Concept and creative process
‘Steam’ was designed and created as a new addition to the rotation of BBC2 idents that appeared in the breaks between programmes. ‘Steam’ was a practical model, shot in-camera on a 35mm camera rig. The special effects team created a practical rig to choreograph water droplets to fall from behind the camera and land on a steaming hot ‘2’. Post-production in Flame smoothed the timing of the water droplets.
A video of the filming of ’Steam' and other BBC2 idents was included in the BBC programme ‘How Do They Do That?’. An excerpt can be viewed in the Archive:
https://www.ravensbourne.ac.uk/bbc-motion-graphics-archive/how-do-they-do-feature-tv-graphics-1994