Qurios Blog

Back to Wereworld

2011-06-22T16:46:00.006+01:00

We've just created an update to the Wereworld trailer we made back in September last year, see earlier post here. This is to coincide with the second book in the series, due out on the 7th of July.

Here's the new trailer:

The main change from the original was introducing the red colours towards the end, and the inclusion of the books in the end scene.

Mattress Man

2011-06-01T10:36:00.007+01:00

We were recently asked to complete a set of bumpers to sponsor two shows on ITV 2. The job was to animate the clients character, Mattress Man, in two locations: a red carpet premiere, and in his bedroom.

The geometry was built in 3DS Max, and is quite simple but effective. We used V-ray to render the sequence. As ever it gave use some lovely results, see the close-ups of the bedroom background. Highlights look especially nice - soft without looking blurred.

One interesting challenge was timing a sequence of camera flashes. Flashing or strobing can cause a lot of problems for some people, so we had to get approval and clearance for the flashing sequence. Once the flash timing was signed off we placed flashing lights in the scene, but additional flaring effects were added in post.

In total we created eight versions, ranging in length from 5 to 15 seconds. Here is the 15 second version:

Super Casino, Super 3D text

2011-05-25T10:05:00.001+01:00

Sometimes a job doesn't have to be mammoth and complex to be enjoyable. Our partners at Dene were shooting a live-action commercial for Super Casino, and they needed some 3D text to appear. Our contribution might have been small, but the final ad is rather nice.

Here is the 3D text in question:

And here is a video blog by Dene charting the live action shoot:

And here is the completed ad:

New showreel

2011-02-17T15:53:00.003Z

Here is our new showreel!

Qurios Showreel Feb 2011 from Qurios on Vimeo.

Quality Solicitors Commercial

2010-11-11T16:50:00.014Z

Here is a breakdown of our work on a recently complete commercial:Quality Solicitors

Pre-Production

The commercial began with a brainstorming meeting where we proposed three or four possible creative briefs for the client to choose from. The one he really loved was them most complex, but we all felt we could do something very special with it.

After we'd agreed on a concept, and an initial script was written, the next stage was to come up with the look of the characters and the environment. Initially the main character was going to be a man, so we did quite a bit of development work to nail his design.

...and then he had a sex change! It was decided to change the main character to a woman, so we did some more designs until we settled on what would eventually become Mrs QS.
The male designs were not wasted, they became the template for the other characters who would populate the commercial.

Next we came up with a look and feel for the environment. We did some colour studies of the first few scenes in the commercial:

Here is a little video we put together for the client to show his members. It shows some of the work-in-progress during pre-production.

Quality Solicitors - the making of from Dene Films on Vimeo.

Model building for this commercial was quite an undertaking. The characters were all variations on a generic male and female base. As well as Mrs QS we had two female characters and three male characters. Each needed to be distinct from each other. Here are a few renders of the completed models.

Finally we built props including cars:

Production

Once we had all our assets in place we could start animating. We had a very rough animatic to work to:

QS Animatic 05 from Qurios on Vimeo.

And then came the mammoth job of animating, lighting and rendering. Here are some stills from the completed renders:

And here is the completed commercial:

Quality Solcitors Final from Qurios on Vimeo.

Rise of the Wolf trailer

2010-09-23T09:50:00.006+01:00

Here's a job we've just completed to promote the first novel by Curtis Jobling. We've known Curtis for far too long and we're often dragged into his insane schemes for world domination, this was no exception.

Pencil sketches were scanned into Photoshop, coloured and separated into sections to be animated in After Effects.

Mongrels - BBC 3

2010-07-05T14:33:00.005+01:00

We recently finished VFX and animation on a new comedy called Mongrels, BBC THREE's first urban, multi-species, adult puppet comedy.

I'll be putting up some more info on our contribution once broadcast is finished, so for now make sure you watch it on iplayer, or on telly. You can find it on Tuesday nights at 22.30 on BBC 3.

Roundup

2010-05-20T11:58:00.005+01:00

I know, I know, we've been rather quiet on here lately. The truth is its because we've been extremely busy and I've let the blog and the newsletter slide. I will be putting some new stuff up here soon honest!

So what have we been doing? I'm glad you asked. We've been supplying VFX shots for a new BBC 3 comedy which promises to be a bit special from what I've seen so far.

We're also doing one of our most ambitious TV commercials so far, which has been quite demanding on our time.

Heard of @North? Its a BBC initiative to find new companies in the north to collaborate with. We're one of the handful in the North East who they are talking to about future projects, which is nice. Some info here.

What else? Some design work, some pitch stuff, and an exciting new venture into the world of Ipad applications.

And we've recently celebrated our 8th birthday! Where did the time (and my hair) go?

So there's plenty to keep us busy here, and lots to talk about very soon.

Barrage Boom!

2010-03-22T11:53:00.001Z

We've been pretty busy in the last few months with a combination of TV work, commercials and some corporate work, none of which has yet to air, hence the lack of updates.

In the meantime here is a test piece worked on by Matt. Its an aerial shot of the Tees Barrage from a corporate we did last year, but we couldn't resist trying to blow it up. We didn't get time to completely finish it but its not too far off.

Ingenios VFX work part 1

2010-01-06T13:46:00.008Z

You might have seen Ingenious on BBC 1 on Christmas Day, a live-action 1 hour special featuring some VFX work by our good selves, specifically a big old dragon seen towards the end of the show. Here are a couple of clips. I'll post more information in the next week or so.

Ingenious

2009-12-22T12:46:00.002Z

Showing on BBC 1 at 9.15am on Christmas morning is Ingenious, a 1 hour special featuring over 40 effects created here at Qurios. Lime Pictures commissioned Qurios to design, build and animate a 3D dragon for their HD production. As well as a fire-breathing dragon Qurios also created animated doves and shots of a radio telescope which was composted into the background of various shots.
If you're too busy opening presents to see Ingenious on Christmas Day you can catch it on the BBC HD channel at 2pm Christmas Day, CBBC 3:00pm Sun 27 Dec, BBC HD 2:55pm Tue 29 Dec, CBBC 3:00pm Sat 2 Jan, BBC HD 3:15pm Sat 2 Jan.

