The expanse of land running along the Manchester Ship Canal and around the intu Tafford Centre is undergoing a transformation, with numerous sites earmarked for developments that will provide a massive economic boost to Manchester and the wider region. These range from a new Metrolink line, car dealerships, leisure sector opportunities, retail spaces and, in the case of Trafford Waters, an entire new residential quarter.

Our task was to show the area as it is now and visualise how it might look over the next decade and beyond.

To do this we mapped the area with our client, Peel Land & Property, and identified exactly what we needed to cover. We storyboarded this for review and approval:

Example storyboard frame – Trafford Waters

Finished Illustration – Trafford Waters

We then created drone flight paths that we could share with the Air Traffic Control team at City Airport before planning a series of drone flights.

We commissioned around 70 hand drawn illustrations to visualise the new developments from the various filming angles and then combined the live action footage and the illustrations in post-production – a major task in view of the scale of the job and the requirement to match up the constantly changing drone perspectives.

The result is a unique piece of work, designed with the future in mind, so it can be further developed as the master plan becomes reality.