ABC’s ‘9-1-1’ Brings Disaster to LA and NYC with 3D Billboards by Zoic Studios

Disaster looms over New York and LA with new 3D billboards from Zoic Studios for ABC drama ‘9-1-1’.

In New York’s Times Square and Penn Station as well as downtown LA’s Moxy, the glaring billboards tease the storyline for the show’s current season and build upon its winter promos, which Zoic and ABC also collaborated on. Designed to force perspective, explosions, sinking cruise ships, and rescue helicopters jump out from the screens while seawater seems to spill over onto the streets below, shocking and holding the attention of passersby.

Zoic Studios handled animation, water simulation, and rendering, adjusting the compositing methodology to match each billboard’s technical specifications and maximise the 3D effect: one output was unwrapped, while the other was projected back over a frame taken from each location to better visualise how it would appear. In an innovative use of VFX, the CG ship asset seen on the screens is the same as the one used across multiple deliverables for the overall series, also including the promo, prints, and multiple episodes.

The location at Times Square, namely two screens at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, carried specific demands, requiring a rescue helicopter to emerge in the first and fly over to the cruise ship in the second. With each screen needing a different resolution, Zoic used two separate cameras for the one scene. This in turn posed another challenge due to their placement at a distance from one another, which was solved by use of a time gap when the helicopter is off screen moving to its destination.

Richard Patterson, VFX supervisor at Zoic Studios, comments: “The Zoic team embraced the challenge of this campaign. We are always eager to work with our clients to explore new mediums and creative opportunities.”