Progress

It's 1888 in old London town, England. The internet exists, but not as we know it because the whole thing runs on steam. Jack The Ripper is on the loose and a lonesome but brilliant steam byte hacker who goes by the name, Oscar Lerwill, is closing in on the killer's identity by discovering clues on the web.

Progress is the result of a huge amount of dedication from producer/directors Nicole Wright and Armando Saldanamora who brought together a fantastic team of filmmaking artisans. Coco Visual was ecstatic to be a part of this team.

Coco Visual was approached in order to provide online editing and VFX for the first series. The bulk of the work consisted of compositing actors filmed on green screen into a Victorian cyber space that was powered by steam. Most of the 2d was handled in Adobe After Effects and 3d VFX elements were produced using Maya.

Taking advantage of Maya's complex fluid solver, elaborate steam effects were created to convey atmosphere and stylize the dynamic viewing portals reinforcing the fact that in this universe everything really did run on steam. The most ambitious steam effects were developed for the Melt Down sequence in Episode 3 when the entire internet comes under attack from a virus resulting in a catastrophic boiler explosion. Maya's fluid solver was also implemented in creating a particle effect during the Melt Down to make it appear that the websites were actually melting from the disruption.

Editing was handled in Adobe Premiere and dailies were hosted online for the client to view via Coco Visual's Rush Viewer.