Another Christmas Visual for Plopsaland De Panne! The concept: Santa rides the Plopsa Express and spreads holiday cheers around the park.

I got the idea for this photo when I saw a photo of the little steam train parked at the Wickie The Viking village. With moody light, snow and a lot of happy people it could become a truly magical visual. The hardest part: Make a case to the park to feature a forty year old ride to showcase the magic of their park at Christmas.

Fortunately I just started using pre-visualisation software, where we could prepare the entire photo in a 3D setting. With 3D scanned environments, virtual models, light and cameras we narrowed everything down until the last model.

Our careful planning saved us hours on set on a very cold December night and showed both management as the local teams on what we needed and where we needed what equipment. The technical department knew where to park the train, assistants knew what lights to place where, models knew what to do, as well as set dressing on what we would see and what not.

All in a day’s work!

Post production finish by Studio Fourside and excellent production by Bert Lecomte.