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.
The teaser won Gold for On-Air Illustration at the PromaxBDA Design Awards.
Client: HISTORY | Product: Teaser | Role: Concept. Design. Illustration. Animation. Music.
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.
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.
Ruler showing the sheer scale of these hand-inked illustrations.
CG exploration of ink droplet fluid simulation.
"Roots" logo development – Liquid Ink.
"Roots" logo development – Line Illustration.
Final execution.
