In November last year I had the opportunity to work with some of the original Thunderbirds puppets on the latest Halifax commercial. This is the fourth in a series for Halifax which has involved working closely with The Mill to help bring fictional characters to life and place them in the real world. The series began with Top Cat followed by Flintstones, Scooby Doo and now, Thunderbirds

Images: FBFX Ltd. (Taken from ‘The making of Thunderbirds, Halifax. The Mill)

My role on the project was to work with the London based company FBFX and help capture the puppets and props using photogrammetry. This involved simultaneously shooting 100+ DSLR cameras pointed at the puppet, then processing the images through Reality Capture to digitally recreate the model. Once all the puppets had been reconstructed into 3D models, we sent the scan data over to The Mill where they would repurpose and optimise the models so that they were fit to use within their own pipeline.

See full breakdown below.

For anyone who might be more interested in the practical side of this project, there is also a behind-the-scenes that focuses more on the live action capture and the role of the puppeteers (see below).