Come back here in January for clips and more information.

Blakes 7 Desktop image

2009-11-12T14:03:00.003Z

Having rediscovered the old Liberator model we build back in 2003 I indulged myself and rendered out this image.

1600 x 1200

1280 x 1024

1280 x 960

1152 x 864

1024 x 768

800 x 600

640 x 480

T-Rex Attacks Hartlepool - Updated

2009-09-29T14:11:00.001+01:00

Here's a fun test piece completed recently by Matt. A T-Rex causes devastation to Church Street in Hartlepool, that's why we had to move out!

How was it done? In Matt's own words: Firstly I filmed Chris running down Church St in Hartlepool. This footage was then tracked in 3D, and i blocked out a rough version of the scene's buildings and road in 3dsmax so that the footage could be projected back onto this geometry to provide reflections and ambient lighting / shadow.

The T-rex model was bought from the Internet, which i then rigged using CAT, set up a new shader using sub-surface scattering with displacement, and animated it in the 3D scene. The smart car was already built by Nick, so i was able to just drop it straight into the scene. I fractured the glass geometry using dynamics, and animated the door crumpling in when the T-rex hits it. The scene was then lit to match the live-action footage and rendered in Mentalray.

In post-production i roto'd mattes around parts of the shot that need to obscure the T-rex and car. Added grain, blur, and lighting effects to match the footage, and then camera shake and colour correction were applied to the shot as a whole.
Sound effects kindly supplied by Richard Alderson of Dene Films.

Who Peter

2009-09-22T01:00:00.000+01:00

'Who Peter' DVD Documentary due for 2010.

This news has been reported on several websites, most notably on Doctor Who Online.

We worked with Dene Film's Producer Chris Chapman to supply an animated title sequence and other graphics for this impressive documentary.

Brand new documentary, 'Who Peter', coming as a DVD extra in 2010.

DWO caught up with 2|entertain's Commissioning Editor; Dan Hall, who has confirmed the brand's biggest Doctor Who DVD Documentary to date entitled 'Who Peter'.

"I am delighted to confirm that we are nearing the end of production on our biggest documentary to date. It is a two-parter due for release next year, presented by Blue Peter / Strictly Come Dancing star, Gethin Jones.

Shot in the BP studio and the BP garden, the programme, Who Peter, was devised by Blue Peter producer Richard Marson, and produced by Chris Chapman of Dene Films."

Chris commented: “With the help of a packed cast of interviewees including Peter Purves, Janet Ellis, Biddy Baxter and Russell T Davies, we spent two action-packed days filming at the BBC and – hopefully – the result is something that sums up and celebrates the quirky bond between the two shows."

We'll add more information once the DVD has been released.

Pass The Parcel

2009-07-09T12:35:00.005+01:00

What do you get if you combine Les Dennis sporting a gentleman's moustache, a freezing studio and some of the best production companies in the North East? More details here.

Bookworm

2009-06-30T15:39:00.001+01:00

This was a pitch for a project that never happened, an animated bookworm. Chris designed and built this little character in no time at all, nice isn't he?

Smart Car Test

2009-06-26T15:13:00.003+01:00

Done to test out shaders and to show car modelling skills.

Nick Frost/Henderson Mesh

2009-06-26T12:40:00.007+01:00

Back in October 2005, as part of our work on the first series of Hypedrive, we were required to build a 3D computer model of Nick Frost, Captain Henderson. We had to show him floating through space from the HMS Camden Lock to another ship nearby. There wasn't the budget to build a spacesuit and our work had to link up directly with the next shot of him entering the other ship. The writers suggested that all the suits would double up as hyper-thin spacesuits, so all you'd need to go outside would be a helmet and gloves. I took some reference shots of the helmet...

Next I asked Nick Frost to wear the helmet so I could take some additional reference. He was very helpful and pushed on the helmet which was obviously not made to measure. After some pushing Nick got it all the way down!

...and it stuck!

...and started to steam up.

Nick was protesting that he couldn't get it off and for a moment I thought I was going to kill the leading actor! Thankfully I had been the victim of Nick's humour, he removed the helmet grinning. Somewhat flustered I continued with my reference photography, getting front and profile shots of Nicks uniform. Alas I didn't notice the large perspective shift in the pictures - I'm taller than Nick and I was looking down on him instead of being level with him. So the pictures were less than perfect as a reference point.

We fell back on a set of pictures I'd taken of Nick in a quarry. These ones were taken from some distance away so were no use for textures but were great for checking proportions.

The model was built by Nick here (a different Nick, confusing isn't it!). Here are some renders.

And here is the final shot as seen in the episode - it could have been anyone inside that helmet!!

NE 31, robot of the future

2009-06-11T12:51:00.004+01:00

One North East Newsreel

2009-06-10T13:03:00.006+01:00

This is a fun job we recently completed for One North East. Its a tongue-in-cheek newsreel from the year 2109, looking back at the North East today - they year that everything changed!!

The job invoivled a number of digital matte paintings of the North East as well an an animated robot character. We also did most of the graphic elements. I'll post a more in-depth report soon covering in detail our work on the film.

Omid series 2

2009-05-19T12:17:00.002+01:00

The second series of The Omid Djalili Show is currently showing on BBC 1 on Monday night. I'll do another post once the series is finished to highlight our work on the show.

Regional Press

2009-02-11T10:28:00.002Z

A couple of pieces in the regional press about our move from Teesside to Tyneside.

Ladies of Letters titles

2009-02-09T15:05:00.013Z

We were asked to create a pair of ceramic figurines for the title sequence for Ladies of Letters, currently showing on ITV 3.

The hardest parts of the piece were the sculpting and creating a shader, which would need some additional work to get it to look right. We created a small test piece using the teapot model from Max, applying our china shader to it. This allowed development of the shader and textures to be carried out in conjunction with the model building, rather than having to wait until the models were completed. The base mesh was created in Max before sculpting in zbrush.

