LWT ident is a piece of cake

London Weekend Television is celebrating its 30th birthday in the traditional way – with candles. The channel wanted a festive ident which reflected its mainstream positioning, and cakes and candles were suggested.

LWT designer/director Mark Gouldie created the images which Russell Appleford, Jonathan Stroud and Mark Stannard from The Moving

Picture Company then animated. The sequence is themed around a birthday cake and incorporates the station’s corporate colours of red, white and blue.

Gouldie was very specific about the flame effect he wanted and MPC took references from Disney’s Beauty and the Beast for flame imagery. ‘Haloes around the candles and a blue glow emanating from the bubbles were added… to enhance the sequence’s celebratory mood,’ says an MPC spokeswoman.

The flames are intended to look like glass, with ‘all the glows and rays and movements added afterwards’, says Stannard.

‘It was also important that the particles inside the bubbles and coming from the flames were both random and continuous,’ says MPC facilities producer Amanda Libotte.

The ident, which goes on air tomorrow, will be used to package trailers for LWT’s 30th anniversary programming.

Post-production: The Moving Picture Company

Client: London Weekend Television