interview

An element of nostalgia creeps into the conversation at this point as he recalls the commercials he made in South America in which he animated children, not because he is especially observant but in a latent desire to animate a completely believable boy. In one storyline a young lad’s parents could not afford to buy … Read more

“When I draw, I have to set standards for the narration of the image I am attempting to convey because narrative restricts visuals, which means that the drawing is always inferior to something capriciously conceived. On the other hand if you make a film in which the action is portrayed in sequences and you work … Read more

In the summer of the year Ted left college, David Hargreaves (producer of DIYAS) took charge of the BBC Illiteracy project. The BBC produced several pilot programmes all using animated inserts to varying degrees. Ted’s work on the pilots proved successful and he was asked to do the animation for the whole ‘On The Move’ … Read more

The use of stock animation to reduce costs, and money from merchandising to finance production, are important considerations for some TV series. David Jefferson discusses these points with film producer Terry Ward. “American producers can make a series popular by spending huge amounts of money on promotion. That’s good for them but it doesn’t do … Read more

A system of stock sequences has enabled a high standard of animation to be achieved within the £18,000 per episode budget. The idea of stock animation is not new, Ward used it on Bananaman and many other studios work this way for TV series. He planned his stock material right from the start, deciding all … Read more

Ward showed me examples from a pile of layouts on his desk. The first had Grandad sitting at the dinner table; he was required to raise his arm and point. “We may not have stock of Grandad pointing in that direction so we use stock for as long as we can and then create new … Read more

They also control the style of trace lines on the cels when matching the new sequences with the stock scenes. “We have three tracers and they’ve all been fantastic. At the beginning of production we decided on the type of line required and gave the tracers example cels to follow. These showed exactly what weight … Read more

Example of the Pondles stock system. Part of Grandad Stock 6. LB Body/Head (bottom level) LA, 4A, 1 LA Various arms (2nd level) 1E – 3E Standard eye blink (3rd level) (eyes front) A – G Lip/Moustache sync (top level) Standard A – 0 shapes The “T” on each drawing means that it has been … Read more

Once the film is shot, although there are certain points where it can be tightened up with editing, there is less flexibility than with live-action. “In The Puddle Town Puffer, the train looked so good when shot we decided we would gain by having it on screen longer. A whole scene was dropped and more … Read more

Flowchart from episode seven. Each episode is broken down into scenes on a modified dope sheet. From left to right: The action, scene number, footage, sections to be filled as completed (Key, animation, layout), stock number (if any), backgrounds and overlays, peg positions and any other information. This sheet is filled in by the Layout … Read more