What We Do

The Mill's Television and Film studio combines creative excellence with technical innovation to create high-end visual effects for both broadcast and film. We have collaborated on television projects as diverse as: 'Doctor Who', 'Merlin' and 'Sherlock' for the BBC; 'Elizabeth', 'Longford' and 'Cast Off's' for Channel 4; 'Alice' for SyFy and 'Skellig' for Sky1.

The team's film work includes the third instalment of 'The Chronicles of Narnia - The Voyage of the Dawn Treader', Jordan Scott's directorial debut, 'Cracks', and 'The Damned United'. Recent broadcast productions include 'Primeval' for ITV/Watch, 'Neverland' for Sky Movies HD and the forthcoming 'Sinbad' for Sky1.

The Mill's work on 'Merlin' was honoured with the BAFTA Craft Award for Visual Effects in 2011 and their VFX work on 'Doctor Who' has also been recognised by BAFTA, the Visual Effects Society (VES) and the Royal Television Society.

For more information, please contact:
Will Cohen
will@themill.com
+44 20 7287 4041

The Mill TV and Film Showreel 2011

The second part of a special behind-the-scenes look at Mill TV's VFX work on the latest series of Primeval, featuring exclusive interviews with VFX Superivisor Jean-Claude Deguara, Lead Technical Director Jason Mayo and Concept Artist Grant Bonser.

Primeval Series 5 - Behind the Scenes part 2

Our Mill TV team created some incredible prehistoric monsters and creatures for the ARC Team to do battle with in series 4 of the ITV1 / Watch action-drama series Primeval.  Find out how in this behind-the-scenes exclusive...

Primeval Series 4 - Behind the Scenes part 1

Step behind-the-scenes to see how The Mill created the stunning water sequence featuring the magical Naiad water nymphs for the latest cinematic installment of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Behind the Scenes

Mill TV have been helping to bring enchantment to the magical kingdom of Camelot since 'Merlin' made its debut on BBC One.  See how the team created the visual effects for the latest series, which went on to earn them a BAFTA Craft Award, in this behind-the-scenes video.

Merlin Series 3 - Behind the Scenes

Find out how Mill TV brought Hollywood-style VFX to the small screen in this behind-the-scenes making of for Series 5 of the hit show.

Doctor Who Series 5 - Behind the Scenes

Brief:
Add scope and scale to the fantasy kingdom of Camelot. Create various magical elements and creatures including the Great Dragon.

Solution:
From magical tornados, enchanted mists, dramatic character transformations and slow-motion daggers, we faced a marvellous array of VFX challenges throughout the series. Wherever possible, our approach is to shoot real practical elements for us to composite with live action and revert to 3D when this is not possible. The fireballs in episode 13 are a good example of this collaborative approach - practical elements for real fireballs created by the SFX team were shot against black from the correct angles and then composited with the live action after the edit back at The Mill.

Photographs and real elements were used to create matte painted backgrounds to enhance the geography of the kingdom. Mountains and snowy peaks helped set the scene. We enhanced views of Camelot by building a town next to the castle and adding flags to the battlements in both day and night time. We used 3D geometry to line up the correct camera angle and allow us to paint on it. It also enables us to track Camelot set extensions to simple camera moves as the paintings become 2.5D rather than merely 2D lock-offs.

Other set extensions included stadium blocks for tournaments in the grounds of Camelot and the dragon's cave (mainly a set of matte paintings).

For the Great Dragon, we deployed our in-house developed facial tracking software. Whilst we relied on specially shot selected takes of John Hurt's vocal performance in the sound studio, we used beads on his face which enabled us to track and capture 98% of his movements, which were then successfully transferred to the CG model. The animation team then enhanced the performance over the top of the base layer of John's performance and added eye blinks back in.

Outcome:
With the success of the first series, we were even more ambitious with the VFX for the return of the second series, and were rewarded with a BAFTA Craft nomination in the Visual Effects category. The medieval and magical adventures of 'Merlin' continue to be enjoyed by millions around the globe.

Brief:
Create 'The Pyroviles', giant alien creatures made from volcanic rock that live in Mount Vesuvius.

Solution:
The Mill's main challenge in successfully bringing these characters to life was to displace complex detail in multiple objects, integrating a particle smoke solution that would follow the organic movement of the creatures and include flames. For the explosive eruption of Vesuvius, we created the volcano's pyroclastic flow using Fume and Realflow. To achieve the correct speed and scale, a vast amount of data was required to create multiple simulations. Numerous 64-bit machines were running 24 hours a day for two weeks, creating TBs of data to render the shots on time.

Outcome:
The episode speaks for itself with hide-behind-the-sofa alien rock monsters and an impressive recreation of Mount Vesuvius erupting over the town of Pompeii. 'The Fires of Pompeii' went on to earn the team the BAFTA Craft Award for Visual Effects in 2009.

Brief:
From the micro world of insects and time-lapsed growing mushrooms, impressive backdrops and locations, to the hero's remarkable wings and dramatic flying and levitation sequences, our brief was to create over 180 seamless digital VFX shots to bring to life the feature-length adaptation of 'Skellig' a novel for children by David Almond.

Solution:
Wild mushrooms were modelled and textured before being animated growing in the foreground of the frame to create the illusion of time passing. The enormous tower was a major digital creation with composited multiple passes of moving ivy, moss, flowers and tree branches creating a believable location for close-ups.

The poignant levitation scene in the tower was achieved using live-action plates with green screen, whilst the exterior view through the window is a matte painting.

Skellig's wings were puppeteered which required us to remove poles, blue men, rigs and harnesses. The wind and leaves that sweep around Skellig and the children were created in 3D using in-house proprietary tools before being composited. The scene featuring the children washing Skellig's wings also involved detailed rig removal and required the complex restoration of hair, costume and backgrounds with moving foliage and water.

The film's magical and climatic flying sequence was also our most challenging and accounted for 40 VFX shots. Mixing live action of Michael and Skellig shot on a wire rig against green screen, we used digital doubles to create over a dozen shots of the pair flying and barrel rolling. We enhanced our in-house feather system to allow the wind to flutter the feathers in Skellig's wings and air disturbance simulation was used to match the wind machine on the feathers in the studio. To create the hair and cloth simulation on Michael and Skellig we customised the ICE system in XSI and our bespoke, cross-platform caching system ensured a smooth pipeline for rendering, using different 3D software packages. Shake was used for compositing the CG, wire removals and background enhancements on the live-action plates.

Outcome:
A critically acclaimed and poignant family film, 'Skellig' impressed critics and audiences alike, and earned The Mill team an RTS Craft & Design Award nomination for Picture Enhancement.