Documentary
National Geographic Mega Force
National Geographic’s documentary Mega Force presented an interesting challenge. We needed to tell the story of work culture in ancient India and how essential day to day skills were passed on from generation to generation. After considering many options, we decided that since we are showcasing skills of an era gone by, we should employ the tools from the same day and age. Ink, weathered paper and hand drawn illustrations. The idea was to shoot and composite the ink flow in a way that seems like the ink is drawing the illustrations by itself, and telling the story of Ancient India.
Tech:
All illustrations featured in the film are hand drawn on multiple layers. During pre-production, we experimented with a variety of paper and ink combinations to get the flow. Ink flow was shot at 120 fps to capture the gradient and gradual spread on paper. The illustrations and ink were then composited in After Effects using layer masks, and alpha matte’s to make it seem like the ink is spreading to form the image on paper. The project took 6 weeks from start to finish.
