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Where are we?

The Parliament of the Daleks.

I don't know about you,but I'm a massive Doctor Who fan.I grew up watching The Doctor,transfixed as he travelledaround the universeescaping from all the weirdand wonderful cultures.

A lot's changed since then,different Doctorshave come and gone,but I think it's fair to saythat the show gets better and betterand looks more and more stunning.And a lot of that is dueto computer programming.

Hi, I'm Joey.

Hi, I'm Effie.

So me and my two lucky hackers,Effie and Joey,who are both Doctor Who crazy,have both come to����ý Television Centreto find out where it all began.

Back in the 1960s,when Doctor Who started,they used to makeall these props by hand,I mean, they still make someof the props by hand now,but it's all a bit time-consuming,so how else do you thinkthey make them?

Using computers…

Graphics and stuff.

Shall we go and find out?

Yeah. Come on, let's go, then.

The next stop is the Visual EffectsStudio.There are many elementsthat go into making Doctor Whosuch an amazing, magical show.But some of it isn't possiblewith just actors and props.So, guys, we're here with Catand guess what?She works on Doctor Who!

Really?

Do you actually do the episodesand stuff and like that?

Yeah, we work on a lotof the Doctor Who episodes.

Cat shows the childrenhow computers are usedto produce really excitingvisual effects for the series.

So, let's have a look at this Dalek,this is one Dalek by itself, but…

Lonely. Yeah, he looks lonely.

So how do you thinkwe could make a bunch more Daleks?

BOTH: Um… Copy and paste?

THEY CHUCKLE

Well, we could do that, but it wouldtake a really, really long time,so, instead, we're going to be lazyand use some programming.And I've got this littlebit of script hereand I can run that to makea set of Daleks,six rows with six in each row.

So with this piece of code,we can create six rows of sixDaleks from the one original Dalek.The code tells usthat for each row,and for every position withinthe row, make one Dalek.

'Then, move the Dalekinto position.'

So, if I just run that.

Wow! That's a lot of Daleks.

We have a little army of Daleks.

When I watched Doctor Who as a kid,often from behind the sofa,you could only everhave a few Daleks on screen,because they were actual props,but here we're creating wholearmies with a little computer code.

'It's terrifying.'

What's even more amazingis that every single Dalek in thatarmy can behave independently.Using a piece of code,called the rand command,we can instruct each Dalekto move its eyestalk,head and body randomly.

So can we all have a goat changing the code?

Yeah, sure, we could make themlook in the same direction,if you'd like.

Yeah, that would look cool.

So let's change the head rotate,cos that's which directionthey're looking in,so, instead of this,which picks a random number,what we're going to do is we can putin just a number that you choose.

So let's give them a number.

Um… I don't know.

Pick a number.

By changing the code, we replacethe rand command with a set numberand hey presto, you have an armyof Daleks staring in one direction.And they all look the same,exactly the same way.So you wouldn't wantto be facing them.

But that's exactlywhat we're going to do'as visual effects artist, Rose,'puts our acting skills to the test.

'Right, Rose,what's our motivation?'

In this scene,it's the Dalek Parliament,so you're all surrounded by Daleks,and I want you to look like,kind of scared.

Brilliant. Yeah, that works,like that.

Brilliant.

And action.

When we want to mix actorswith computer-generated effects,you need to film themagainst a green screen,so you can replace the backgroundwith something you've designedyourself.

They're everywhere,what are you going to do?

Right, now, stand up, stand up.

Cool, now, look really brave.

Now, you're not goingto be scared of these guys,the Doctor's going to come alongand save you in a bit.

'OK, that's a wrap.

'Now, it's back to the editto upload and review the footage.'

You look great, don't you?

Your face is all covered up.

Wow, look at you, guys.

Oh, it's hilarious!

So shall we put you guys in this?

All right, so…

I'm going to use the computer hereto select all of the greenand get rid of it.

Are you ready? Yeah.

It's going to look really cool.

There it goes, see?

Is this how they film Doctor Who,then?

Yeah, this is how all of the greenscreen shots are done on Doctor Who,using this kind of method.

That's so cool!

How long does it taketo film an episode?

It depends on the episode,it can be anywherebetween a few weeksor a couple of months, it dependson how many creatures are in it.

Now, I can put you on topof the footage I have here,so that you'll be sittingin the Dalek Parliament.

So here we go.That's you guys there.

Wow. That's so cool.

'Rose has used a graphics packageto superimpose us into the shot.'The computer runs a program'which has removed all the greenpixels from the footage'and then merged the videowith the computer-generated images.

'Hollywood, eat your heart out.'Here comes the finished shot,'the three of us transportedinto the Dalek Parliament.'

Here I am!

'And here's the Doctoron the same set.'

Remember, next time, when you watchall the monsters on Doctor Who,that lots of themwere generated by computersand computer code was used to makethem move around and look scary.And it's all done by artistsand coderssitting around computers like these.