Once the models were completed they were rigged and animated. Each new version was passed to live action director John Henderson for his notes.

The scene was lit by HDRI and a single photometric light. Some minor post work was done to add glows/glare.

The final piece was rendered in several passes:

Default beauty pass

Z-Depth Pass

...and an Ambocc Pass.

New office

2009-02-06T17:01:00.002Z

Here is the new office, a bit messy still as we're finding homes for everything.

Ladies of Letters

2009-01-30T10:53:00.002Z

Starts next week. More soon...

Moving Day

2009-01-28T12:13:00.007Z

Yesterday was our moving day. We said goodbye to Hartlepool and set off for our new home in Newcastle. We've been based in Hartlepool since we started in 2002, so it was with mixed feeling that we chose to move.
We've had some great support from the town, especially from the local business network and the council who have always been there for us. We also want to thank our landlords Atkinson Print for making us feel very welcome. But the time is right for a change.
The move went very smoothly, especially as we were going from a 2nd floor premises without a life to one on the 4th floor with a tiny lift. The team from Sandersons Removals did a great job.

Today we are up and running again, everything seems to have survived the journey in one piece. We can now be found at Suite 20, 65 Westgate Road, Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 1SG. Tel: 0191 233 3734.

Press cutting

2009-01-16T15:44:00.004Z

Nice piece the Hartlepool Mail last week, especially as I seem to have grown some hair back on my head, shrunk, lost my beard and can now see without glasses.

New Year, New Look

2009-01-08T10:11:00.005Z

Today Qurios is launching it's brand new website, complete with new logo. We've added much more content to the site so you can now look at a lot of our archive online. Find out what we've been up to lately, and check for regular updates. Go to qurios.com and take a look...

Big moves afoot

2008-12-12T10:43:00.002Z

There are some exciting changes happening here in the New Year. The Newcastle Journal had a piece in last week revealing some of our plans.

Oliver Postgate

2008-12-10T15:56:00.003Z

As has been widely reported Oliver Postgate recently passed away. Bagpuss and The Clangers were my personal favorites but this gently spoken gentleman was responsible (along with Peter Firmin) for a whole raft of classics. Take a moment to read the Times obituary of this creative genius. Anyone of a similar age to me will know and miss his distinctive voice.

I was lucky enough to help on a workshop with Sandra Kerr, acclaimed folk singer and the distinctive voice Madeleine from Bagpuss. Sandra is a lovely woman with a real zest for performance (and life in general). She talked in very warm terms about Oliver and her time at Small Films. Our thoughts go out to her, Oliver's family and the legion of friends and followers of his work.

Sharpe's Peril

2008-11-26T16:01:00.003Z

Here are some CGI swords we did for the recently broadcast Sharpe's Peril two-parter. These shots appeared in the last ten minutes of the second episode, so be warned if you plan on watching the full story!

Multiwinia - King of the Hill

2008-08-19T12:48:00.002+01:00

Multiwinia - Domination

2008-08-12T14:50:00.009+01:00

We've been working on some game trailers for the imminent release of Multiwinia, the first of which is now online.

Hyperdrive Drone

2008-07-07T15:58:00.006+01:00

Dalek Development - Part 3

2008-06-27T12:26:00.009+01:00

Here are some images from Ged's model of our proposed new Dalek. He started by using a model kit of the original Dalek for parts and reference but in the end almost everything on the model was made from scratch.

Dalek Development - Part 2

2008-06-26T12:53:00.006+01:00

Here are a couple of early tests for alternate Dalek designs. The Daleks flying over St Paul's Cathedral dates back to August 2002.

The clip below is even older, going back to July 2001. This was just a piece for fun, but the mechanics of the legs unfolding took some working out.

Dalek Development - Part 1

2008-06-24T12:41:00.025+01:00

Way back in 2004 when the BBC announced the return of Doctor Who we tried, like many studios, to get our foot in the door. I've always been a fan of the Daleks and had done some early development on a TV movie idea featuring them invading, (with no Doctor to save us this time). This was purely something I was doing for fun, I had not approached the BBC or spoken to anyone about it. Over time I had put together some notes and designs for some variations on the Dalek theme. Working on the presumption that they would built variants for specialist tasks I surmised that there might be a whole array of new Daleks out there. (This is hardly an original idea as it was suggested in earlier episodes, such as the story featuring the Gunner Dalek but I felt like I could perhaps take it a bit further).
So when the announcement came of the new series I dug out some of my ideas and decided to send them in. As luck would have it my old friend Bryan Hitch was also trying to get onto the project. (Bryan is an outstanding comic artist and sci-fi fan). Together we pooled our resources and I built a 3D model of Bryan's sketch of the Tardis interior. In return Bryan helped me to get my designs in front of the powers that be on the new series.

For a while it all looked like it might happen. My designs were well received and we even sent Phil Collinson a model of one of the Dalek designs that I'm told sat on his desk for several months. But as time went by and their plans solidified it became apparent that the new designs were not required. This sort of thing happens a lot with TV: time and budget mean that a lot of ideas fall by the wayside. I was disappointed obviously but totally understand how these things happen.
So now we are a few years further down the line and I thought it might be fun to dig out the old stuff I'd sent and post it here.

Sentry/Hunter Dalek
The first design I worked on was one I called the Hunter Dalek, or Sentry Dalek on some of my earlier images. This design actually preceded the announcement by at least a year. This was meant to address the noted weaknesses of the current Dalek, (which I labeled as the Drone Dalek), such as its eye stalk and its fondness for flat walkways. So this Dalek would float and have three eye stalks for a complete 360 view at all times. To mirror this I gave it three guns. Apart from those changes I tried to keep as many of the iconic Dalek elements as possible. I built this as a 3D model which was later to be built as a practical model by Ged Hunt. (More on that in my next post.)

Harvester Dalek
I really enjoyed building the Harvester Dalek. The thinking here was that this chap would stalk the streets and collect people in the jars on its back to be taken back to the mothership and processed. I thought this would look nice running down a ruined street, crawling over rubble. This spider-like creature was inspired in part by HG Wells' War of the Worlds and the fantastic Tripods.

