Kingdom of Plants VR

Discover the hidden dramas in the undergrowth of our planet at plant scale and in plant time

Meet the dynamic, bloodthirsty, and heroic characters of the plant world guided by Natural History Legend, David Attenborough. The hidden lives of plants are revealed for the first time in 8K 3D 180 virtual reality at 60fps, through spectacular macro cinematography and time-lapse sequences shot over weeks.

In continuation of the landmark production, David Attenborough’s Kingdom of Plants, comes this breathtaking three-part immersive series that reveals the perils and drama of the plant world.

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Produced using customised 3D stereoscopic cameras, specially developed stereo-timelapse rigs, and innovative VFX compositing techniques, Kingdom of Plants pushes the potential of immersive media production pipelines.

At 8K, details of flowers, plants, and insects invisible to the human eye are revealed. Breath-taking spatial sound design infuses the perils and drama of the plant world with life.

The 60fps frame rate shows every delicate movement of a mushroom tearing as it grows or a flowers spectacular bloom.

Over three episodes, unearth allies, enemies, and predators of the plant kingdom. Sit inside some of the most beautiful and rare blooms on our planet, or be beguiled by the beautiful but bloodthirsty sundew.

Dive inside a microscope to see some of the smallest seeds in incredible detail. Be consumed by fungi: one of the most gruesome yet essential organisms on our earth. Witness the battle cry of a Pine tree and become entrapped in the infamous Venus Flytrap.

Combining spectacular time-lapse footage shot over weeks with macro live-action and computer graphics, Kingdom of Plants reveals the battles and dramas raging in the undergrowth.

Behind the Scenes

One of the biggest challenges was putting this stunning, high-quality footage, captured at Kew Gardens for standard 16:9 screens, into virtual reality in a way that was accessible and interesting to everyone: from first time VR users to seasoned gamers.

Atlantic built on this rectilinear footage using a custom ‘set extension’ technique, created by our compositor, so they were able to create full 180 scenes that completely envelope the user in the plant world.

One challenge is that the plant world has many visitors who live life at a much faster pace. The timelapse set-up was a single camera capturing both the left eye and right eye on a timer.

The team worked to correct the stereo between eyes to account for frantic insects trying to escape a vicious sundew, or a bug aiding and abetting the fungi on the forest floor. Certain flowers and plants proved far more active than anticipated; Hylocereus could often jump out of frame unexpectedly as they rushed to open during the night.