Avenue 5 Behind the Scenes

Avenue 5 Behind the Scenes

Avenue 5 is a science fiction comedy television series created by Armando Iannucci that premiered on HBO in the United States on January 19, 2020. It stars Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad in lead roles as captain and owner of a fictional interplanetary cruise ship Avenue 5. In February 2020, HBO renewed the series for a second season.

Avenue 5 Title Design by The Morrison Studio

Avenue 5 – one of HBO’s popular shows streaming during this lockdown time. Main title sequence by us at The Morrison Studio.

Avenue 5 VFX Title Production by Lexhag VFX

Avenue 5 is the latest big-budget comedy show from HBO and Armando Iannucci, set in the depths of space with Hugh Laurie as the Captain of the ship. A stellar cast with massive sets and tonnes of VFX; it’s unique to see such production values for a comedy series.

The Morrison Studio and Lexhag VFX worked together closely to create the opening title sequence for every episode. The Morrison Studio created the idea and provided Art Direction while Lexhag looked after the production of the sequence. Several ideas were fleshed out before the team settled on the final version.

Delivered in UHD HDR, the sequence was rendered using Arnold and composited in Black Magic’s Fusion Studio. A solid workflow was designed from the storyboard to animatic and final renders to comp. Particular focus was spent on the surface quality of the gold letters and the layering of light flares on the V itself and broadly across the image. Everything was generated in Fusion with only CG letters and a ship supplied into the comp. A nifty added extra was introduced into the finessing where we imported the lettering animation as an Alembic and created some relight tricks built using Fusions 3D environment, utilising some smart shader set-ups and additional lights. A technique that enabled us to control edges, without having to re-render the CG lettering.

Avenue 5 Visual Effects by Nviz Studio

Nviz are thrilled to provide VFX and Graphics for Armando Iannucci’s highly anticipated space comedy.

Avenue 5 Visual Effects by Cinesite

Set 40 years in the future, Avenue 5 follows the captain and crew of a luxury space cruise ship as they navigate disgruntled passengers and unexpected events after experiencing technical difficulties onboard. Cinesite in London and Montreal are both delivering VFX on this series.

Avenue 5 Visual Effects by Outpost VFX

HBO’s newest comedy series sees Hugh Laurie venturing into space. Avenue 5, Armando Iannucci’s sci-fi debut, is set 40 years in the future on a space cruise.

When technical issues stop the cruise from returning to Earth, the staff of the Avenue 5 must work together to calm disgruntled passengers and navigate safely back to the planet.

After previously working on HBO’s Watchmen and Catherine the Great, Outpost VFX is once again thrilled to work with HBO on such an incredible new show.

For more information, please visit at Avenue 5