Spider Short

2008-03-10T10:24:00.008Z

This was a short piece produced back in 2002. It was part of six interstitials for 13th Street, a European channel showing horror and sci fi content. Each one was given to a different animator so they were all had a unique look.

The entire CGI content was built, animated and composited in 3DS Max, probably version 5 or whatever was current back then. If we were doing this now it would probably be done in multiple render passes, composited and tweaked in Combustion etc. Back then it was all rendered in one pass with all effects, glows etc being done directly in Max using a lot of the default setting, such as scanline rendering.

The design of the large spider was inspired by human bones.Given the limitations involved I think this came out quite well.

Humpback Whale

2008-03-04T10:30:00.006Z

This is a short test sequence produced by Chris.

The model started life a few years ago but has been recently updated with additional sculpting, displacement and texturing work being completed.
This second clip shows the various passes that make up the final composition.

And here are a few stills from the sequence.

More abstract amboccs

2008-02-28T11:41:00.002Z

Some more nice ambient occlusion passes. They look like abstract works of art to me.

Lovely Amboccs

2008-02-20T14:13:00.007Z

I was looking for some digital matte painting examples for a new client when I came across these ambient occlusion passes for the Scrane, one of the baddy spaceships from series 2 of Hyperdrive, (currently being repeated on Dave.)

They are great things to look at, we never saw all this detail in the final images on screen, which is a shame. This design was based on two hammer heads joined in the middle.
Here are some of the quick concept sketches produced by Chris. These helped the production team decide which direction they wanted to take the ships in.
And here are two of the final shots.

Be our Valentine!

2008-02-07T14:28:00.000Z

We've just completed another e-card for HD Greetings. Chris completed the animation in Flash and the music is by Steve Luck.

Content

It will soon have to option to add in a picture on to the bears tummy, but HD are having some technical difficulties with this right now. Show your loved one you care and forward it onto them.

Santa's Hapless Helpers

2007-12-10T10:13:00.000Z

Our festive animated short, "Santa's Hapless Helpers" is now completed and available to view via HD Greetings. Here are some images from the final piece but if you want to see the whole thing, (and why wouldn't you?) then click here. Also you can send this on and share it with your contacts - think of it a virtual Christmas Card, you can even add a personal message. Just click on the Ecard button on HD Greetings website.

Great North Run Sponsorship - Thank you

2007-11-30T14:19:00.000Z

I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who sponsored me for running in this years Great North Run. It seems like ages ago now and its hard to believe I actually did it. I managed a time of 2 hours 38 minutes and 10 seconds. I've finally completed getting all the money in and have managed to raise a total of £507.03 for Cancer Research. (Don't ask about the 3p, that's a couple of friends trying to out bid each other!)

Here are a couple of pictures just to prove I actually did it. Thanks again, your money will hopefully make a difference.

Santa's Hapless Helpers

2007-11-28T15:48:00.000Z

This festive short is nearing completion and will soon be available for the entire world to see! (Insert manic evil laugh) This is another collaboration with Curtis Jobling and has been a lot of fun to produce.

Its looking great if I do say so myself! Here is a tiny peek.

The Omid Djalili Show

2007-11-24T12:17:00.000Z

This new series started last week but our work is featured from tonights episode onwards. This is a promtional flyer sent out by the BBC.
You can view our flying carpet sketch on youtube here. Our other main contribution was to creating VFX for a series of sketches set in the collesium in Rome. Here are some before and after shots.

Lego HMS Camden Lock

2007-11-10T14:19:00.001Z

This fantastic oddity was created by Peter Reid, or Legoloverman as he is also known. He's recreated Hyperdrive's HMS Camden Lock in Lego!

In case you are not familiar with the Camden Lock it's the ship from Hyperdrive, designed and built by Glazy, Nick and me at Qurios.
If you like this, (and why wouldn't you?) then pop over to Peter's site here: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?m=Legoloverman
Or take a look at some pictures of his other work: http://www.flickr.com/photos/38509565@N00/

Omid Djalili Show

2007-11-09T14:25:00.000Z

The Omid Djalili show starts soon on BBC 1 - you can see a clip on youtube featuring some of our work on the show. In this clip we created the flying carpet and comped Omid onto it, combining it with the background footage. Come back soon for more in-depth coverage of our work on the show

Rescue Rookies signed

2007-11-05T20:40:00.000Z

As you may have read on Curtis' blog we have recently signed Rescue Rookies to Parthenon. This is something we've had in development since earlier this year and has kept us pretty busy, hence the lack of blog updates. Well I'm back on form now so I'll be doing some more regular updates in the coming weeks.

Here is the text from the press release issues by Parthenon:

Parthenon preschool series brings in Bling

Parthenon Kids has signed on the line with UK prodco Bada Bling to make a new series created by the designer of Bob The Builder.

Parthenon Entertainment's children's production and distribution arm has optioned the rights to animated preschool series Rescue Rookies (52x5').

The deal gives Parthenon exclusive multimedia rights to develop the series further, as well as taking it out into international waters where it will be pitched to broadcasters.

It is the first option for Parthenon Kids' recently appointed head of children's programming Karina Stanford-Smith.

"It was an easy decision to make as the appeal of the show is instantaneous," said Stanford-Smith. "The concept and character design is perfect for preschoolers and I'm delighted to be working with Curtis Jobling to bring this series to broadcast."

The new series is conceived, written and designed by Bada Bling's Curtis Jobling, best known as the designer of BBC/Nickelodeon series Bob the Builder, as well as new BBC animated series Frankenstein's Cat.

Inspired by Jobling's kids' attraction to flashing lights and sirens, each episode is aimed at teaching its young audience what can be achieved through teamwork and communication. It follows the adventures of an eager-to-please gang of young and enthusiastic emergency vehicles including Bravo the Police Car, Lulu the Ambulance, Flash the Fire Engine, Birdseye the Helicopter and Skipper the Lifeboat.

The show has also been developed with UK studio Qurios Entertainment, whose MD Niel Bushnell comes aboard as the show's development producer.

Some nice planets...

