Over 1280 VFX shots were produced for train-based drama

The Flying Colour Company (TFCC) produced over 1280 VFX shots for BBC drama Nightsleeper. 

The Euston Films production, which premiered on BBC1 on 15 September and is now available through iPlayer, follows characters Joe and Abby as the overnight train (Heart of Britain) from Glasgow to London Victoria faces cyber-hackings, attempted shootings, and explosions. Jamie Stone and John Hayes directed, Kat Harwood exec directed, Jonathan Curling series produced, and Nick Leather wrote the 6x60 series, with Wendy Wright as head of production plus Sarah Moody and Jeannine Dowling-Jones as post supervisors.

Flying Colour Company managing director Simon Wilkinson said, “When I read the script in October 2022, I loved it and knew immediately that we really wanted to be onboard for such an exciting show. Even though the story was about an imaginary train flying through the night toward various cities and ultimately London, I don’t think we really appreciated how large a project it would be. 

“Nightsleeper is one of the most ambitious CG productions we’ve ever tackled at TFCC. From the very start, our collaboration with Euston Films during pre-production was instrumental in bringing the Heart of Britain (HoB) train to life. Our creative director Dom Thomson and I had various meetings and conversations with production regarding the project as a whole and we were given generous amounts of input so we could be a truly collaborative part of the production team. We worked closely with the production designer, art department, producers, writer and directors to assist with key decisions to help ensure Nightsleeper was a success.

“There were many visits to locations and a lot of onset VFX supervision by Dom, and, of course, a good few night shoots involved. In total we created 90 assets, including the Heart of Britain which consisted of a locomotive with 6 unique carriages in multiple states of damage; the freight train, an additional locomotive pulling 10+ tank wagons; a police helicopter, environments, trackside furniture, station elements and CG environments consisting of railway tracks, overhead gantries, signs and vegetation, signals, atmos, explosions and liquids.”

There was also specific graphics work to recreate the London Victoria train boards and then make them distorted and disfigured as the “Driver” hacked the HoB and National Rail system.

Keeping the action exciting as well as photo-realistic, plus making sure the visuals were consistent throughout, were the biggest challenges for the team. TFCCC head of VFX Fabio Vona, explained, “We had to seamlessly blend multiple 3D and 2D VFX elements and techniques, including comping plates from different sources, cameras, and locations and working with on-set screen projectors. On top of that, we tackled complex fluid and particle effects like oil spills, explosions, sparks and smoke, all within CG environments. It was about making sure all these different elements worked together in a cohesive and totally believable way.”

He added that the train itself was a particular challenge, “Real trains have a layer of protective coating over their livery, making the body quite reflective, especially at night. For the trains to really feel integrated into the plates, this meant that we not only had to create the trains but also completely digitally reconstruct the environments in which they were placed. Using the onset data we captured, we were able to build digital twins of Glasgow, Motherwell and Victoria stations, meaning we could put the trains into their actual setting, allowing for more realistic lighting, reflections and a better integrated final look.”

There was also, “a big sequence at the end of episode two, where the Heart of Britain crashes into a freighter, causing one of its wagons to tip over and explode - it’s a pivotal moment in the story. This sequence presented a major technical challenge with the number of complex simulations that were needed: the explosion, shockwaves, destruction, debris, fluids, flames, sparks, dust, foliage sims - you name it. Everything had to work in harmony, individually art-directed and put together to achieve the final look - all within a fully CG environment.”

To deal with such a high volume of shots, TFCC introduced a streamlined approval system to review each stage of production, minimising the need to redo shots from scratch, as well as building a variety of custom in-house tools to help manage the submission and assembly of shots, automating repetition while also maintaining consistency between shots and sequences.