The BBC’s seasonal television idents have become as much a part of Christmas in the UK as mince pies, Wham! and complaints about the size of the Quality Street tin. This year’s idents were created by BAFTA-winning Magic Light Pictures and feature characters from the animated adaptations of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s story books.
Building on an established relationship with the BBC, a team of around 20 people worked on the clips’ development. “It would run across production, storyboarding work, animators, lighting and comp artists, voice actors and sound effects, and music team,” begins Barney Goodland, producer at Magic Light Pictures. “We used lots of our previous compositions from our specials but adapted them for the idents.”
The project extended over a period of six to eight months with the first discussions taking place in April, he continues. “We delivered them in November but the work wasn’t full time. Bits and bobs were happening at first with more work happening through July, August, September and October. Animation took about a month and comp work took about a month too. We’ve been thinking about them for a while.”
This year’s production marks the third time Magic Light has produced idents for the BBC, and it soon became apparent that a particularly creative approach would be needed. Previously, the briefs have focused on single characters. “We’ve done one specifically about Zog, one specifically about The Gruffalo’s Child and one specifically about Tabby McTat,” says Goodland. “But this year, the BBC asked if there was any way to feature multiple characters in individual Idents, and that was a challenge because Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler’s characters don’t ever meet in their books. Their books are standalone stories that might be in this brilliant Julia and Axel universe, but they’re actually quite separate. They’re very separate stories.”
In order to build a believable universe, it was necessary for the team to imagine scenarios in which the characters could meet, while remaining true to the stories that are known and loved by children everywhere. The Gruffalo, for example, lives in a forest environment, and Stick Man visits a forest, which allows the idents to credibly show the characters inhabiting the same space, doing things that impact each other. “It was a challenge to get the characters together, but we’re really pleased that we found a way to do that.”
A deep understanding of the stories, and of the expectations of the audience is key. “It took a while, but it was a really fun process, because finding a way to get characters on screen at the same time was, as I say, a challenge, but actually something that’s really rewarding in the end.”
Both story and audience are the key drivers for Magic Light, and the team approaches the idents in the same way as their other projects with a desire to push the quality as far as possible. The same crew members who work on the company’s features follow the same processes. “It was a lot less material to animate, but the team was given the same amount of time to work on those shots as they would if they were working on the specials.”
Here, Goodland expands on why the idents are so important, hinting at the ethos that drives their development. “These 30 second films will be seen again by audiences this Christmas, millions of people growing up. The Idents were always a special thing for me—kind of the launch of Christmas. They were one of the things that packaged Christmas, because you pore over the TV schedule, see the things you want to watch, and they bookend everything. We wanted them to be a real treat for audiences. We want people to enjoy them every time they see them, so there’s lots of little details. We wanted the performances to ring true, for viewers to be excited about the characters they are seeing, for them to have humour and some heart as well.”
As well as honing their creative skills and technical abilities, Goodland feels the team has grown in confidence as storytellers over the years. It’s clear they enjoy getting to know their audience and focusing on delivering “better and better films.”
Many of the assets used in the idents already existed, character models of The Gruffalo, The Gruffalo’s Child, Zog etc which saved time and resources as the team was able to dip into its back catalogue. This simplifies continuity for the characters, which is essential in imbuing the work with familiarity. “The important thing is that it still connects to what people understand of these stories and worlds. We wouldn’t do a different version of anything if it already exists. We want to feel like extensions of things that the audience is already connected to.”
Thanks in part to the timescales involved and the established relationship, the Magic Light team was able to formulate ideas and share them with the BBC at numerous stages of the development process. “We could really go and think about things in depth and they always had really good suggestions for tweaks or things that we might want to try differently or go away and think about again,” says Goodland, “The process at the time can feel really hard, but actually when you bring it all together it’s easier to do it earlier than later.”
Magic Light was able to call on another established relationship with Trigger Fish Animation, based both in the UK and Cape Town, South Africa. In terms of the technology deployed, Maya was used for layout, rigging and animation, with Houdini selected for Look-dev, dressing effects and lighting work while harnessing Pixar’s USD format data interchange. The team rendered with Arnold and comped in Nuke.
Each process was worked on a stage at a time. “We probably put the most work into the storyboarding and the animatics, because that’s giving you the framework for everything else that follows. You can’t underestimate storyboarding really. For us, it’s kind of criminal to be going into those later processes without your story figured out. So we did spend a lot of time storyboarding and getting the basics right, the character interactions, talking to the BBC, showing them what we were doing. Once we got that in shape, animation and lighting and comp kind of led quite smoothly thereafter.”
With the festive season almost upon us, the team is looking forward to sharing their work with audiences during those increasingly rare moments where people watch television together. Goodland concludes by capturing the essence of what drives the team creatively: “Our films are shown at Christmas. We’re kind of thinking about Christmas quite a lot. And it’s still one of those special times of year when families sit down and watch programmes together and talk about them and experience them. And, yeah, it’s lovely to be a part of that. Really, anything we could do to heighten that experience is a lovely thing.”
