Aardman & Tate Movie Project Opt for CelAction

Acclaimed Brit studio Aardman Animations has completed The Itch of the Golden Nit, a production with Tate Media, using the animation software CelAction2D. The half-hour film was created using drawings by thousands of children ages 5-13, animated by Aardman and featuring the voices of David Walliams, Rik Mayall, Catherine Tate and Alexei Sayle.

“CelAction2D was the perfect solution for the Tate Movie Project—it was the only animation software that kept the scanned-in textures at perfect quality,” said Emma Lazenby, art director on the Tate Movie Project. “This meant that the drawings being animated were the ones actually drawn by the children, with just a few adjustments by our team using felt tips, pencils and paint to make alternate shapes and angles, and a little tinkering in Photoshop to give joints more movability. For this project, we made over 450 characters, all animated using CelAction2D.”

The Itch of the Golden Nit

The Tate Movie Project is a groundbreaking crowdsource production using film elements provided by children, whether designs, plot points, sound effects or costumes, uploaded through www.tatemovieproject.co.uk. Additionally, Aardman and Tate hosted hundreds of kids’ production workshops across the U.K. in the Tate Movie Truck—a state of the art mobile learning space. The film is currently showing in theaters and galleries around the United Kingdom. London-based CelAction Ltd.’s 2D software has been used in popular children’s programs Peppa Pig, Little Princess and Charlie & Lola and is available for Windows XP, Vista and 7.