BBC: Casualty

Working in conjunction with The Giggle Group, Rewind FX produced a VFX-laden shot from scratch for the 2011 Christmas Special of Casualty.

Starting with nothing more than a still photograph, the first stage was to create a matte painting which could be used as a suitable backplate. This involved digitally removing all light sources and taking out any undesirable elements such as the signs, bushes, streetlights etc. The material of the building was also changed to stay consistent with the other shots in the final sequence.

3D camera projections were used so that realistic lighting effects could be achieved, and various advanced 3D compositing techniques were used to allow the explosion to start inside the building and emanate out. The final touches were adding in the dynamic pieces of debris and the foreground firetruck, which was also modelled in 3D.

The shot was so well received that the BBC requested a VFX breakdown to use in their behind the scenes video Igniting The Inferno.

Here is the BBC Christmas preview advert which shows the shot in context: