Aardman Animations has bought an Autodesk Smoke editing and finishing system and added it to the workflow for its new Cbeebies series Timmy.

The Smoke was sold and installed by reseller XTFX, along with a Sledgehammer HD!O from Maximum Throughput.

It has already been put to use on the first two episodes of the 52 x 10-minute pre-school show and will also be used on the second series of Shaun The Sheep which is currently in pre-production.

“We used to use general PC/Mac-based products, but they're too slow for an HD series production, and in a business where labour makes up most of our costs, time is money,” explained Ian Fleming, head of production technology at Aardman. “We looked at competitive products but we found Smoke to be flexible and a better fit for our workflow.”

Workflow for Aardman sees shots uploaded to the Sledgehammer which are then offlined using Final Cut Pro. XML files are then sent to the Smoke system for online editing, grading and finishing.

“XTFX came up with a good workflow for us,” said Fleming. “We have two separate pipelines for Timmy and Shaun but both projects go through the Sledgehammer and are finished in Smoke. We were one of the first few companies in the world to create a workflow based on using stills cameras for HDTV.

"We've changed a lot of our technology and it's been a steep learning curve, but we now have a pipeline for digital stills animation which can also be scaled up for feature films.”

Aardman originally invested in Smoke to speed up editorial, but now uses it for grading, conforming and finishing as well. While Aardman does most of its post-production in-house, it has outsourced some finishing work to facilities.

“With Smoke, we retain control of the production from start to finish and we have the flexibility to allow for changes in deadlines,” said Fleming.

Aimed at both boys and girls, Timmy will have no dialogue, but will feature a variety of animal noises, comedy, fun and character animation.

Each episode will follow the lamb Timmy to nursery as he learns something about himself and all is friends- an assortment of bright young animals, some farmyard, some domestic, some wild.

Timmy is scheduled for transmission in 2009.

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