For nearly four billion years the continents were a lifeless wasteland, while the seas teemed with life. Pixeldust's Emmy-winning series Ancient Oceans for CuriosityStream dives into that world of bizarre creatures and monstrous predators.
Long before anything walked on land, Earth’s oceans were full of wild, wondrous creatures and the most monstrous predators the planet has ever seen. Ancient Oceans, produced for CuriosityStream, tells that story of life, death and life reborn through a captivating series of CGI-animated sequences.
The series won three Emmy awards, for production, animation and editing, and shows the full range of production services Pixeldust offers. It was delivered in 4K on a real-time GPU rendering pipeline that let the team take shots from concept to completion faster than ever before.
Bringing prehistoric oceans to life in CGI
The team set out to make an immersive series that transports viewers to the time when bizarre life flourished in the shallows and gigantic sea monsters ruled. Pixeldust put this world on display with long camera moves that float through immersive 3D environments, taking viewers on a tour of an unfamiliar yet unforgettable world.
Animated timelines and transitions connect the creatures to the forces that shaped them, from shifting continents like Gondwana to the asteroid impacts that ended one age of life and opened the next.
To deliver the series in 4K, Pixeldust built an innovative, lightning-fast real-time GPU rendering pipeline using Unity HDRP, Unreal Engine and RTX technology. More than 80% of the CG shots, including shading, lighting and compositing in 4K, were completed from start to finish on a single machine.
It marked a key milestone for the studio, making it possible to take an animation from concept to completion faster than ever before.
