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?The team at Match Frame did a superb job of bringing ancient Egypt?s most stunning structures back to life,? says Christopher Cassel who produced, wrote and directed the show for KPI. ?Their 3D modeling capability is unmatched -- I?ve never seen anything else that comes close in terms of being photoreal, crisp, detailed and believable. And their blueprint-style animations were integral to making complex engineering principles digestible for the average viewer.?
?Since we worked on ?Rome? we had a good idea of the direction the Egypt show would take and how to push our work further creatively and technically,? says Match Frame vice president/director of computer animation Stephanie Schneider who executive produced the project. ?The chance to travel back in time to witness the building of the pyramids and experience this extraordinary civilization along the Nile was something we couldn?t resist.?
But time travel also poses challenges. ?With this project we went further back in history than ?Rome? and had even less information available to help us recreate dozens of venues in Egypt,? notes senior animator Jeff Stoyer. ?For some of the sites, like the Dier-El Bahari Gardens, there was virtually nothing to go on -- just small written clues and a knowledge of what plants are indigenous to the area. We did our best to make our recreations as accurate as possible, but in the end we often had to rely on the artist?s vision of what a site may have looked like.?
Match Frame?s full 3D animations of temples, palaces and fortresses, crafted by Stoyer, Deane Schwalenberg and Lloyd Staples, are alive with vibrantly-colored, colossal statues and intricately-carved hieroglyphics. Viewers tour the huge temple of Abu Simbel, carved into the rock; the pharaoh Akhenaten?s North Palace where a beautiful, serene colonnade borders a pool guarded by cat statuary; the small Aten Temple; the enormous Dier-El Bahari Gardens edifice terraced with plants; and the ancient Egyptian military?s imposing, walled Buhen Fort glimpsed
in an aerial view stretching alongside the Nile.
A number of animations, in different styles, trace the evolution of the pyramid. The Saqqara step pyramid, which rises in increments to the top, is shown in a blueprint animation featuring a wireframe-like layout in three dimensions mapped with a papyrus texture in a warm, earthy palette; all blueprint animations have this consistent look. The exterior animation reveals the Saqqara pyramid?s construction technique while a subterranean view unveils its network of tunnels and underground chambers.
The Bent pyramid, which almost achieved true pyramid status, and the Red pyramid, the first successful smooth-angled pyramid, are depicted in full 3D animations with crowd simulations. The animators mixed real actors and live-action elements in the foreground and midground with hundreds of digital workers in the background toiling on ramps facing the structures with cut
stone.
Three animations reveal the construction of the Huni pyramid at Meydum: an aerial blueprint animation detailing its layers, another aerial cutaway exposing the building materials, and a completed view of its smooth angles and surface. Finally, an aerial 3D animation showcases the pristine Great Pyramid at Giza, the pyramid best known in the western world, set in its desert plateau.
More blueprint animations illustrate the Tomb of Seti the First depicting how a complex network of tunnels lead to hieroglyphic-filled underground chambers.
The Match Frame animators also created a series of animations for the Sadd Al-Kafara Dam, one of the world?s earliest-known dams. A blueprint animation details its construction close up; dramatic full 3D animations show the dam?s wall springing leaks then breached by the rushing waters of the Nile. Aerial 3D animations showing the fertile Nile valley and its farmland are followed by the views of the same landscape inundated by the annual Nile floods.
Animator Josh Puente crafted the map animations which fly over specific regions and home into icons of the particular landmark viewers will see in the animations described above.
The Match Frame team employed Softimage XSI for 3D modeling and animation, Adobe Photoshop for texture mapping and photo enhancement, and the compositing tool within XSI along with FX Tree for final compositing.
Senior graphics designer Bill Hamilton, working in Adobe After Effects, designed the show?s title sequence which gives viewers a flavor of ancient Egypt and the wonders to come. He combined blueprint animation elements and 2D graphics with typography that partially draws on the screen then is revealed in full as a sand transition wipes on the show?s title.
In addition, Hamilton created the show?s legacy graphics, such as bumpers introducing a pharaoh's reign; transitional elements, such as light flares and hieroglyphic-eye wipes; and lower-thirds which combine type with still elements and backgrounds.
Hamilton also designed title sequences for the 13 episodes in the ?Engineering an Empire? series in a consistent blueprint animation style.
?Match Frame?s work on ?Egypt: Engineering an Empire? is a fitting follow up to the magic they worked for us last year on ?Rome: Engineering an Empire,? which won a primetime Emmy for Outstanding Nonfiction Special in large part thanks to their colossal efforts,? KPI?s Cassel concludes.
At The History Channel, the executive producer for ?Egypt: Engineering an Empire? is Dolores Gavin. At KPI, Vincent Kralyevich, Kristine Sabat and Bill Hunt were executive producers; Preeya Jensen associate producer; and Jennifer Honn editor.
Match Frame, with branches in San Antonio and Austin, is a postproduction company that offers creative and practical solutions. Their best people, ideas and tools are available for turnkey services for anything from pre-production creative development and shoot supervision through effects execution and editorial integration.
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