2007-08-17T15:43:00.000+01:00

...created by the talented Nick Patrick.

Blimp Designs

2007-08-14T12:50:00.000+01:00

Episode 2 of Hyperdrive saw the return of the Queppu race from series 1. We had to come up with designs for their space fleet and a floating blimp. For both we found our inspiration from the wonderful costumes designed by Morgan Elliott
Nick came up with the following possible designs:

This was the final version, if you look closely you might spot a guard inside the carriage under the blimp. He was animated to walk back and forth just to give some extra detail.

The Green Javelins

2007-08-08T17:01:00.000+01:00

For those of you who just can't sleep until they know the names of the ships that made up the Green Javelins in the Hyperdrive episode of the same name here is the information you have been craving after!

We followed the tradition of naming the British fleet after obscure UK locations. The writers, Andy & Kevin, came up with the first few;

HMS Pleasance Attic, XF685, an Edinburgh Fringe venue.

HMS Didcot Parkway, XH042, a railway station near where Kevin's parents live. When he and Andy first started writing Kevin used to commute from there and meet him in London.
HMS Pride of Glenrothes, XP919

We suggested others, based on locations close to us, following the tradition started in series 1 with the HMS Seaton Carew. They include the HMS Ward Jackson, XR505, a park in Hartlepool named after Ralph Ward Jackson, one of the driving forces behind Hartlepool's expansion as a port.

HMS Ushaw Moor, XT015, home to Qurios' Chris.

HMS Hutton Henry, XS534, a small village close to Hartlepool. HMS Cleveland Way, XO637, a controversial ship originally named the Cleveland Steamer by Andrew Glazebrook who managed to blind us innocent chaps to its true meaning. It has since found respect amongst the fleet after being renamed the Cleveland Way

HMS Ingleyby Barwick, XN012, a large suburban development, home to Qurios' very own Matt and the outstanding Richard Dolan.

Hyperdrive - Building the Camden Lock Part 2

2007-07-11T10:03:00.000+01:00

Once we got the go-ahead to work on the series we all felt that the Camden Lock needed more work. The pitch model did the job well but it was rushed and we wanted to seize the opportunity to design the ship properly.

The sets were already being designed and built and the writers wanted us to see if we could bring some of the design elements from inside and repeat them outside. We took the basic shapes of the corridor, the cylinder and the octagonal shapes and used those to tweak the ship.

We came up with this basic design which everyone seemed to like. There was also a nod to the design classic that is the Liberator from Blake's 7, it overlayed a 10 sided shape onto cones and cylinders.

Now that we had our shapes blocked out I handed the model over to Andrew who did the lions share of detailing up the model and making it look fantastic! Andrew decided he would do the detail in the same way he would if he was scratch building this for real. He took a bunch of kit parts and modeled them in 3D! This allowed him to bu id up very realistic detailing.

Hyperdrive on DVD

2007-07-09T11:42:00.000+01:00

Nice cover, taken from Amazon.co.uk. Due in August.

Finally...

2007-07-04T09:34:00.000+01:00

... it's out there, the date for the new series of Hyperdrive is July 12th. So just over a week to go! There is a trailer currently doing the rounds on BBC 2 which features some of our work. You can see some photos from the set here.
And go here for some preview clips of episode 1!

Hyperdrive - Building the Camden Lock Part 1

2007-06-28T09:03:00.000+01:00

Well its not long now until Hyperdrive series 2 airs on BBC 2, so I thought it might be a good time to lay out the history and development of the main ship, the HMS Camden Lock.
It all began with the publication of a small sketch along with the original press release proclaiming the commissioning of the series. The sketch was drawn by Andy Riley, half of the writing team on the show. It was inspired by the Telecom Tower, a well known London landmark.
When I read the article I thought it was worth doing a 3D mock-up of the sketch, hoping it would get us noticed by the shows producer. Andrew Glazebrook was working in-house at the time and when he came into work that day he was thinking exactly the same thing. So Andrew started putting the basic shape together, using the sketch as his starting point. I then added some detail, (I used parts from a 3D model of the Millennium Falcon) and scattered more windows over its surface. I lit the scene and put a planet and starfield behind the ship.

I don't remember exactly how long we spent on all of this but I think it was only about a week in total. So we now had a basic flyby and some stills of the prototype ship, see the image to the right. This was enough to get some attention from the BBC, a meeting was arranged and, to cut a long story short, we eventually got the contract to produce the VFX for the show. During negotiations we kept producing new flybys and experimenting with the ships. We added in a large open hanger at the front, changed colours and textures and surface details. By the time we came to working on the series proper this model would be shelved and the design process started from scratch...

Showreel update

2007-05-25T16:08:00.000+01:00

Chris has just updated the showreel on our website - take a look here and click on the showreel button.

Farmageddon work continues

2007-05-23T15:05:00.001+01:00

Development work continues on Farmageddon - take a look at our production blog here.

Show me the money

2007-05-21T08:54:00.001+01:00

Guess what! I'm doing the Great North Run in September! I've never done anything like this before and could really do with all the support I can get. I'm raising money for Cancer research so why not sponsor me? Click on the link below to sponsor me online. Thanks!

Hartlepool Business Awards success

2007-05-18T15:48:00.000+01:00

Last night we scooped the Service award at the Hartlepool Business Awards. Thats me getting our prize from Hartlepool MP Iain Wright, (the stage was very high so the angle makes me look even more of a man-bear than I actually am!)

As well as getting the service award, (sponsored by TBI), we were also one of the three shortlisted for the Company of the Year Award. We had a great night and caught up with a few old friends.

Thanks to Dirk van de Werff for the picture.

You Tube old stuff

2007-04-27T09:22:00.000+01:00

I found these old jobs floating around on You Tube, you really can find almost anything there!

I also found this unused game cutscene from years ago. It's pretty awful looking back but at the time I enjoyed doing it. We had lots of problems like the game engine stripping out the animation keys and reducing them down so that we lost a lot of the fluid subtle motion. The running creature was originally going to be Shadowman, the hero of the game, but the powers that be had some issues with him being eaten!

