HAND DRAWN CGI: Animating the Terrahawks Title Sequence (Kevin Davies & Gerry Anderson Documentary)

[@CameronM47]

My younger brother was very young when the Terrahawks came out, he was terrified of Zelda and would cry his eyes out when she came on screen.

[@GotMoreCakes]

This guy was a delight to listen to, amazing work too.

[@ricksterk7014]

🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈

[@uncoolben79]

100% Perfect amount of explanation and v.concise! V.smart guy!!!! :)

[@michaeldibb]

What a lovely man, I could listen to him talking about how he achieved the effect for ages.

[@PeterMcKeon]

I adore the graphics sequences in Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy.

[@newtechgs7471]

How marvelous. The ingenuity of people before modern computers was amazing

[@matsv201]

The disney movies of the 70s and 90s was a technological master pice. While some sceens in beaty and the beast was almost fully computer generated. Most of the movie was made by stacking painted glas plates. This was the dominating method far into the 90s

[@digbysirchickentf2315]

I remember these animations, always assumed they were direct screen ouput like a color version of the Vectrex if you remember that.

[@Dave_Cymru]

That opening game scene, is what caused me to buy the game on the Phillips G7000 games console; I was a mixture of heartbroken and being truly gutted that the actual game was nothing like that animation.

[@TsiolkovskySportingLocks]

not the only one

[@mikeuk666]

👍

[@thepeternetwork]

I almost wanted to play that game.

[@TsiolkovskySportingLocks]

@ yeah I’m surprised no one has built it

[@SnakeWorksStudio]

@@TsiolkovskySportingLocks It looks a lot like StarFox on the SNES

[@AubreyStJohn3000]

Went to visit Kevin at his studio Iin the late eighties while he was working on animation for the gas board of Hong kong..I remember there were cells laying around from Hitchhikers guide.

[@jammin023]

This is amazing. For a while I was wondering how he still looked so young, until he said Terrahawks was "about 20 years ago" which means this docu must itself be about 20 years old now... The opening and closing title animation was mindblowing for the time, one of the best things about the programme, and I was one of those who always watched to the end of the noughts-and-crosses games. I was fascinated to learn about the techniques used, and Kevin Davies presented and explained it all wonderfully. Thanks so much for uploading.

[@skepticalbadger]

Yep. He was born in 1961. He's on Linkedin looking well for his age but much older than here obviously.

[@BHALT0S]

I was a kid in care at the time and just before I was taken into care, all I can say is, thanks for the escapism without which I really have no idea how I would have got through those times. especially loved that Windsor Davies was one of the voice actors for the zeroids.

[@Stan-lq9ud]

Me too! Always made me laugh when he would turn up on it ain't half hot mum on TV, and in my head he was still the wee shouty ball from Terrahawks 😂

[@andrewgwilliam4831]

Those title sequences were amazing back in the day!

[@alanclarke4646]

I honestly thought that they were early CGI. And his Zelda voice was actually quite good..

[@andrewgwilliam4831]

@alanclarke4646 Good point, I'd assumed that's why they were done like that! But the connection with Hitch Hiker's makes sense.

[@alanclarke4646]

@andrewgwilliam4831 and somehow, I'd never noticed the similarities.

[@Thebustermann]

I think it still holds up well today

[@star_man]

I absolutely adore the Terrahawks opening and closing title sequences, I remember being mesmerised by them when I first saw them in the 80s when I was 12, I'd never seen anything like that on TV before. I'm still blown away that the graphics and the music are perfectly synchronised. Even the simplest thing like the noughts and crosses board lines appearing exactly on the beats and then sliding down into perspective in time to the music is immensely satisfying.

[@Jamie_E_Pritchard]

Terrahawks was bloody awesome and I'd always try to guess whether the Zeroids or Cubes would win. RIP #13

[@youreallyplaythat]

Zeroids!

