Richard Hammond’s Journey to the Centre of the Earth

In this BBC1 series, Richard Hammond explores how our planet works and what amazing sights lay hidden beneath the crust and on the sea-bed. Working with the BBC’s Will Aslett, we designed a CG virtual studio that had scale but was grounded in reality – somewhere that looked like a real space. This full CG environment featured a massive globe suspended in an airship hanger and lit by the sun through the huge open doors. When the doors closed and we were plunged into darkness the earth became ‘hollow’ and the Earth’s core would light the space. The way Hammond explored the earth was on a CG cherry picker (albeit the tallest cherry picker in the world).

Artist John Kennedy and Lola’s Rob Harvey worked up a series of paintings and storyboards to test the concept before we went into production. We produced a believable, controlled scenario – a massive globe was ‘built ‘ in a airship hanger and the we used the open doors to light the model with the sun. When the doors closed and we were plunged into darkness the earth became ‘hollow’ and the core would light the space.

The series also featured a number of location-based CG set pieces including a scene where we lifted Whitehall above Trafalgar Square and drained the English Channel, obviously with Hammond looping the loop in a WWII plane above.