Eurofighter

What we did.

Aircraft replacement and CG integration.

The technical brief was straightforward and demanding: the configurations shown couldn't be filmed in real life. Real Typhoons were flown for the live action plates, then digitally replaced shot by shot with fully CG aircraft carrying the configurations the film needed to show. Every shot a complete object track, paint-out, CG build, lighting match, and comp.

Most of the work happened in three stages.

Tracking and paint. Object-tracking aircraft moving at speed across complex Lake District terrain — variable lighting, motion blur, atmospheric haze — and cleanly painting out the original plate aircraft so the CG replacement could sit in exactly the same space, on exactly the same trajectory, with exactly the same camera relationship.

Build and render.A detailed CG Typhoon, modelled and textured to hold up under close inspection, with the loadout configurations required by the brief. Built in Cinema 4D and rendered in Arnold, using full AOV passes for comp flexibility.

Integration. Matching CG aircraft to live action plates is where these projects live or die. Lighting match, contact with sky and ground, atmospheric perspective, motion blur, lens characteristics, grain — all of it had to read as one image. Comp finished in Nuke, with simulation work for environmental elements (explosions, smoke, ground effects) layered in where the script called for it.

The Lake District plates gave the film genuine scale and weight — real terrain at real speed, with the CG aircraft carrying the action. Delivered shot by shot for the trade show edit.