[@harbl99]

"And _this_ is our advanced computer graphics generator." [opens side of massive blinkenlights computer to reveal Kev hunched over a drawing board]

[@danielreed5199]

Modern PCs have a CPU and a GPU, back when they made this, Kevin effectively became the GPU. Fortunately they didn't make him do it in real time.

[@northprime_unlimited]

I’ve been using plotters for 25 years and I would’ve NEVER thought to use them for animation! That is some insane creativity. I used to love this show as a kid. The amount of work that went into this show was phenomenal!

[@kendom33]

Huge ammount of work for this animation. Thank you

[@notthedj]

Fantastic. The naughts and crosses game at the end was such a key part of me watching it as a kid!

[@purefoldnz3070]

same for me as well!

[@TsiolkovskySportingLocks]

@@notthedj same here. Such an iconic show

[@jimjiminy5836]

Absolutely. It’s burnt deep into my consciousness.

[@rambledogs2012]

Me too, for some reason that was an integral part of wanting to watch Terrahawks.

[@fuzzblightyear145]

glad it wasn't just me and my brothers having bets on the game

[@simonabunker]

That was a really fascinating rundown of emerging computer animation!

[@MrNas42]

Having worked in the Audio-Visual conference industry since 1979, this was a real trip down memory lane. All presentation graphics were on 35mm slide, produced in exactly the same way shown here. Top lit black and white hand drawn and Letraset artwork, converted to lithograph film, coloured gells added, than back lit and shot on colour reversal film. Memories...

[@silsonsteve]

Wow, the kind of content I've been waiting to see since my childhood

[@thesoundofbailey]

Absolutely fascinating, I loved every second of this. what a lovely guy too. I always wondered how they did the flashes! Over exposure! Genius. Thanks again for another great video

[@grahammarsh4652]

Excellent stuff, utterly fascinating. I thought he looked young for 63 but from what Kevin was saying, this doc is over 20 years old!!

[@eddyp483]

That’s what I thought. It’s in 4:3 so guessing late 90s/ early 2000s

[@davidherron9151]

Ohhhhhhhhhhh now it makes sense 😂

[@kendragon2012]

This was utterly fascinating.

[@bletheringfool]

It was such an exciting title sequence. I'm forever grateful for his and his colleagues' talents

[@martpr2012]

That was abslutly fasinating to see how we started to take the first steps in to digital animation. the guys were just doing what they loved unaware they were pioneering the dawn of a new era.

[@grrfy]

These title scenes were total class!

[@trevorbrown6654]

@@grrfy I often wondered if the video game Zaxxon partially inspired the first scene in the credits

[@grrfy]

@@trevorbrown6654oh yeah I can see that!

[@richardmattocks]

26:20 Love the crafty wink of the bouncing zeroid as it lands after smashing the cube 😆

[@Stan-lq9ud]

😂 💯

[@dfpguitar]

What a talented innovative artist. So much vision to come up with all this stuff that didn't exist already.

[@CH-ir4gy]

Terrahawks was broadcast in Japan, but this is the first time I have seen an animation of Zeroid stomping on a cube. In Japan, pseudo-CGI images like this Terrahawks video game were made in TV commercials, Godzilla movies, Super Sentai series, etc. in the 80s and 90s under the influence of Robert Able. The process for these was line drawings drawn on a plotter, shot on high contrast film on an animation stand, and then filtered and colored on an optical printer.

[@centurionstrengthandfitnes3694]

His love for his work comes right through the screen. Excellent video. Made me rememeber those Saturday tea-times.

[@Vandal_Savage]

Great stuff, thanks for the upload 😊

[@MD_Builds]

Wow terrahawks was a lot later than I thought it was! I remember having this on VHS as a kid in the late 80s. Loved this show. And amazing theme tune!

