Building the Rig

Whilst working at UNIT, we were contacted about working on season 1 of the The Rig, a sci-fi drama set aboard a functioning oil rig. We were asked to bid on building one part of the massive construction as shown in the iamge above, Initally we agreed to take on the legs of the main structure (shown on the left) and the entirety of the second structure (shown on the rig in the image above) but it quickly became apparent we were the best suited team to build the entire construction due to our efficent approach of modular building and proceedural shaders, and so in the end we build everything except the lifeboats, crane and the very top deck. 

Our approach was simple - spend the first month of the project, extracting repeating sections from the scans (shipping containers, pipes, lights, walkways) and then recyling those across the entire structure as instances. Although our approach was efficient internally, we had to make some caviats to other studios, and so in the final instance, all the uvs were laid out into one enormous map and the shaders were baked down, so that we could share textures and model files. 

I opperated as Asset Supervisor, mostly working on the organisation and structure of our approach as well at regular interactions with the client. I also bulid the legs myself. 

overall we build the entire rig in a 13 week period, model and texture, which is staggering.