N8 2002-2003 Recreation

After many weeks of the researching, planning, building, demolishing and rebuilding, it's finally here - Studio N8 as it looked between April 2002 and October 2003.

Firstly, the headline shot - something I hope bears more than a passing rememblance to this publicity image.


Here are some more general shots.



The graininess is largely a consequence of putting the ceiling on, so I've done two renders of the wide shot - one with ceiling and one without. Although the 'without' shot is less grainy, I personally prefer the 'with' shot.


And finally, here is an overview of the entire set.


I haven't included cameras etc. for now, as I wanted to focus on the set itself first. Though, zooming around the set in SketchUp, it has occured to me how much this set was short-changed by the use of largely static camera shots. Because the set has so much depth to it, panning shots would have looked incredible.

PS A big thank you to those who helped me with my queries about the set and found some amazing behind the scenes shots and to Bail for allowing me to use his superb recreation of the era's graphics for the side screens.

I am speechless. This is absolutely incredible. Bravo!

Truly amazing work - thank you so much for the effort put into this. As you stated, it was great to see such a collaborative research effort across the forum as well!

Exceptional work - and a lot more realistic than I could have ever imagined it.

Very well done!

Good work. But what’s with the random pattern over the render?

(Picks jaw up from the floor)

Brilliant job DTV, I don't mind the grainyness to include the ceiling. Overall a breathtaking recreation. And oh by the way, WOW! Well done. Can't wait to see what is on the horizon.

Wow, this is absolutely fantastic! I also love the grainyness because a lot of BBC clips on Youtube from around the introduction of Gill Sans to the removal of the website URL on Two's idents are extremely low-quality, and this could probably pass as an actual shot of the desk if shared on social media. Good job!

What renderer do you use, can we get a better one and try and get some high quality renders going? These are stunning save for the render noise/

I use the Maxwell render plug-in for SketchUp - while its naturalism has certain benefits, it is also a pain as you do have to get light levels exactly right. These N8 renders are rendered to the same level as most of the designs in my 'Odds and Ends' thread - as you see many of them are considerably less grainy. The big problem with an N8 model is that I can't leave the top open to allow the renderer's 'natural' light in, as I would if it were a full-height studio. Plus, with this version of N8, you also have many more light objects than would be ideal as well as several metallic surfaces - which altogether create a very difficult set to render in Maxwell.

I've just been PM'ing with Critique who has kindly offered to render a few images in his renderer which produces a lot clearer images. Hopefully, he'll be able to let the cream and red N8 shine its full glory.

This is fantastic btw looks so realistic I love it well done

Love this. I think I said on here recently that it was partly this set that gave me a love for set design, studio production and presentation in general. Thanks so much for the time you’ve spent on this - it’s a real joy.

PS - I rather like the grain. I also think it's nice to see it without the studio lights in shot!