Getting Animated With BBC Two's New Idents

Visual effects studio FutureDeluxe helped Superunion rebrand BBC Two with a set of rich and evocative animated visuals.

DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT

By James Callahan

This project began for us after Superunion had won the initial pitch to rebrand BBC Two. They invited us to their offices to discuss how we might help them bring some ambitious ideas to life.

Superunion talked us through some pretty detailed and complex schematics, covering how the animations would connect with one another to form idents. The hardest thing initially was noting down as much detail as possible to take back and share with our wider team.

British people hold the BBC close to their hearts, and BBC Two hadn’t rebranded for 25 years. people were passionate about the current idents and there was a great deal of love for them. if the public didn’t like what we created, we knew we’d hear about it pretty quickly. That said, how could we turn down a challenge like this? We also knew that Superunion and BBC Creative would be fantastic collaborators to work with.

The idea was to create banks of CG animations representing different moods or emotions that would reflect the themes of BBC Two’s shows. These sections would be put together to form 46-second idents to elegantly set the tone for upcoming programmes.

The ‘2’ curve – delicate and slightly obscured – came from Superunion and its work with BBC Creative. it’s an incredibly beautiful and brave approach, but the BBC was on board for not showing its full logo and instead using an abstract interpretation of the ‘2’. it was a fine balance: show too much ‘2’ and it loses its charm; not enough and nobody will recognise it.

DEVELOPING THE VISUALS

By Rupert Burton