months to deliver this creatively challenging and rewarding project.
In order to achieve the desired look, certain brave technical decisions needed to be made. The Mill chose to use volumetric lights to create the projector beams so that they would interact correctly and offer a very specific clarity of line. In doing so we moved into the unknown realms of using up to 1600 volumetric lights ?Äì a massive and unusual undertaking. As optimised rendering times hit 24 hours per second of animation, the Mill state of the art rendering capacities were pushed to the limit to successfully create the individualistic look for these bold new idents.
As the final tapes where handed over and six months work completed all that remained was to sit back with some popcorn and enjoy the show?Ķ
The new Sky Movies idents launch this Easter weekend.
The Mill, London
40-41 Great Marlborough Street
Soho, London W1F 7JQ
+44 20 7287 4041
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The Mill, New York
451 Broadway 5th floor
New York NY 10013
+1 212 337 3210
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