HISTORY | ROOTS
Over Memorial Day weekend History launched its much anticipated four-night event revisiting one of the most talked-about TV series of our time: Roots.
Our goal was to create an emotional, memorable teaser that treated the content with historical accuracy. Based on authentic schematics of actual slave ships, we created a 3’ x 4’ ink illustration on paper. The practical illustration became the backbone of our animation with 3D fluids added to simulate ink flowing from a pen.
PromaxBDA Design Awards Winner
GOLD – On-Air Illustration
PROCESS
Initial styleframes illustrating our ink on paper concept.
Reference for slave ship illustration is based upon original document from circa 1788.
Inking style exploration and slave ship pre-ink sketch.
Final inked drawing. This was scanned on a drum scanner at very high resolution to maintain the hand-drawn characteristics.
Completed "Know His Name" artwork with ruler showing the sheer scale of these hand-inked illustrations.
CG exploration of ink droplet fluid simulation.
"Roots" logo development. 1. Liquid Ink. 2. Line Illustration. 3. Final execution.