[@jmalmsten]

I may have a problem. But I just find backlit animation to be so fascinating ever since hearing about its use in the first Tron and moire patterns used in old anime. And that made me look back further. I love that the bluray for Hitchhikers guide actually scanned the animated bits in HD as extras (even if they cheaped out in not cutting them into the SD episodes). And one thing I've come to learn is that in pretty much any case where there was "computer graphics" (as in, when it was supposed to look like motion graphics done with a computer) in movies before the late 90s. Some lone animator was actually backlighting lithograph cels one at a time over and over in a dark room.

[@soulextracter]

There is at least one instance I know of, where the "computer graphics" was a dark physical model with edges painted in reflective paint, and then filmed. It was the flight sequence from Escape from New York, where you see like a "computer generated" view of New York from the plane's view screen.

[@jimbotron70]

​@@soulextracter Fun fact: in 1981 it could have been done even with CGI, however due to the low budget they resorted to that trick.

[@orbitalchiller]

Kids nowadays don't know how blessed they are with Blender, Krita or After Effects.

[@AllanTF141]

That title sequence was a few seconds of unbridled bliss for me when I was wee. Thank you so much 🙏

[@Hendeesh]

This is a fantastic video!!!! What a tremendous insight into this amazing technical achievement! BRAVO 👏

[@dweir2584]

My first job was a rostrum cameraman for a post production company in Shepards Bush, London. It was a great job and just brilliant to work with brilliant artists and creatives. This was when craft was king.

[@stephenmcavoy9925]

Fascinating. Particularly how the animated opening titles were matched to certain beats of the theme - its one of the best aspects of the titles with the music and graphics working together. Great what C21 share here. I’ll “stay on this channel” for sure!

[@polbecca]

We should also thank masterful composer Richard Harvey, who to my mind was the driving force in the 1970s folk-prog band Gryphon.

[@matthewnicholas6365]

That shirt is the most 90s fabric i have ever seen.

[@noeldc]

This was the highlight of my weekend in the 80s.

Memories of Summer holidays in Wales in my nan's 60s static caravan, cup of tea, Weetabix and watching Terrahawks, The Pink Panther, On the Water Front. Halcyon days!

[@gavscott]

What a fantastic video. An exquisite amount of detail from Jon Davies. Double and over-exposing cells to make them flash - I wondered how they did that, and now I know!

[@mwarnas]

This unassuming man did some interesting and creative work. It's good that we have stories like these recorded for posterity. The days before 'the computer' did everything and people had to be creative in different ways are fading fast.

[@remaincalm2]

I love this documentary that exposes the awesome amount of work that went on to produce the opening and closing title sequences. They were my favourite parts of the show to be honest because they were mesmerizing. I started doing titles for TV programmes in the early 90's when we had the luxury of 100% computer animation, so while I can relate to Kevin's work, I have an extra amount of respect for the genius creativity and patience that went into it. It was truly cutting edge at the time, a real craft.

[@thecommissaruk]

What an engaging chap, I've never seen Terrahawks but this was very interesting to watch.

[@S-T-E-V-E]

They pulled off magic with what they had! I loved Terrahawks as a kid, it looked so futuristic, I had a few of the toys too! 👍

[@speedbird737]

Wow what a fantastic documentary thank you for posting - had no idea of the work involved - what a talented guy

[@neilstothard]

Loved Terrahawks as a kid and it's amazing to see how much went in to the just the opening and closing animations, after watching this I've got a itch to break out my dvd set and introduce it to youngest.

[@brianartillery]

That was excellent! The amount of work for such a short sequence was terrifying! Kudos to you for making it look so incredible. 'Terrahawks' was a big thing when released - I was 20 in 1983, but every Sunday afternoon, a load of my mates - punks, goths and skinheads, and me, would go to another friend's house, cram ourselves into his tiny living room, and watch Terrahawks. We all loved it. I still do. Thanks for this. Nice one. 👍👍👍

[@yandman26]

This was so amazing to see. That video game sequence still looks amazing. I wish somebody would make a game of that now.

[@shalashaska68]

Fantastic video. I remember me and my brother renting Terrahawks on video loads as a kid, I never saw it on TV, but it stayed with me and to see this now is just amazing. Great show.

