One Strange Rock

Framestore was proud to work with National Geographic to showcase mankind’s home environment in the broadcaster’s global event series, One Strange Rock. Told across ten episodes, the series from executive producers Darren Aronofsky and Jane Root saw eight astronauts guide viewers through some of Earth’s extraordinary stories, told from their very unique perspectives.

Effects Simulation

Visual Effects Supervisor

Environments

a luminous planet earth with text 'one strange rock' in the centre

The creative studio was approached to manage the VFX for the series in its entirety, from creative through production.One Strange Rock features both live-action photography and visual effects to bring seemingly impossible images to the screen. It balances micro and macro levels of detail throughout, with VFX working to illustrate scientific phenomena in dazzling style.

The show’s biggest challenge, lay in the complexity of the brief; how to visualise what’s invisible to the human eye, and give shape to scientific concepts beyond everyday understanding. Framestore worked extensively on concept art, to form a tangible base for the beautiful organic imagery.

The resulting VFX demonstrate the likes of diatoms, which explain how oxygen sustains life in an underwater environment; and a wide-ranging sequence showing the Earth’s magnetosphere, pulling from the liquid core of the planet all the way to outer space. Specialist photography by Chris Parks, Tim Shepherd and many other talents provided a library of organic textures shot at high speed, which were also layered into the CG work to give even greater realism and depth.

a red gaseous nebula in the space of an iris with the text 'from darren aronofsky' in the centre

Framestore’s Design Studio created the titles for the series; read more about their work here. Framestore also partnered once more with McCann NY to realise an accompanying immersive viewing experience, showcased in NYC in the week prior to One Strange Rock’s release.