How we gave Buzz Monkey life…

For most of us in the UK Buzz Monkey is a relatively unknown brand, in Australia it’s an alternative to Red Bull. Locomotion were given the opportunity of breathing life into the static Buzz Monkey character.

Or resident guru Lars Magnus Holgrem was the brains behind this baby, taking it from concept to completion, with many of the team taking part in bringing him to life. Lars managed not only the creative process, but also managed teams across the world, bringing the best out of our creative team.

Once we had the character moving, then it was a case of using Locomotion genius to colour grade, add foley and music to bring the Buzz Monkey to life.

We’re proud that the 3D Buzz Monkey is our baby, just another example of why people choose Locomotion to make their visions reality.

The 3D version of this character both still and moving are the property of Locomotion London (c) 2009

Locomotion pioneers a new format for CBBC

Now you have a great reason to watch TV on Thursday afternoons!

Little Howard’s Big Question, a new BBC Childrens TV show premieres tonight, 8th January, at 4.30  on BBC1 and brings comedy live act Big Howard and Little Howard to the small screen with a unique blend of animation and live action.

The 13 x 28 minute programmes feature the cheeky 2D character of Little Howard as he interacts with people and places in his quest to find answers to his questions.

Little Howard’s Big Question examines the questions that children most want answered such as ‘could the dinosaurs ever return?’, ‘how will I know when I’ve fallen in love?’ and ‘can I believe my eyes?’. The show takes the form of a road movie in which Big Howard played by Howard Read is accompanied in the real world by his animated side kick, six-year old Little Howard. The production uses Flash to animate Howard’s 2D characters which are then composited into live action sequences filmed on location.

With responsibility for post production, animation and visual effects, Locomotion worked closely with comedian and animator Howard Read and the CBBC Production team to create the 2D  character of Little Howard in Flash and bring him to life.

Locomotion beat numerous  other post houses to the ambitious project and won on the strength of the team’s technical expertise, capabilites, workflow and enthusiasm for the project.

Post Production Producer and MD, Danny Coster, and Editors Anuree  De Silva  and Scott Flyger, worked with Read to develop the character and each programme features 20-25 minutes of animation. Under supervision Locomotion’s VFX Director Lars Magnus Holmgren, the team of animators and compositors developed the 2D animations in Flash, After Effects, Shake and Boujou.

Shot in DVCam, Locomotion ingested all footage using their 4 Gb SAN network at broadcast resolution, enabling the compositors and editors to work in tandem at online quality throughout the project.

Says Peter Davies, Executive Producer at the CBBC, ‘Producing Little Howard for CBBC has meant breaking new ground from inception to delivery. We’ve had to write the manual from scratch for how to make a live action factual comedy featuring a six year old animated boy. We couldn’t have done this without a facility house with unique skills’.

Credits
The series is written by Howard Read and Chris Chantler.
Peter Davies – Executive Producer BBC Children’s
Vanessa Frances – Series Producer
Dermot Canterbury and Bruce Webb – Directors

Locomotion – Post Production Partner
Dan Coster – Post Production & VFX Supervisor
Lars Holmgren – VFX Supervisor
Jen Reznick – Line Producer
Petria Whelan – Flash Animator
Scott Flyger and Anuree De Silva – Off-line Editors
Lee Bamsey, Miland Suman, Alex Hare and Martin Macdonald – Compositing, Grading and On-line Editing

Loco creates 3D animation for The Little Mermaid

Locomotion’s 3D team has created a 1 minute 3D animation for an episode of channel Five’s acclaimed human interest series Extraordinary People. Entitled “The Little Mermaid” it will be shown on the 9^th October, at 9pm on Five.

Produced by Firecracker Films, this episode follows the life of 9 year old Shiloh Pepin of Portland, Main, USA who was born with Sirenomelia, or Mermaid Syndrome.

Due to the sensitive nature of Shiloh’s condition, Firecracker Films approached Locomotion to create a medically accurate 3D animation that demonstrates the differences between an ordinary person’s internal structures and that of this extraordinary child’s.

Working from X-rays, the 60 sec sequence was created by our team of modellers, animators and lighting TDs and illustrates the internal physical structures, including skeleton, organs and soft tissue.

The animation is key to understanding the often fatal condition of Mermaid Syndrome, in which the foetus fails to develop normally below the waist, and it explains the differences between ordinary physical structures and those that this extraordinary child lives with.

Claire Mason, Head of Production at Firecracker Films says, “Locomotion was given a sensitive task to portray this child’s condition, and the team rose to the occasion, delivering an animation that explains in detail the severity of the condition. “