[@ehvway]

Unbelievable this old pioneering tech. People like him really made fantastic advanced things with very limited tools.

[@antonio_carvalho]

This transported me back to my childhood days of curiosity and awe! Amazing work at the time, even more impressive today! Thank you for uploading the video, and Kevin for being so endearing and candid.

[@bellycuda]

An amazing interview, how great of him to share all this detail and acknowledge how much affection there is for this project.

[@VortexJae]

What an absolutely wonderful video showcasing some amazing techniques that produced some really stunning results! It's always super ingenious and fascinating to see!

[@alexfletcher5192]

Kevin has joined the ranks of behind-the-scenes telefantasy heroes of the day. But it's interesting. At 10, I accepted as fact that we were able to create computer generated imagery of this kind - without a personal knowledge base for it. When it just as likely that Michael Knight was driving a micro-processor-controlled car with the kind of artificial intelligence we still haven't mastered today. But it says something about the times that we believed in the possibility.

[@gestaltstate]

Grew up watching reruns of thunderbirds on TechTV in the early 2000s. It was extremely kitsch and that was definitely part of the charm, and being a kinda quirky ‘artsy’ kid I fell completely in love with it. Over the years I’ve familiarized myself with more of Terry’s creations and the teams behind them. This is such an awesome peek into an era of animation that I can’t help but like, anything backlit makes my neurons light up.

[@JohnnyX50]

What an absolutely fascinating look into how it was all put together. There is a real treasure trove of nostalgia right there and I hope it gets preserved for years to come. Those days when hard work meant hard work. I was 9 years old when Terrahawks was showing and I loved it! I have the DVD box set, of course. I even had a go at reproducing the music for the opening sequence on my keyboards (video on my channel). My neighbour at that time had the Zero Football and I was jealous to heck, but I wanted a cube and I don't think any were available at the time or ever were. When the guy did the voice of Young Star it cracked me up lol 🤣

[@toypolloi]

Such a fascinating insite into how it was all made. I was pleased to get a message from Kevin when he saw my homage to the computer game in my channel intros. Such a nice guy.

[@northeastcorals]

Wow I'd forgotten all about this! Re-discovered nostalgia overload!

[@SchubertDipDab]

Excellent video, thanks so much for sharing. What a great guy too!

[@harrymoschops]

So many amazing animation techniques! Terrahawks was one of my favourite childhood series, and now I can appreciate how much artistry went into its production. Fantastic.

[@relativenormality]

My head is hurting absorbing the sheer amount of talent and creativity that went in to this show.

[@willpower8061]

Gawd, I remember having to do some of these techniques back in the day. Then PCs made alotta this redundant, NOW this stuff can be done on our phone.

[@Stan-lq9ud]

Thank you for sharing. This is amazing, so many memories of this show. Now I'm 50 yrs old and working in tech so it is so 'kin cool to see how the heck they did it. Bravo! 👏 👏 👏

[@UKbrownSkinBoy]

Animation isn't really my thing but I'm glad YT recommended this, it was enjoyable. Loved the workings written in the VAT Book!

[@CallousCoder]

Oh wow! I always loved that technique, as it makes the hand drawn images glow like real light would.

[@bobb4you]

This is really great. Wonderful work. Remember this fondly from my childhood.

[@stevenpick9451]

This is fantastic - I always loved the titles and it's great to see how analog the process was!

[@Thunderpuddle]

Absolutely loved watching that interview then. My brother and I used to try and guess who would win the Naughts and Crosses game.

[@VjMavdog]

So cool, fond memories of watching Terrahawks as a kid, can't wait to watch it with my son when he's a little bit older.

[@mrvlsmarvelousyt]

Kevin Davies’ work on the Terrahawks title sequence is really a time capsule back when CGI was still developing as a art form and cel animation/backlit animation with Kodalith’s was still the norm. A real testament to how much work it was back then!

