Visual Effects: Dinamo Productions
Visual Effects Supervisor: Jon Rennie
Client: Adastra for BBC - CBeebies
Production: Grandpa In My Pocket - Television Drama

Animation and visual effects boutique, Dinamo Productions had to complete over 850 effects shots in the space of just two months for the first series of the BBCs live action children's drama "Grandpa In My Pocket". A second series is now in production requiring at least the same volume of work again within its nine-week schedule. To cope with such a heavy workload Dinamo designed the production pipeline for speed and efficiency utilizing a tapeless workflow complimented by the dependable accuracy of PFTrack to exclusively provide reliable tracking data for many of the effects shots.

Visual effects Supervisor at Dinamo, Jon Rennie insists that having tried other matchmove applications he finds PFTrack quite simply the easiest to work with, commenting, "We've found PFTrack to be the simplest and most reliable track solution for our work. It has a great user interface that gives immediate visual feedback and an excellent tracking engine that handles even the most difficult shots we throw at it."

The production is one of the BBC's first to be fully digital and was shot in HD 1080p25 and captured in Avid's DNxHD codec using Codex Recorders. This tapeless workflow allows for instant on-set playback and review of footage. Such a facility also means that the recorded material can be combined with the appropriate chromakey shots, assisting the production team with line-up and helping the actors with their performances as a result. In practice, the immediacy of this workflow has meant that the VFX team could work on shots as soon as a first edit was completed, often delivering material the same day. Jon Rennie explains further, "We determined a streamlined workflow that enabled us to preset the lighting and real world dimensions of all the sets, props and characters so that animation would be fast tracked as soon as an edit arrived. All the rendering and lighting was then handled with HDRI reference and outputted with 3D motion blur ready for compositing."

Produced in Cardiff, Wales, where Dinamo is also based, for the BBC's CBeebies channel, "Grandpa In My Pocket" has proved very popular with its target 4-6 year-old audience and although a live action drama, its hook is entirely dependent upon the digital visual effects provided by Dinamo. This is because the central character in the drama, "Grandpa", (played by 'New Tricks' actor James Bolam) has a magical cap that allows him to shrink to a size so small he can literally fit inside his grandson Jason's pocket. Jason is the only family member who knows Grandpa's secret, allowing them to get up to all kinds of surreptitious mischief together. It also means that once "Grandpa" has shrunk to pocket sized, he has a CG stunt double, or the actor playing him is shot against green-screen. Created by Mellie Buse and Jan Page from Adastra Creative, Buse says of the show, "We wanted to bring to life a fabulous, colourful picture book. The show has a sense of heightened reality with a beautiful colour palette."

Dinamo were actively involved in the project a full 18 months before filming began. "We began by working with the writing and producing team to determine the best solution for filming Grandpa in my Pocket within the tight budgets. Part of our early preparation work was to determine the balance between the CG stunt double and the greenscreen performance close-ups, and it eventually worked out at 70% greenscreen and 30% CG," explains Rennie. PFTrack was used extensively to layout and track the movement of all the CG animation shots which featured a 'stunt' version of "Grandpa", employed for all the scenes that see the character running, jumping or leaping about. All moving shots were then similarly tracked and passed along to the animators. "Although most of the shots were static plates for this first series, PFTrack's ability to lock the camera into the correct position quickly and efficiently saved Dinamo considerable time in post production," insists Rennie.

The range of visual effects so far developed for the Grandpa character may not be the most complex ever devised, but still required accurate, reliable tracking data. Especially since the sheer volume of shots and time in which they had to be completed meant that the team didn't have the luxury of revisiting shots or reworking them if things weren't quite right. "PFTrack provided us an accurate layout that matched with the set and gave us a reliable camera position. The program's speedy and efficient tracker meant that any moving shots could be animated and rendered with accuracy, giving the compositors time to blend the elements effectively," says Rennie. With regard to these elements, the CG animation and props were created in 3D Studio Max and Splutterfish, Brazil render system, with both CG and greenscreen compositing completed with Adobe After Effects.

Rennie explains that in the second series, PFTrack played an expanded role in the show's all important visual effects as the production was more ambitious regarding the interaction between CG elements and the live action as well as with the design of the shots. "We've now finished the second series, due to air in February 2010, and there were far more moving and zooming shots and also more 'organic' movement, such as actors holding CG props and the stunt Grandpa interacting with the live action performers. We did over 1,050 shots, more than we were expecting. PFTrack was again an integral part of that, especially the increase in moving shots."

Clearly relishing the opportunity to raise the standards of visual effects in low budget children's TV programming, Rennie wants to demonstrate that it is possible to maintain good production values in digital VFX on a tiny budget, so long as you have the right tools for the job. "We're looking forward to many more years of using PFTrack for the ever-more complex requirements of visual effects. We're keen to push the boundaries of children's TV. Visual effects, tracking and integrating CG elements using PFTrack is at the heart of our workflow," he says, before emphatically adding, "Seamless effects are no longer the preserve of the cinema screen!"

Words: Martin Southwood