Animinspo started about two years ago and has since occurred almost every last Friday of each month. Founded by UWE Animation alumni Amber Lee and Léo Bournas Milazzo during their final year back in 2024, Animinspo has since found a permanent home on the cozy top floor of Small Bar, amidst the hustle and bustle of Bristol’s King Street.

Animinspo Event (Photo: Aiden Lee)

Amber is an animator and 3D artist who spent the last two years creating animations and motion designs for the medical industry. She is now moving into the freelancing world, as is Léo, who has been working with Aardman for the last year. He is a passionate storyteller and about to start working on his next stop-motion film. Skwigly had the chance to catch up with Amber and Léo about their journey with Animinspo and the importance of getting involved in community event organisation.

What is the philosophy behind Animinspo?

Léo: Animinspo started out of the desire to get feedback for the projects we were working on – much inspired by the sweatbox sessions the third years hosted when we started our first year at UWE Bristol. We wanted to do a weekly feedback session with our course to bring people together and get excited about the craft of animation. Then it naturally grew. At first we were doing it at uni and then industry professionals started showing up. There was an instance where someone couldn’t enter the building because they didn’t have a student ID so we decided to move to Small Bar after that.

Amber: We were both making films at the time and would both take our films to loads of individual people for feedback. We knew that work naturally improves when you get many eyes and perspectives on it. It is so easy to just get into your own head when you’re making work. We wanted to provide a space where people could have their work seen at the very early stages before it gets perfected.

Amber & Léo hosting Animinspo at the Arnolfini (Photo: Sam Dwyer)

This is a bit of a tricky question – because it changes constantly – but can you describe the Animinspo logo?

Léo: Our logo is Uncle Mayhem. He is a character on a unicycle who we like to think of as a shapeshifting, metamorphosizing character. We are all about the community and giving a voice to artists, therefore we wanted a logo that can be re-birthed by anyone. Basically, our logo is just the unicycle and someone’s version of something riding it. The artist that is headlining our event will reimagine Uncle Mayhem.

Uncle Mayhem – Animinspo Logo (Photo: Amber Lee)

You’ve been running Animinspo for over two years now, how has this experience impacted you and what have you learnt from organising regular community events?  

Amber: Before Animinspo, we had animation friends here and there. Now I feel very immersed in the community and interlinked with everyone. Animinspo in it’s early days was a bit slap-dash. As it grew we also learnt a lot about business management and admin.

Léo: It has given me a tolerance for admin work and a new appreciation for Bristol and the amazing work that is coming out of this city. Like Amber said, we went from knowing individual artists to building this animation community. I have a lot of love and appreciation for that. Giving people a platform to share their work has been really nice. Especially seeing some people’s work improving over time and them taking on feedback and witnessing them grow confidence in their art and the way they talk about it.

Amber: There is a reason why we called it Animinspo. The original title of the event was Animation Inspiration. This sentiment is true for every single event: we come out of it feeling inspired! It shows what people are capable of creating as individuals or as groups. Being exposed to that keeps us motivated to make our own art. It is easy to feel burnt out from creating but when you have a place to share it, it keeps you energised. It has also given me more of a desire to help people. It is really powerful seeing how much you can have an impact by providing a platform.

What are your specific roles within the organisation of Animinspo and how do the volunteers support the event?

Amber: Léo and I do everything from organising files to emailing people and admin work, like setting up tickets. We split up admin and creative work equally between the two of us and each dip in and out of tasks like photography, videography or making posters and animations for the event. That’s how we’ve always done it. On the actual event days we have lots of people that help out. At a standard Small Bar event we sometimes have photographers, videographers, two people on the door and a handful of volunteers who help with the running of the event like for example Jonah who is our projectionist and tech-guy. He helps us setting up sound and projection and plays the videos throughout the night.

Léo: We have a massive team and bubble of excited people who really believe in this event and an amazing group of volunteers who help us set up, pack down and help bringing people in. It feels like a great little family and Amber and I have a nice dynamic as well.

