The first phase was a series of scripted ideas outlining RealtimeUK’s vision for the project. To help emphasise the bridge opening, and its position as a key transport hub for the city, a mix of cinematic scene setting, mechanism close-ups, birds-eye views & time-lapse sequences was suggested.
Once the narrative was agreed RealtimeUK’s team moved on to tackle the bridge modelling. At first it seemed like a daunting task - Tower Bridge is so well known it would need to be modelled with a high level of time intensive accuracy. However it was great to be able to work on such an iconic subject matter and the team wanted to make sure they did justice to the structure.
The biggest challenge was to create a believable City of London background without spending months creating all the individual buildings.
Once the 3D animatic was created and approved, an appointed photographer, using reference points down the river banks, took hi-resolution panoramic shots. All locations east and west of the bridge seen in the movie were covered to ensure that an accurate picture of London was built up.
These photographs were then used to generate the background, although 2D panoramas on their own always look flat, lacking in parallax as the camera moves. To get round this splines were plotted in 3D from the panoramic images and then used to create simple geometry on to which we projected individual layers from the photographs. Using this camera mapping technique the necessary depth and 3D feel could be added to the backplate.
It was important for the client to demonstrate the size of some of the vessels that are able to pass through the bridge and to make this as realistic as possible the ship needed to be populated. The team would normally go into a motion capture suite at this stage; however the timeframes of the project didn’t allow this. Instead a variety of different library models were quickly assembled in order to create the passengers and then hand animated all the movements and waving actions.
The final stage was to add the audio track – making sure the vibrancy of the city and the bridge sounds were accurately recreated.
