My trusty Nokia 3310 (RIP) was hopping along my desk one Tuesday morning –

“Hello Ciaran, Aardman here.  We’ve got some titles, lower thirds, edits and other bits that need doing for a pilot, and someone here recommended we get you involved to do it, so…. can you help us out?”

Aardman were calling.
Yep, Aardman, those guys.  This was a call I’d been waiting on for years.  Aardman, I thought, Fuck. Yes.

“Oh, eh, ok, yeah, sure, I think I should be ok to fit you guys in a for a few days this week…”
“Fantastic, call into reception at 9.30 tomorrow and we’ll take it from there.”

All neatly celebrated with a tribal warrior victory dance around my studio…

Ricky’s Radical Reinventions was a pilot kids practical science/create stuff show commissioned to Aardman’s broadcast wing by CBBC, fronted by future Art Ninja himself, former neighbour and fellow skater, one Ricky Martin.  The idea behind the show was that it would be a science show for kids, with all manner of Blue Peter style build-it-yourself projects, aimed at 8-11 year olds.  Aardman had an old Citroen van painted and stickered up with appropriate livery and the .AI file they had was what they wanted the motion graphics to reflect, so that’s what happened

What I did:

Use the graphics made for the van and some throwaway footage to create title animations, lower thirds, edit effects, wipes, bumpers, stings and the vast majority of the opening sequence – all that kind of fun stuff.

How I did it:

Damn fast I tell you, even if my trusty old MBP, the Midnight Toker, (which was enjoying its final in-house swansong with this job) very nearly peaced itself out of service during the last-minute renders on the Friday evening.  It’s since retired to a coaching role back at the house, used for watching stuff and light PS/LR work…

Quite a last minute rush job in many aspects, but still fun to do, even if CBBC, in their infinite wisdom, never commissioned a full series…