The new campaign for The Open University features two TV commercials to introduce viewers to their 'World of Inspiring Learning'

Both commercials feature spectacular scenes of huge whales, bloodcells, jet engines, planets and dozens of other fascinating objects from all fields of learning. The world is fully CGI, with a team of a dozen digital artists contributing dazzling imagery.

The three-day greenscreen shoot produced by Matte Black Films was directed by John Alexander, working to a treatment written by VFX Supervisor Matt Wood. Also guiding the shoot was an animatic, created in Maya 2011 using the Camera Sequencer, a feature that enables non-linear editing and animating in the same project space.

Greenscreen plates passed to Final Cut Pro for multiple offline edit sessions, and to PFTrack and Syntheyes for camera Tracking.

3D models and environments were modelled in Maya and Mudbox. All were animated in Maya and rendered in mental ray. Custom pipeline software performed automatic translation of data between Maya and NukeX, including cameras and geometry to allow compositors to work directly within the same 3D space as the 3D animators.

Compositing and finishing was led by Simon Blackledge. NukeX composites were conformed and graded in After Effects.