Hyperdrive done!

2007-03-14T16:53:00.000Z

Finally we have finished Hyperdrive series 2!

343 shots completed. Its due to air in April so we'll be showing you lots of stuff from it as the time gets closer. For now enjoy some of our development work for Farmageddon here.

Still standing

2007-02-28T11:11:00.000Z

Sorry it's been a while since I updated either this blog or our Farmageddon blog. We've been busy completing Hyperdrive series 2 and haven't had time for anything else, (I've got to clear a month of emails next!)

Anyway we have only about 5 shots left to do now so the end is in sight. Things will get back to normal next week and I'll post some new stuff.

Cheers
Niel

Happy Birthday Ciarán

2007-02-05T09:17:00.000Z

The little fella is 30! Well done mate!

Watch 'Bonkers'!

2007-02-01T15:12:00.001Z

Tonight at 9pm, ITV 1.

RTS - The inside story

2007-01-29T17:32:00.000Z

As promised here is a little bit more detail on our RTS night. As last year we had booked a company table and, along with most of the team from work, we had invited Sam from Publicity Seekers and Curtis Jobling who was sluminig it with us by the drafty doors when he could have been in the boring VIP room!

The first two hours of the event was the awards ceremony, making sure everyone remained sober. Then came the fun bit, the food, drink and giggles. Curtis tried to amuse everyone with his finger puppet routine. It's something very dear to him and harks back to some difficult times living underground during the war. If you ever get to see this yourself it's best to humour him, as I am doing here.
Ciarán and Nick felt the best way to divert attention from Curtis' display was to amuse themselves (and others) with the table decorations. Some drinks died during their attempts at immortality. Of course we were all giddy after Matt won the animation award. As well as the glass RTS trophy he also got this tray from the University of Teesside who sponsored the catagory.
The food was a mixed bag, a sort of British tapas affair. It was much tastier having been spoon fed by the helpful Mr Jobling. (Few people know of his previous career as a wet nurse for the spider monkeys in Bristol Zoo.) Curtis also turned on the charm and signed a picture for Nick's daughter who is a huge 'Bob' fan - god bless you Mr Bling!

The night ended with lots of chatting, drinking and even some dancing! All in all not a bad old night!

RTS Award win

2007-01-22T15:19:00.000Z

Saturday night saw everyone from the North East TV scene decend on the Sage Gateshead for this years Royal Television Socety Awards. The animation award was taken home by our very own Matt Turner for his excellent work on both Hyerdrive and The Outsiders.
This is Matt being presented with his certificate and trophy by Claire Jennings (one of the producers of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit) and Derek Simpson (University of Teesside).
We'll have lots more on the event in the next few days!

...in with the new!

2007-01-08T14:44:00.000Z

Hello all and a big Happy New Year to you!!

First off, the answer to the last post was actually 423 artists! Yes, its hard to believe but its actually true. If you look closely you'll spot me, Matt, Ged, Glazy, Rich, Doug Chaing, Stan Winston and his entire crew, the Pixar campus hanging out of Glazys pocket, six job-seeking students, Richard Taylor sat at the back trying to hypnotise us all and Ciarán hanging out of the door. Nick took the picture.

Time for one from the vaults now. This was a pitch for a commercial for Poppets sweets. This was a rough and ready test to proof the process. We didn't get the job but its a fun little clip. Ciarán is our body model on this one! We covered his wolly hat with tracking markers and generally had a lark! The end result isn't locked to the liveaction exaclty but we felt this added some energy to the test, (thats our excuse and we are sticking to it!)

Mystery Machine

2006-12-09T10:58:00.000Z

How many VFX artists can you get inside Richard Dolan's travelling love shack?

Post your guess, winner gets an apple!

Outsiders VFX part 2 - Minus 12

2006-11-29T16:03:00.000Z

This shot was for the huge underground base known as Minus 12. In the real world it was a University building in Liverpool. The first four cublicles closest to camera were placed on the set along with various objects as set dressing. The rest was up to us to create. A white screen was used instead of blue or green because the limited space would have caused the relefected coloured light to spill back into the set. The glossy pillars would have been very tricky to deal with if they were showing up a lot of blue.

This picture shows Chris on set taking lighting and size reference pictures.

Once we were given the HD footage we were able to start building our set extension. A camera move with slight perspective change ruled out a 2D approach. Instead Chris built a partial 3D model and composited 2D and 3D elements to achieve the finished scene.

We also added in additional library actors to populate the far end of the corridor. There is even a large TV monitor with moving graphics at the far end but its so small it can hardly be seen.

Outsiders VFX part 1

2006-11-20T11:21:00.000Z

Well it seems that there will be no Outsiders series, which is a shame, but thats life! I thought it would be good to show some of our work on the show here and explain in more detail what was involved.
This first offering was a shot that required us to remove Liverpool docks and replace it with the North Sea.
This was achieved as a 2D composite, the first stage was to mask and remove the offending buildings. This was then replaced with a digital phot taken on location of the skyline. This was moved slightly to appear as if it was drifting on the wind. This was also overlayed onto the boat and foreground elements so that sea reflections matched in with the new sky. The final part was to create a new horizon where the sea met the sky. This was achieved by doing some photoshop work on several shots of open sea. when this was completed it was placed over the footage and the foreground elements masked out to appear back on top again.
I think the end result worked pretty well and hopefully nobody watching the show would even noice anything had been done to the shot.

Coincidence, serendipity… or maybe wash-day

2006-10-12T22:50:00.000+01:00

Last year we got some crew t-shirts from the BBC for our work on Hyperdrive. We supplied this wireframe image which they printed onto the t-shirts and gave out to the all and sundry, including us.

Today three of us (me, Matt and Nick) turned up to work with them on. You can imagine how we looked, (well you'll have to because we didn't take a picture!)

The Outsiders on TV tonight

2006-10-02T12:38:00.000+01:00

ITV 1, 9pm.

Ged's workbench part 1

2006-10-02T10:40:00.000+01:00

We don't get a lot of opportunity (yet) to do much practical sculpting, old school stuff which gets your fingers dirty! Ged has the most experience in this field and likes to keep his hand in. This is something he's been doing in his workshop just for fun!!

