Making Abney & Teal

Here are just a few photos from the making of Abney & Teal. Once the episode production line started churning I generally forgot to take many photos so it's just a tiny snapshot of year one of four years work by the whole Ragdoll team.


My desk at Ragdoll studios in Stratford upon Avon. I must have been working late on Abney's hut.


Set construction from my painted parts was a model of simplicity.


An early experiment with a rod-puppet Abney. That's Tahra Zafar on the right, who made all the real-world puppets for the show. (www.tahrazafar.com)


Teal in construction, before her dress was made less "tasteful."


Original Poc-Poc. Eventually they were re-built in the computer using the textures from these puppets. (The style of their animation was developed from some earlier footage of me moving little home-made clay versions with magnets in them. This gave them the motion-blurred shuddery feel they sometimes have.)


Photographing Teal and Abney from a gazillion angles.


Another model of simplicity. The amazing Davide Arnone (www.davidearnone.co.uk) and I spent three weeks (seriously, three weeks) adjusting Abney's ears because they didn't come out right in the photos. I think there were something like four positions per single ear for every one of thirty-six angles of the head.


Another incarnation of my desk at Ragdoll.


Tim van Eyken in his socks.
(At Pinewood studios experimenting with Bop sounds).