Intricate VFX work on ITV drama series, including the creation of an authentic looking murky digital environment under Loch Ness

The Loch

Client ITV 

VFX Milk

Brief For the six-part serial killer drama, create an underwater sequence showing a dead body, floating upright, with its heart ripped out.

How it was done The sequence was shot on moving Arri Alexa cameras in an underwater green screen tank, with an actor and a prop, the curling stone. To create the digital environment under Loch Ness, Milk built a deep and murky ground terrain using crud and bubble effects in Maya. This was particularly important for a travelling shot where the camera dives down to the Loch bed. The team also created a digital hole in the dead body’s chest. For this, a 3D model was textured and tracked onto the actor and then composited in. Milk created 13 VFX shots in total using Maya and Nuke. The VFX supervisor was JC Deguara with Natalie Reid as VFX producer, Ben Pickles doing the compositing and Collette Nunes editing. Phil Deguara produced the underwater shoot. The DoP was Mark Silk.

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