Léo at Animinspo (Photo: Jonah Ling)

If anyone wanted to organise an Animinspo-like event in their city – what would be a piece of advise you can give them to create a space that brings the animation world together.

Both: Do it. Just do it!

Léo: For us it happened very naturally because we were already part of a great community of artists. Seeing what surrounds you, watering those seeds and that plot is quite a good way to approach it. Something that was crucial to get it off the ground was the community aspect. We’re all coming together and there is no pressure about being amazing. It is all about bringing people together, share work and discuss it. Something about that just makes it happen and means that people enjoy it. If I were to give a piece of advice to someone wanting to put on an event or pursue any sort of creative passion it would be: Build it and they will come. We just started doing it without seeking someone’s approval or anyone’s money. We just love it and that is why it’s happening. The passion for it keeps it alive.

Amber: I think we can both be quite perfectionist in our own work but running an event felt like we were trialling something new every time. You got to let go of perfectionism. Running regular events has made me realise that there isn’t a perfect time to do something you just got to do it. We just put the first one on and then improved it along the way.

Animinspo Poster: January Edition (Photo: Amber Lee)

Luzie from Skwigly went to this year’s June Animinspo and was immediately immersed in a fun and exciting evening of animation, presentations and a guest talk by Scribble Room founder Harry Slinger-Thompson. The top floor of Small Bar, decorated with cozy fairy lights, was packed with an audience eager to watch some animation and work in progress presentations. Luzie had the chance to speak to some Animinspo audience members and they all seem to share an appreciation for the diversity of animation projects, styles and approaches Animinspo includes in its programme. Luzie spoke to Erinn who recently started going to Animinspo.

Erinn: When you’re in the animation industry your mind can become warped by deadlines and notes. It is nice to see animation outside of that and meet the people who make it. You realise they are just normal people like everyone else and they can make wonderful things, which means I can make wonderful things too. It’s nice to speak to people and be inspired.

To round off our conversation with the Animinspo founders Amber and Léo Skwigly asked one final question: What are your future visions for Animinspo?

Amber: A big focus I would like to push for is to connect the network and help industry professionals who are in and out of contracts to connect with each other. Collaborations are also a really great way to connect the community. In the past, we collaborated with charities like the Birch Collective who we did an outdoor animation screening with.

Léo: I would love to continue to bring artists together, to share their work, get inspired together, grow confidence. That’s my vision for Animinspo. What we have got coming up are our monthly Animinspo sessions at Small Bar in Bristol, usually on the last Friday of the month. We also have a collaboration with Zinezilla coming up in September at Trinity Center. This will be our second Zinezilla collab and an awesome day of artists stalls, workshops and lots of films and talks.

Animinspo Picnic at Annecy 2026 (Photo: Amber Lee)

For more info on Animinspo, visit animinspo.com

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©2026 Pokémon. ©1995 – 2026 Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc. TM, ®Nintendo.

Phil Rynda, Director of Original Animation at The Pokémon Company International, joined Aardman’s Sarah Cox, Chief Creative Director, to share behind-the-scenes insights on the project’s development and creative collaboration. Featuring never-before-seen footage from the pilot and in-development production materials, offering the audiences in attendance an early look at Sirfetch’d and Pichu in action, while teasing further details that fans will no doubt be eager to unpack.

It was also revealed that the brand-new adventure is set in Pokémon’s ‘Galar’ region, which shares many geographical similarities with the real-world United Kingdom – a fitting backdrop for a collaboration with Aardman, one of Britain’s most celebrated animation studios, and the regal personality of Sirfetch’d. The panel also touched the project’s distinctly British sense of humour, which is long associated with many of Aardman’s best-loved productions.

It’s an honour to take part in Aardman’s panel at Annecy and talk about the shared commitment to quality, strong storytelling, memorable characters and a genuine respect for audiences and fans. This project gives us a unique opportunity to tell stories from the point of view of Pokémon, made possible by Aardman’s extraordinary craft, remarkable artistry. Their warmth, and affection for this much-loved Pokémon cast are evident in every brilliantly crafted frame.