[@TheRayToaster]

This was a brilliant interview, thanks! Very interesting.

[@simon8864]

A charming look back at a show I watched as a kid. Back when so much could be accomplished on a modest budget with imagination, creativity and perseverance. Something I feel is sadly lacking these days.

[@BBoyBiff]

This is absolutely unbelievable, what a treat to see how this was done , pure quality 😍😍😍😍

[@JEKAZOL]

You blew my mind as a kid. That Intro sequence was the most futuristic spectacle I'd ever seen. I had a colouring book too in hospital when having adenoids out. It took all the pain away.

[@theceruleandolphin2829]

What a genuinely charming man.

[@Nebulous6]

Your work is excellent. Even from across the pond I couldn't help but notice it back in the day. Bravo!

[@joelonsdale]

Fascinating! Really interesting to hear the technical details of how a professional achieved such great results...

[@edz]

Brilliant to see how the animations were put together. Great video. I bought the dvd in 2021!

[@falconbmstutorials6496]

THANK YOU for uploading this gem, the insight into the making of. I always wondered how they did these high quality "CGI" back at that days. Even the "flicker" was faked, hahaha!

[@IMayOrMayNotBeNoelG]

KZbin algorithm recently suggested the Terrahawks pilot episode. The second I saw the animation I knew it was the same guy that animated the hitchhikers guide entries for the 80's tv series.

[@TOOFUTURETV]

Fascinating stuff, how amazing is KZbin. 👍🏼😎

[@darkstatehk]

Fascinating stuff!

[@itchytastyurr]

born in 82, the launch sequences and music left a faded mark in my memory- faces etc. the effort really showed in these shows. i got to revisit this stuff. i got starfleet and a thunderbird movie- i kinda want the lot.

[@dsesuk]

So interesting to see the effort that went into something that seems so simple now, and that even then, was taken for granted. I'm sure as a ten-year-old, I figured it was "simply all done on computers"... albeit on machines more powerful than my own Amstrad 464!

[@SutraRein-xy4qr]

Aww this takes us back! Nice one Kevin. Hope the family is doing well as well as yourself. Best wishes Sue

[@chrisc_1012]

Absolutely fascinating, I hung on to every word Wonderful TV show which I absolutely adored, especially trying to guess who would win the naughts and crosses Incredible to see people's inventiveness and care Wonderful stuff

[@Phil_Hill]

This was great! I always wondered if video games would ever look that good in the future.

[@chrish1657]

"I actually sketched these little things on the tube" This is why people like this are successful.

[@razu1976]

What a fantastic video, and person!

[@retrogamesrevived1189]

Fantastic documentary, loved watching that and how painstaking it must have been doing the effects compared to todays CGI. 👏👍

[@spooky1304]

Amazing. When was this recorded..? I sat on the floor with Kevin at Fanderson '84 while he showed me a load of the cells and explained how he'd done it. He was a really nice chap.

[@rnichol22]

To say it's manully done with cloured film and drawn. The quality and finish is amazing. Well done really interesting

[@auronoxe]

I always wondered how the smooth CGs of the Hitchhikers Guide on the TV series were done, at a time when computers could not really do it. Know I know… great.

[@andyknowles666]

Wow, I remember that intro and outro sequence very well from childhood! loved terrahawks!

[@davidedwards4125]

Thank you for the interesting video, for the titles that gave me so much fun as a kid. What an amazing process.

[@arkmay]

I literally don't know this TV show at all, but this is super interesting and this era of titles was so cool !

[@pyroknight-P3G]

So much work back then for what amounts to a few clicks of the mouse today. Very informative.

[@madboydaz]

ah that was brilliant - thanks - we had no idea the amount of work that went in to the shows we watched :)

[@christianluff]

Excellent stuff. Fascinating amount of effort and skill to achieve what we would take for granted as being relatively ‘easy’(?!) to achieve today. Really great innovation and problem solving.

[@mikeuk666]

Great work. Loved that series