One Strange Rock

WINNER OF THE 2019 TELEVISUAL BULLDOG AWARDS for Best VFX

Transmission Date: March 2018

Lola created around 35 shots across 4 episodes of this epic series. Commissioned by Nutopia for Nat Geo, One Strange Rock mixes the microscopic with the cosmic.

From the award-winning team of filmmaker Darren Aronofsky (`Black Swan’) and producer Jane Root (`America the Story of Us’), this 10-part cinematic event series explores the fragility and wonder of planet Earth — one of the most peculiar, unique places in the universe. Host Will Smith guides viewers on an unprecedented exploration, bolstered by an elite group of eight astronauts who provide unique perspectives and relate personal memoirs of the planet seen from a distance.

Lola’s work mixed the microscopic and the cosmic – from light shows created by nitrogen and cave bacteria, oxygen-generating diatoms in water droplets to the Amazon Tall Tower Observatory (it’s a very tall tower) into a journey through chaotic cosmic storms.

Most of the sequences featured quite abstract concepts, some had to blend seamlessly with extreme macro or microscopy shots, others showed the invisible and required some interpretation. The scenes showing the spread of nitrogen and cave bacteria needed CG geometry of trees, mushrooms, caterpillars, cave walls, landscapes… and a dead fish to be built and tracked to the filmed plates. CG particles, flares and animated textures were then generated, and the various layers comped in a way that sympathetically matched the natural photographic look of the films.

The CG team was led by Rhys Williams and Alison Stott, Nuke was supplied by Gustaf Neilson, Martin Davison and James Cattell.