Houdini Powers Record-Breaking VFX Work on NFTS Student Film Cloud 99

In March 2026, the National Film and Television School premiered Cloud 99 at the NFTS Graduate Showcase at the BFI Southbank. Starring Jacob Fortune Lloyd (The Queen’s Gambit, Steal), the result was a visually distinctive film that required a highly integrated visual effects approach to realise its core concept: a suburban community where sunlight is precisely controlled and sold on a per-property basis.

Visual Effects students at the NFTS collaborated to deliver approximately 60 VFX shots, the most visual effects shots ever produced for a graduation film at the School, combining practical filmmaking with full CG environments, blue screen compositing and digital environment extension.

“We weren’t just supporting the film, we were actively helping to define how the world within it works,” said Ian Murphy, Head of VFX. “A lot of the process was about finding the balance between something that feels appealing and something that feels slightly unnatural. That line was really important to the storytelling.”

Working closely with fellow NFTS students, writer/director Leila Murton Poole, cinematographer Carolina Nunes and production designer Robbin Younger, the VFX students contributed to the visual language of the film from an early stage. Environments were not only created digitally, but also refined through ongoing collaboration to ensure they supported performance, tone and narrative intent.

Using SideFX Houdini, a VFX industry-standard procedural 3D tool, the team built and extended entire neighbourhoods, combining real locations with digital elements to create a seamless sense of scale and repetition. A procedural approach allowed rapid iteration of spacing, repetition and layout, which was critical for finding the right balance between realism and stylisation. Many scenes were filmed on blue screen, allowing environments to be designed and adjusted in post-production. Practical plates shot on location were cleaned and standardised. Non-uniform architectural details were projected out or replaced to create a more consistent visual baseline.

“From the beginning, we treated the environments as part of the storytelling,” said Bing Li, lead VFX artist. “The ability to iterate quickly meant we could explore different versions of the world and refine how it feels, not just how it looks.”

Lighting plays a key role throughout the film, with neighbouring homes often shown in completely different conditions, depending on their access to sunlight. This contrast was carefully developed through both visual effects and colour grading, helping to reinforce the film’s central idea in a subtle but consistent way.

“In Cloud 99, the clouds aren’t spectacle - they’re policy. The challenge was making something as unnatural as controlled weather feel completely mundane, like infrastructure.” said Leila Murton Poole, writer and director of Cloud 99. “It was a great opportunity to work so closely with production design and VFX students to make sure both departments were speaking the same visual language from the start. It was incredibly rewarding to see our imagined world become tangible.”

In addition to environmental work, the team composed screen interface graphics that support the concept of a system controlling sunlight, grounding the film’s speculative premise in a familiar, contemporary aesthetic.

Cloud 99 highlights the role of visual effects as a creative partner in filmmaking, contributing not only to the final image but to the development of the film’s world and tone.
As one of the most ambitious VFX projects undertaken at the NFTS, the film reflects the school’s focus on collaboration, innovation and preparing students for modern production pipelines.

-

Find out more about VFX training pathways at the NFTS

VFX - Environments and Assets MA

VFX - Lighting and Compositing MA