I was the senior designer on the PBS documentary series ‘Battlefield Vietnam’ which took two years to make and was finally released in 1998. The series was commissioned on the back of the original Second World War series ‘Battlefield’ which we – I was a freelancer working for Lamancha Productions in Edinburgh Scotland – had previously made between 1994-96.
For anyone interested in a little web history, you can find the original website I created for TimeLife Video in 1999 here at Battlefield Vietnam.
The series was a major technical challenge for me as each of the twelve one-hour long episodes had a large number of graphics all of which required rendering – a big deal in those days. So even the logistics involved were tricky. On top of that we had to make sense of most of the major battles fought during the ‘10,000 day war’ and illustrate troop movements and guerilla warfare. Just to give an idea of the level of detail required by the producer Dave Flitton, some of the fighting was done on individual neighbouring hills, each of which had to be accurate in relative scale and be named according to original sources.
The Khe Sanh episodes involved such extremes of scale in the maps, going from the whole of South East Asia to being able to see details of the base itself within the same graphic, that we made maps within maps within maps. It probably doesn’t sound much now but all the graphics were done on a couple of very early Pentiums. Wow it’s got a 2gb hard disk, I thought.
In directing this documentary for TG4 in Ireland, I used extensive 3d graphics because of the abstract nature of the subject. I had to find lots of tricks and techniques to bring the story to life without spending millions. “A fantastic, richly illustrated documentary” – Dublin Evening News.
This 3d animation formed the backdrop to a corporate awards ceremony held in Lisbon. The client was looking for a lifestyle piece that would provide an overall theme for the event and give a chilled out tone to the proceedings. I used these 2d illustrations and placed them in a 3d environment, adding some specifically 3d design tricks such as pool reflections and mirrorball lighting.
This travelling exhibition hall – the EventStation® Plus by Bacon Inflate – is manufactured using PVC-coated high-performance fabric. A vinyl canopy is then tensioned over the top. This 3d animation was able to show the client Johnnie Walker exactly how their branding and exhibits would look – day and night – within their own custom made version.
Corporate broadcasting is becoming increasingly viable over the internet, and businesses are now waking up to the online possibilities for video. Having worked in television and been a seasoned web designer, bringing the two sides together was a natural progression. For this piece of web video by LA Media, I was brought in to assemble all the video elements and help to integrate it with the Scottish Power website.
Commissioned by the Discovery Channel, The Knights Templar was a 4-part mini-series. This title sequence, which was also used extensively for promotional purposes, was intended to show the right balance between mystery, opulence and medieval times. I storyboarded this on paper prior to shooting and then cut the sequence with various animated graphics elements.
Standard Life’s headquarters in Edinburgh was to undergo some interior design changes and this animation, showing a part of the building’s first floor, would help to visualise them. To ensure accuracy, I was given the architect’s plans for the building as reference. Even the carpet was ‘sampled’ from a photograph of the original.
Standard Life were using a marbles theme throughout their printed literature and the natural extension of this was to animate them, to keep their branding consistent across all media. This 3d animation was used in their corporate broadcasting but also looped to create a very effective screensaver.
This virtual set had a two-fold purpose. Primarily it was to show the client Experian how the various set elements would look in an artificially lit space. Secondarily it would show how the space would be shared with their co-exhibitor Quadro.
Professional mad scientist Dr. Bunhead is a regular contributor to BBC children’s programmes. I used his own hand-drawn self-portrait and just had some fun with it. Although it looks like traditional animation, this was actually created in a 3d programme, and really shows just how versatile 3d design can be.
I'm Greg Moodie, a freelance graphic designer based just outside Edinburgh in Scotland. I've been trading as Funhouse Graphics since 1998 and specialise in 2d & 3d animation with a heavy dash of quirky.