It's sculpted on a simple peg bust stand (basically a blank of wood with a blob of plaster bandage on top so the sculpt doesn't slip down. The head is lifesize so it's 3 feet in length! This sculpture took around 30-40 hours to complete and then went onto moulding and casting. (Hopefully we can persuade Ged to let us see more pics of this soon.)

The sculpt is based directly on the AVP alien head taking reference from some ADI (Amalgamated Dynamics, the guys responsible for the creatures in AVP, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection) display props which were on display at COMIC CON in San Diego. The teeth are super sculpey and the head in water based pottery clay,

Newcastle Journal

2006-10-02T10:33:00.000+01:00

Bored? Depressed? In need of a giggle? Why not pick up a copy of this mornings Newcastle Journal and read a rather nice article on Qurios! If you don't like it why not put the paper to good use! Cats love to pee on it, it burns really well and can be a great souce of fibre! Go on, you know you want to.

Musings of a media whore!

2006-09-28T13:06:00.000+01:00

What a strange week it’s been! We’ve had a lot of press coverage recently due to our work on The Outsiders. The whole experience has been a bit or a blur! We’ve been on local radio twice, (Radio Cleveland), and have just been filmed for Tyne Tees News. It should be going out some time this week, maybe even tonight!
I was in Liverpool yesterday morning for the start of our work on a new 6 part series. It was an early start, 7.30 on set so I travelled over the night before. Having found the hotel ok I then had to fight with Liverpool’s one-way system and numerous building works that my GPS had no idea were there. So I was a bit tired travelling back up to Teesside yesterday afternoon. I made it back in time for my weekly First Light session with Curtis Jobling and Clive Tonge, which is always fun to do. Straight after that was the aforementioned second radio interview with Bob Fischer on Radio Cleveland, (and a very nice bloke he is too.) They also had a Tyne based band on called Freerunner I think. They were very ‘wired’, but in a good way. I could imagine spending a fun night with those chaps.
These pics are of our Tyne Tees interview. Hopefully we won’t come over as being too nervous! They interviewed Matt and Nick about the work we’ve done and made me do a comedy ‘walk into the room’ shot. I was supposed to be talking to Ged about some of his work, somehow I managed to call him Ciaran, then Chris before remembering his real name! Oh well. So a weird week in all, tiring but extremely fun too. It’s better than being bored eh!

Spooks

2006-09-25T11:30:00.000+01:00

We recently helped out on a shot for Spooks, BBC 1's premiere spy show!

The shot required us to build and animate a computer model of a car door doing some serious damage to one of the Spooks actors.

We worked directly for Pepper Post who did the rest of the VFX work for the series; we supplied a CGI door, shattering glass, dust and debris. Pepper put the shot together, merging the before & after footage with our CGI elements. I think they did a superb job!

We went along to the shoot to gather lighting reference and other bits of key data to help us produce the finished animation. You can see some other images in a previous post here.

The episode went out last Sunday and worked very well. To see the finished animation have a look at the episode recap on the Spooks site here.

Blog problems solved (we hope)

2006-09-23T11:16:00.000+01:00

After many problems I've managed to put everything right, I think! The only way to fix this was to go back to blogspot hosting, so our address is now once again http://qurios.blogspot.com/

Sorry to all for the confusion! Please let me know if you spot any more problems.

Ongoing Blog problems

2006-09-22T08:41:00.000+01:00

We've had nothing but trouble since we moved the blog, most of the archived posts don't show their pictures. We are aware of the problems and are trying our best to fix them, but I think its going to take some time. I'll let you know when everything is working again.

Television Network Day

2006-09-21T15:05:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we went to the Television Networks event in Newcastle’s Centre for Life. The event was a chance for all the TV companies in the region to come together, exhibit and have meetings. This was our stand: It was all a bit last minute but we were pleased with how it came out in the end. We had a lot of good meetings, some of which we hope to take further in the near future.Tomorrow morning you can here us being interviewed on BBC Radio Cleveland, between 7 and 9am. Also pick up tomorrow’s Newcastle Journal to read about us!

Blog migration - update!!

2006-09-15T17:27:00.000+01:00

I think the blog migration has sorted itself out now - please let me know if you have any problems viewing images or logging in for comments.

Thanks
Niel

Outsiders Screening

2006-09-13T12:00:00.000+01:00

Last week we treked over to Liverpool for a preview screening of The Outsiders, the ITV 1 pilot we have been working on over the Summer. The screening was in a cinema, in other words we were watching a TV image blown up to cinematic size. The image held up very well, possibly because its all shot on HD, we felt like we were watching a British film. The show itself was very good, we all thought the whole thing held together very well and should do well on ITV 1. (Its going to be broadcast on October 3rd we believe).

We didn't see many famous people there, Chris was hoping to spot lots of Hollyoaks babes but he would be disappointed. Afterwards we hung around for an hour taking to other crew members and making the most of the free beers, (as I was driving I was on Cokes and they weren’t free!!). On our way back to the car we passed a small bar playing live music, a 3 piece jazz band. We went inside for a last drink and to listen to the music, in spite of Chris' protests. We were the youngest people in there by a good 3 decades and thats saying something! Nick was happy because they were showing the England match, with the sound down so as not to compete with the live band!!
One guy walked towards the bar fastening up his trousers, no one else seemed too concerned about this. Not long after that another older chap tripped on a chevron-coated step that looked like a Chris Foss installation and fell into a table of drinkers. But the atmosphere was good and we had a laugh!
The trip home was a bit long and tedious. We got back to Teesside at about 1.30 am. Even though I had driven I can not remember getting back!

Sauna Pitch

2006-09-05T11:15:00.000+01:00

This was a very quick mock-up for a possible commercial for a face mask. The image, produced by Nick Patrick, shows the face pack in the sauna. In the end the agency went for something different but it was fun to do and I think the image is really nice.