-Phil Rynda (Director of Original Animation, The Pokémon Company International)

Sarah Cox, Chief Creative Director at Aardman added:

Aardman are delighted to bring the vivid physicality of Stop Frame animation into the Pokémon world. Director Tom Parkinson and team have created a hand-crafted spin on the wonderful Pokémon we all know and love with comedic storytelling that celebrates the quirks, eccentricities and charms of our heroes as they explore Galar on a delightfully offbeat Quest. Aardman and Pokémon share a strong commitment to creativity and talent on this shared quest of our own to bring joy to audiences across the world.

For future updates on Pokémon Tales: The Misadventures of Sirfetch’d & Pichu, visit pokemon.com

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Our latest professional focus is on Katie Barba who, having previously worked at Disney on their EMEA development slate and several high-profile children’s series, is currently Development Producer at Bristol-based A Productions, having joined in November 2023. A studio known for creating award-winning children’s content across all animation mediums for TV, film and streaming, recent project highlights include Jojo & Gran Gran for BBC Children’s, the Emmy-nominated The Nutcracker starring Elmo & Tango for Sesame Workshop, My Friend Maisy (with Karrot  Animation) and the upcoming BBC Ignite series The Underglow (with Gigglebug Entertainment). Following the studio’s return to independent ownership, Skwigly spoke with Katie to learn more about what her role entails and what the future has in store.

Katie Barba, Development Producer at A Productions. The Bristol-based, independently- owned animation production studio, which recently celebrated 40 years in business, makes iconic, award-winning children’s content for TV and film for audiences around the world. (Image: A Productions)

To start with, it would be great to learn about your personal background and what drew you to the creative industries (and, ultimately, animation)?

I have always had a great love of stories and the act of storytelling itself. When I was younger, I wanted to be a performer, then a casting director, now, as a development producer, I get to oversee lots of stories at varying stages of production. I didn’t know I wanted to work in kids’ entertainment or even TV until I started doing it. I was so lucky that my first industry job was an internship at Disney because I got to track the progression of a story from a short springboard made up of two sentences to a fully delivered episode. I knew so little about animation pipelines at the beginning of my career, but it felt like as soon as I had started, my feet were firmly planted and I love it here!

Prior to your current role at A Productions you were at Disney. How did that relationship begin and what skillsets did it cultivate?

I remember applying for the Live Action Production Internship at Disney EMEA whilst I was in university, laughing about what a longshot it was. When I got that interview, I was stunned! Beth Parker, who was heading up the animation production team at Disney EMEA at the time, nabbed me from the live action line up and I will be forever grateful. That internship laid the groundwork for my career, gave me incredible opportunities to form relationships with people and companies that I still hold dear all these years later. It was really one of those times in life when if you don’t throw yourself at the opportunity in front of you then you miss out long-term.

That single year taught me so much about animation production but crucially about the industry as a whole. I made so many friends there who shared their knowledge freely – lawyers who would talk me through contract terms, producers who taught me to read schedules and scrutinise budgets, creatives who taught me how to deliver feedback and all of them taught me how to collaborate. It was very much the most formative year of my adult life, to date.

You’ve contributed to several standout animated productions in recent years, such as Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire, 101 Dalmatian Street and Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life. What was your role in these projects and did the experiences of working on them prove valuable in terms of your own professional growth?

My very first series was 101 Dalmatian Street. Beth Parker called me up while I was working on my dissertation and asked how soon I could come back as a Production Coordinator on the series. I knew the name of every single one of those 101 dalmatians and every episode like the back of my hand. I was so excited to be part of such an incredible series with such fantastic talent across the board.

Once 101 Dalmatian Street had started wrapping up, I moved to Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life as Production Coordinator (then later supervisor). It was a really collaborative team, and I had been so encouraged on 101 Dalmatian Street, that Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life was a series where I was really able to find my ‘creative’ footing and began giving creative feedback alongside the execs. I learned a tonne about storytelling (have you ever seen a time-travel story told in 7-minutes, without dialogue?! I have!) and the value of a character-driven emotional story.

