Bodies: When a Corpse Travels Through Time (and Netflix Takes Advantage)
The Netflix series Bodies is not just a simple police procedural; it's a temporal puzzle where the same corpse appears in four distinct eras of London. 🕰️ To achieve this, the wizards at Milk VFX had to recreate the city in 1890, 1941, 2023, and 2053, proving that time is relative... and expensive to produce.
The challenge wasn't just to make it realistic, but to make the viewer believe it was the same London at different stages of its life.
From Victorian Streets to Futuristic Holograms
The team used a combination of tools for each era:
- Maya for modeling buildings and vehicles
- Arnold for rendering scenes with historically accurate lighting
- Nuke to integrate everything seamlessly
The result is so good that even Londoners wonder, "Was my neighborhood really like that in 1890?" 🤔
The Most Well-Traveled Corpse on Television
The true protagonist is that body that appears again and again. To keep it consistent:
- 3D scan of the actor for digital versions
- Digital makeup to match details across all eras
- Physical simulations to integrate it into destructive environments
All so the audience wouldn't think, "Wow, this dead guy lost weight by 2053." 💀
Effects That Breathe History
From Victorian fog to war explosions, each era has its own atmosphere:
- Gas lighting vs. futuristic holograms
- Cobblestone streets vs. digital sidewalks
- Factory smoke vs. dystopian pollution
Milk VFX's work demonstrates that in visual effects, the devil is in the historical details. 🎩➡️🚀
So now you know: if you see a corpse on the street, take a picture. You never know if it will appear in another era... or on your next Netflix bill. 😂