Well, it’s here. After months of speculation and anticipation, the juggernaut that is Doctor Who is back on our screens with Peter Capaldi taking up the mantle of the charismatic timelord. 

23 August saw Deep Breath, the 80-minute opening episode of series eight, simulcast and screened in cinemas globally as Capaldi made his debut under the direction of Ben Wheatley.

The main villain of the episode was the sinister Half-Face Man, played by Peter Ferdinando. The visual effects needed for this and others seen throughout the episode were created by London VFX house Milk.

As the episode was being released cinematically, one of the challenges was to work on a TV budget to produce high-quality close-up shots fit for the big screen.

The 40-strong team replaced one entire side of the actor’s head in 87 of the 117 digital shots produced. They created the CG hollow cage-like structure which makes up the missing half of the character’s head as well as the visible internal workings which, with its moving cogs, pistons and rotating parts, look like the inside mechanical workings of a clock.

It was a drawn-out and exacting process. Amy Felce led the match move team as they tracked the face replacement, starting with a 360 degree scan of Ferdinando’s head then creating a 3D model of it. The mesh helped to create markers as reference points to the natural head shape, which was further aided by prosthetic make-up masking the missing side of his head.

More tracking markers were added the top hat that Half-Face Man wore, which were set to track the bridge of his nose and the centre of his forehead so that his rotations could be precisely matchmoved.

Once all this was in place, the Milk team could accurately line up the 3D model to the live head. They also built a full-scale physical model for use on set as both a lighting reference and for a small number of actual shots.

A fully automated rigging system was built for this, then each shot animated to add movement detail and also to line up the CG eye with the actor’s movement and eyeline.

A major part of the spec was to make sure the Half-Face Man was lit very precisely, matching it exactly to the on-set lighting environment. This was achieved by photo-scanning the various environments in which he appeared, creating a virtual set.

Next, the roto prep team faced the behemoth challenge of cleaning up all the tracking markers, removing the prosthetic make-up, creating a hollow head and finally building up the missing bits of the hat and collar – something that had to be carried out on every single shot.

The compositing team then worked in each environment to finalise the look and accuracy of Half-Face man’s CG head.

If you watched the episode, you will also have seen the T-Rex – which had to be the same size as Big Ben – in the opening sequence along with the Victorian London cityscape which included CG builds of the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and St Paul’s. These, along with wide fly-over views of the Thames, were also created by the Milk team.

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