The Viking Ship Burial at Meols

When we first discussed this shot, it was clear there were many possibilities, including some outlandishly spectacular ones that would have required a lottery win to pay for them!

First, it is not clear whether the ship was deliberately buried, or simply dragged from the sea and left, becoming naturally buried over the centuries. That said, there is circumstantial evidence to suggest it was deliberate.

So, we broke the idea down into key components: a ship at sea, the coast and marshland, a small settlement, and then of course the derelict ship. We debated whether to show the ship buried, part-buried or even as a cutaway showing how it is now. But when we saw a picture of the type of ship it was, and realised the strong and powerful profile it has from certain angles, we chose to show it simply dragged from the sea and left, so it's ambiguous whether it's waiting for burial or simply abandoned.

 
 


Phil Hirst, producer and director of 'Lost Treasures', brought us a postcard of one of these ships from his filming trip to The Viking Ships Museum in Oslo, Norway.

The picture on the left shows a wireframe screengrab of our 3D model. Computer models like this are often started from a series of guides, called splines. In the picture, the two white lines are the two primary splines for our ship model. The complex curves and surfaces of the ship are entirely derived from these two splines.

Curious to think that a 3D computer model of the Meols ship is built along very similar lines to what the Viking shipwrights would have done.


The picture below shows an overview of the 3D scene we set up to achieve the shot we wanted. If you place your mouse cursor over it you will see labels explaining what all the components are.

 


You may notice that the model of the derelict ship, once in the scene, is far bigger than it would be in reality. This is what's called 'forced perspective'. It's a very old technique used to give a sense of extreme depth or size over a much shorter distance. Used to great effect in the 1959 film 'Darby O'Gill and the Little People' and more recently 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy.

Ironically, even with computer modelling where you can build a scene fully to scale (and often we do), sometimes it's a trick that just works to get the effect you need.

   

Finally for now, run your mouse cursor over the image on the left. You will see a before and after camera-eye view, showing the wireframe models in their raw state, and then textured, lit and rendered.

We'll be covering all of these things as more shots unfold in the coming weeks, but for now, click the link below to see the final shot.

Click Here for The Final Shot