Fairy Models

2006-08-30T14:37:00.000+01:00

Here are the two angels from our fairy videos. The original models were built for the first video by Colin Morrison, a very talented chap who has freelanced for us in the past. The models were given a new set of textures by Chris Chatterton for the new video. We gave them extra detail and also tweaked the geometry quite a bit. Believe it or not the female had her breasts reduced a lot of the second outing!

Angel Eyes Pop Promo - part 1

2006-08-22T14:46:00.000+01:00

We have recently completed work on a new pop promo for a dance track called Angel Eyes. The video is a sequel of sorts to our Hungry Eyes video we produced in 2004. We used the same basic characters but did a bit or work on the mesh and re-textured them to a higher standard. This sequence was one of the first we produced, it shows the two fairys flying through a moon-lit sky. More shortly.

Updates...

2006-08-21T20:44:00.000+01:00

...coming shortly!

Toys!

2006-07-19T10:26:00.000+01:00

This is the corner of my desk. I love toys me!!

Adventures of a Stick - part 3

2006-07-17T15:21:00.000+01:00

The stripy Qurios Stick has been on its travels again - this time its dumped the old timer with no eyes and found a younger model to corrupt! Also on this adventure you can see is our chrome dome, (we need some names for these fellas, suggestions please!)

Anyway, any guesses where its at this time???

The answer to the last part was Liverpool Dock, or very close to there. We were over there for the shoot for a new ITV show, more details of which will follow shortly.

Yummy Yummy

2006-07-01T15:34:00.000+01:00

We often work on projects that, for one reason or another, don't get off the ground. This is one example of a potentially fun project that didn't get much further than the pitch. It was for a show called Yummy Yummy for Nickelodeon who had already commissioned and broadcast one series of the show. For a potential second series they asked for new ideas to widen its appeal. The shows producers, Jam Creative, are one of our first clients and we've continued to work for them for almost 5 years now. They asked us to produce some concept art of a potential animated host for the show. I really enjoyed doing these, it was a chance to get back to the sort of art I used work on in London, (I tried to pretend I was Gary Dunn for the day, no one does better soft cute characters than him in my opinion!)
Anyway, to cut a long story short the show never happened which is a shame as I think this character could have been great to animate!

Adventures of a Stick - part 2

2006-06-27T11:19:00.000+01:00

The adventures of our stripy stick continues! Last seen leaving the scene of an exploding car its now appeared near a derelict building. But where is it? And whats it up to?? Answers on a postcard!

A long time ago...

2006-06-22T13:06:00.000+01:00

Many moons ago - early 90's to be exact - I, along with Gordon Fraser, published a comic called Over The Edge. The third issue never made it as far as the printers - we just ran out of money! Well thanks to the wonders of the internet and on-demand printing I have been able to get the third issue out there. So if you fancy a laugh have a look at our shop here

Aardman Exhibition

2006-06-19T14:23:00.000+01:00

Speaking of Aardman here are some pictures I took at an exhibiton of their work I stumbled across in a place called Magna in Sheffield. It was an old steel mill thats been made into a childrens attraction - think Science Museum meets Terry Gillian and you are not far off!

Aardman CBE's

2006-06-19T14:13:00.000+01:00

Well done to Peter Lord and David Sproxton who have just been given CBE's. Full story here. They deserve all the awards and credit coming to them!

Radio Ga Ga

2006-06-12T11:32:00.000+01:00

If anyone is interested I'm going to be on Radio Clevland at 4pm this afternoon.

Richie Pickle

2006-06-06T09:35:00.000+01:00

Last year when we were working on Hyperdrive we were lucky enough to get Richard Dolan to do some concept work for us. Richard is a world class artist who has worked at Weta, Hensons, Double Negative and numerous other companies. He has more than one feature film credit under his belt. I have known Richard for about 17 years, at the time he was a comic artist and I aspired to be one! We met in a comic shop in Middlesbrough and have remained friends ever since. Richard was instrumental in getting me to Uli Meyer where I worked for 5 years. This is the first time since we both worked at Uli’s that we’ve been able to do something together.

Richard designed the two aliens we did for the series, this one is Cthulos.

Richard produced several quick sketches to determine which direction the writers wanted to take things, then he worked up a more finished pencil drawing.

After some feedback Richard took things in a new direction.

This was approved and worked up into a more polished pencil drawing.

...and then polished some more!

Richard also created additional sketches to help with the model building process

Later he produced this colour image.

We owe Rich a big thanks for his work on the show, hopefully we can get him back for series 2!

Season 4 intro

2006-05-15T12:59:00.001+01:00

I promised to show you some of our work on the Blake's 7 DVDs. The last collection is now out and unfortunatly they didn't use the intro we created for it. This seems to have been because of some sort of cummunication problem but I honestly don't know.
The intro they did use was a test piece we did about 4 years ago - it was never really intended to be seen, certainly not the version used as it had a few problems in it, such as glows on lights appearing through objects. Still, I'm not losing sleep over it!
The unused intro is based upon the events in episode 1 on the boxed set; the arrival of the Scorpio and the ruins of the Liberator. This was a shot never seen in the series but its mentioned in dialogue.

New Website live

2006-05-10T17:29:00.000+01:00

Our new website has just gone live. You can find it here

Adventures of a Stick - part 1

2006-05-10T12:38:00.000+01:00

Nick and I spent a fun day yesterday in London on a shoot for one of the BBC's bigger shows. As you can see we got a front row seat on some explosive action!!

And here is Nick pretending he is on the Tube!

Blakes 7 series 4 DVD

2006-04-25T11:44:00.000+01:00

Blakes 7 Series 4 is now out on DVD. Qurios produced the animated menu segments for this. This project has been a long drawn out affair and in the coming days I'll put up some information about what we've produced and some links to work not used. Its been a fun project to work on but seems like such a long time ago now - we finished on it well over a year ago! More soon.

Hot Air!

2006-04-18T14:27:00.000+01:00

Back in February we went to the Royal Television Society Dinner, held in Gateshead. As well as having a really good night Qurios was highly commended in the category of Motion Graphic Company of the Year. By the end of the night Chris decided to attack the helium balloons - that’s pretty much our level!