Hi r/movies! We’re the team responsible for bringing Apple TV’s Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age to life. We are Russell Dodgson (Production VFX Supervisor), Dorothy Ballarini (Framestore Creature Supervisor) and Darren Naish (Lead Scientific Consultant). Ask us anything!

Hi reddit.

We are the team responsible for bringing the megafauna of Apple TV’s Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age to life. We're Russell Dodgson (Production VFX Supervisor), Dorothy Ballarini (Framestore Creature Supervisor) and Darren Naish (Lead Scientific Consultant). We're here to answer your questions.

If you want to know more about us, here are our credentials:

• Russell Dodgson (His Dark Materials, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2) : https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4203233/
• Dorothy Ballarini (Wicked: For Good, Guardians of the Galaxy): https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4809197/
• Darren Naish (Alien Worlds, Prehistoric Planet): https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4595065/

Our mission was to create the illusion that a modern natural history crew traveled back in time. This meant adhering to strict "blue chip" documentary standards—using long-lens photography, camera jitter, and heat haze to ground our CGI in reality.

From an artistic and technical standpoint, we delivered over 1,250 4K shots featuring 69 scientifically accurate hero animals. This required intense collaboration to ensure every skeletal structure was fossil-accurate, alongside complex bi-directional simulations for fur interacting with deep snow, mud, and tar.

Whether you’re interested in the bi-directional FX sims, the on-set puppeteering in extreme climates, or the paleontology behind the designs, Ask Us Anything!

We’ll be back tomorrow Tuesday, December 9th, at 1 PM ET/6 PM GMT to answer your questions.

Ask away, we’re excited to talk all things prehistoric, icy and wonderfully complex!