Titles/Openers - TV
Beyond Endurance
Revenant
Animation studio Revenant has transformed one of history’s most epic tales of endurance into art with our title sequence for conceptual show, Beyond Endurance.
Taking inspiration from the legendary adventures of Ernest Shackleton, the sequence is stylistic, intriguing and punchy, introducing viewers to a thrilling new animated world. Conceptualised and delivered from start to finish by the Revenant team, the piece is also a testament to our studio’s creative vision, and our ability to convert this vision into something tangible, unexpected, and beautiful.
Though the explorer Ernest Shackleton led many voyages, one of his most infamous- and the one in question here- involved a narrow escape from disaster. In a bid to cross the Antarctic continent on foot, Shackleton and a crew of 27 set sail to see this dream through in August 1914. They were plunged into a life-or-death situation when their ship, Endurance, was trapped in pack ice just eighty-five miles from their destination, leaving the crew stranded on an ice floe. Ultimately, the struggle lasted for twenty months before the crew was saved.
Despite being a renowned story of human survival, it has never been brought to life through animation- a gap now filled our Glasgow-based studio.
Devised by Revenant’s bespoke, in-house motion design crew, the team used Cinema 4D and Adobe After Effects to experiment with technique, culminating in a distinctive 2.5D style formulated specifically for the sequence. Strong swathes of colour wash over shots in jagged movements akin to a biting storm. Head of Motion Design Ross Sneddon shares:
“When we settled on the Shackleton story, we wanted the visuals to reflect the harsh, brutal landscape that the crew endured. The mentality of these men is reflected in the sequence’s composition and surreal moments. We explored several different approaches, before settling on a more expressive and hand touched feel. This helped distil a human touch to the story, while also acting as a vehicle to drive the narrative. We achieved this through true collaboration between artists, allowing them to bring their own expression to the piece.”
CrewClient: Revenant
Supervising Producer: Sean Kelly
Senior Production Coordinator: Maggie McCabe
Junior Production Coordinator: Liam Pert
Art Director: Ross Sneddon
Lead MGFX Artist: Rafael Bichalho
MGFX Artist: Emily Thomson
Junior MGFX Artist: Christian Oroz Storm
Character Modelling, Texturing and Shading: Jacq Burns
Software
Cinema 4D, After Effects