Now, Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire… this show was a whirlwind in the VERY best way possible. 10 stories, 13 directors, 6 countries represented and an incredible line up of talent throughout. I had the privilege of working on this anthology at Disney from shortlisting the stories right through to post-production and loved every second of it.

I then moved away from my role in production to Development Supervisor in the creative team, working closely with powerhouse duo Shamik Majumdar and Orion Ross while overseeing the development slate alongside the second season of Chip ‘n’ Dale: Park Life and Kizazi Moto. However, the skills and relationships I had cultivated with the production team meant that I often wore both hats; working with the fantastic Karen Doyle who was Director of Animation Production to keep things moving. It was just the environment that I tend to thrive in: furiously fast and methodically organised.

Can you tell our readers a bit about the role of Development Producer and how it differs from other Producer roles within animation?

As Development Producer at A Productions, both my experience in production and as a creative executive have been vital. It often feels that there is a hard line between creative and production roles but being a Development Producer has seen me squarely across both and that’s just the way I like it!

So much of what I do is forming and maintaining strong relationships with talent, studios, commissioners and more. I have always loved talking to people and as somewhat of an extrovert, it comes quite naturally most of the time. Stick me in a room full of people I don’t know, and you’ll have found me in my element. To work in development, your two great loves need to be stories and the people that have a story to tell.

Also, one of the key things a Development Producer does is stay very on top of content trends. When I was working at Disney, I managed the submissions, so I got to see a lot of projects and trends in development on a global scale. Knowing what is in production, what is working well on certain platforms and what commissioners are looking for at any given moment is half the battle when you are allocating resources to development projects and considering new submissions. The only way to find out about that is watching a lot of TV, reading a lot of articles and talking to a lot of people!

One of the strings to your bow is discovering new animation talent – how do you tend to go about this process and what would you say are the key things you’re on the lookout for?

Honestly, it really comes back to that love of networking and reading. I read a TONNE. When I first got the role, I spent a lot of time in libraries and signing up to newsletters for publishers and bookshops. I want to know what kind of stories are being loved by our audiences and the different places they are discovering them.

We are really open in our approach to sourcing stories as a studio. One thing I just love about A Productions is that our studio is open to pitches all year around, from everyone. Creativity and fresh, exciting stories really can come from anybody and that is an ethos that the studio maintains at its core in development.

We are always looking at new places to find those inspirations too. When we consider a pitch submission, or a book, podcast, webseries etc, we look at more than just the singular property in front of us and think about the talent behind the idea and if they might work for another idea we have in the pipeline.

Further to that, when searching for potential IPs, are there any crucial tenets/qualities that you look for in a prospective series? And, perhaps more crucially, are there any common pitfalls or mistakes that those hoping to develop their own IPs should avoid?

Yes! One of the very common reasons we turn down a series will be if it is too similar to something that already exists. We stay really on top of show releases and announcements. If we know something similar is in the works, or thematic development trends, then we need to make sure our development slate provides fresh, exciting ideas instead.

So really, what we look for is to be surprised. We try to balance our slate with projects based on existing IP and original ideas. It’s important to us to have both because we want to see new content being championed and we know there is appetite for it from our audiences.

A Productions has voiced an intent to develop its own original creator-driven content – has this process begun, and are there any upcoming projects, including across your service-based work, that you are able to currently speak about?

We have indeed been busy building a gorgeous development slate of our own original projects in the kids & family space that I’m really proud of. We have some very exciting productions coming down the road, but they are still under wraps for the time being – so watch this space!

More widely, we were very pleased to announce our collaboration with Finnish animation production studio, Gigglebug, on The Underglow earlier this year. It’s a stunning 2D animated, preschool series with two brilliant creators Tanya Scott and Sam Morrison that’s all about inspiring curiosity and wonder in children. The Underglow was developed in partnership with the BBC as part of BBC Ignite, a talent programme to find the UK’s next animation hit, and A Productions was chosen as the UK producer on the show.

