The film describes an embryo’s journey having been entrusted by its hopeful parents to the lab, using the analogy of a female penguin leaving her egg with the male as she looks for food.

It opens on a hyper-realistic, CGI arctic landscape with two penguins nursing an egg. The voice-over explains that it’s understandable to feel anxiety entrusting your embryo to another’s care. The female penguin leaves while the male remains, safely incubating their egg through harsh weather. The voiceover asserts they will show similar parental devotion.

The female penguin returns, instinctively finding her egg within the penguin colony. The voice-over explains how they help find the right embryo to transfer too.

The penguins are reunited and the camera reveals two eggs. The voice-over explains that sometimes multiple eggs are found and can be safely preserved.

The voice-over reassures us that our embryos will be in the safest of hands.

To best convey our analogy, we chose to animate our story. However, due to the topic’s sensitivity, we ensured the animation style was sincere using a hyper-realistic CGI effect.

To achieve hyper-realism, we extensively researched the penguin species; studying every aspect of their movement when walking and emerging from water, the subtleties within their facial markings and fur texture – and how this is affected by snow, and their distinctive caws. We analysed their interaction to ensure we accurately captured how they express intimacy.

Tailor-made wireframe models were created from scratch, using expert CGI artists and state-of-the-art programmes including Cinema 4d and Nuke.

Similar focus was applied to the landscape textures. A virtual polar environment was created using terrain objects and meshes, and camera rigs were made to pan the landscape and follow the penguins.

We composed a bespoke music score to complement our voice-over and applied penguin foley effects.