DESIGNING DOCTOR WHO

DAN MAY AND ERICA MCEWAN OF WORLDBUILDING DESIGN STUDIO PAINTING PRACTICE SHARE THE VISUAL SECRETS OF "THE STAR BEAST" AND "WILD BLUE YONDER"

- NICK SETCHFIELD

Erica McEwan, Creative Director and Graphics Art Director: One of our founders, Joel Collins, is also an exec on Doctor Who. We have a good relationship with Bad Wolf after previous productions like His Dark Materials and they came to us to find a way to keep the magic of Doctor Who and bring it into a new chapter, with the visual storytelling that we do so well. They wanted to take it to a new level.

Another reason the producers were interested in getting us onboard was our traditional relationship between the art department and VFX. We have a digital art department, which is quite a unique thing in terms of design companies.

Dan May, co-founder and VFX Supervisor: Just because of the nature of the show it spans lots of worlds. It’s kind of fun sci-fi without taking itself too seriously, and having done His Dark Materials, which takes itself very seriously, I was quite up for something a little more playful and fun!

THE MEEP 

Dan: The alley picture [below] was the final illustration, where Russell said, “Oh, that’s the Meep!” It was done by Raf Martin, who’s one of our full-time art directors, and he loves getting into the anatomy of a creature, in a quite granular way.

We were given free rein at the beginning. We looked at the [original Doctor Who Weekly comic strip] and said, “Yes, we could do exactly that – but what else could we do?” With most illustrators, to get the best results, you do need to give people a bit of creative freedom, otherwise it can become quite limiting.