Event Recap: The making of Doctor Who’s 60th Anniversary Special ‘The Star Beast’

EVELINA DALIN  | LEAD VFX ARTIST 

Evelina has worked across a number of hit shows including the celebrated Doctor Who special, ‘The Star Beast’, bringing to life complex CG assets and FX sequences. Other credits include Netflix shows such as The Crown and The Sandman, where she brought her expertise in lighting to craft highly technical effects including fire tendrils as well as a series of photorealistic cats which informed the painterly animated bonus episode, ‘A Dream Of A Thousand Cats’.

Evelina has just finished working on the upcoming season of Amazon Prime’s, The Boys, releasing later this year.

Prior to joining Untold Studios, Evelina was a 3D artist at The Mill for three years.

AIMEE WESTLEY – LEAD VFX ARTIST

Aimee has played a key role in many of Untold Studios’ biggest projects to date. She helped to bring to life the celebrated, ‘Feel Good Travel’ for Avanti West Coast trains, featuring a fully CG, photorealistic tortoise, as well as the VES winning Super Bowl spot ‘Push It’ for Frito-lay. Aimee also worked on the Netflix hit show ‘The Sandman’, crafting painterly, 3D animated cats for the eagerly anticipated bonus episode, ‘A Dream of a Thousand Cats’ as well as the Doctor Who special, ‘The Star Beast’.

Prior to joining Untold Studios, Aimee worked on high-profile commercials and shows including the CGI remake of ‘The Lion King’, as well as ‘Mog the Cat’ for Sainsbury’s and ‘Black Mirror’.

When creating the Meep, the team were able to reference the original comic books in their designs. It was brought to life through a unique blending between live puppetry from set (a distinctive characteristic of the Doctor Who franchise) with CG enhancements created by the Untold team. The result? A realistic and seamless transition between puppetry and CG in the same scene (and at times combined in one frame) that really honored the voice acting of legendary Miriam Margolyes.

Many questions were asked during our Q&A about work opportunities for both upcoming and established talent. One key and recurring theme we heard, especially true of Untold Studios’ approach, was the way in which talent now move often between Film, Commercial, Television and everything in between. The creative team are no longer sequestered to one type of work – instead moving fluidly between.