We are also very proud to be a partner on the second iteration of BBC Ignite, which we can’t talk too much about just yet.

Without giving too much away, our own original development slate and our service-based production pipeline are looking really healthy and varied these days, and hopefully there will be more to come…there is a lot to look forward to!

How do you find Bristol as a locale for animation production and its animation community?

I adore Bristol! It is such a hub of creativity, music, art and attracts a huge amount of brilliant animation talent. It’s quite special being part of such a thriving creative ecosystem and TV production powerhouse. It’s a very collaborative, close-knit environment and incredibly innovative as well. Bursting with festivals, events and culture, there is always something happening here, and I love that A Productions’ studio is right in the heart of the city. As someone who lives outside of London, closer to Brighton, I love getting to be in-house every couple of weeks and immerse myself in Bristol-living (and eating!)

To see more of the work of A Productions, visit aproductions.co.uk
Bristol Animation Meetup is an initiative of Skwigly Online Animation Magazine, Rumpus Animation and Sun & Moon Studios. For updates follow us on Instagram.

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Not an animation studio in the traditional sense, Doublecat is focusing on producing and consultancy: bringing teams together that can work on projects at any stage of development, whether that is animated series, music videos, interactive narratives, commercials or films.

Allissoon is an energetic producer with 13 years of production experience working with studios all over the world, moving to 3 different countries in the last 4 years to follow her animation passion. It was while they were attending the Annecy Festival that she suggested they start a company to develop new ideas and help creators get in front of the right people. Coupled with Seb’s experience of running a commercial animation company and game development they are able to work on all sizes of production, calling upon a huge roster of talented creatives and studios from around the world.

Their first project is a traditionally animated trailer for a large US game studio in collaboration with Tokyo-based anime studios Transdyne and RhinoKino. They can’t announce what it is just yet, but it will be an absolute smash!

Doublecat are also working with Krome Studios and Blue Bandicoot with a famous Australian video game IP to create a new animated series.

Virtual Realiteens (Studio NX)

Additionally, Allissoon is executive producer on Studio NX’s new independent series Virtual Realiteens, working with Adam Jeffcoat (who created the Niko and the Sword of Light) interactive comic book app that was later turned into an animated series on Amazon Prime. She has secured the voice talents of Arin Hanson, Sean McLoughlin (jackspecticeye), and Elsie Lovelock.  A Kickstarter to help fund early development will be launching soon.

We’re keeping things super-agile and flexible to begin with. It’s great that we can be based in Bristol and Tokyo at the same time and collaborate with creatives and companies all over the world.

Why limit ourselves to one area when we have experience in so many? The cat’s outta the bag and we want to continue to make new things with new people!

It’s tricky in the industry right now, but people are going back to their creative roots. Creators are still coming up with great stories and audiences still want to immerse themselves in those worlds. We want to try and connect everyone together in whatever ways are most effective. We want to take our global network and use it to empower creators to get greenlit in any medium.

-Allissoon Lockhart

At its heart Doublecat is about bringing stories to life. We’ve got a really exciting slate of projects already lined up, from animated shows and games to comics and even a live-action series.

We all want new stories, new shows, new games, new fresh ideas. We are here to make them happen.

-Seb Burnett

For more information please visit doublecatproductions.com

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The film marks the third feature-length outing for the internationally-beloved Aardman mascot Shaun (who first appeared in 1995’s Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave), following 2016’s Shaun the Sheep Movie and 2019’s Farmageddon: A Shaun the Sheep Movie. This entry sees Aardman partnered with Sky for UK distribution, GKIDS for US distribution and StudioCanal as global partner. The film will premiere theatrically as a Sky Original on 18 September.

SHAUN THE SHEEP: THE BEAST OF MOSSY BOTTOM sees the residents of Mossy Bottom Farm looking forward to Halloween – until the clumsy Farmer trashes the Flock’s beloved pumpkin patch! When Shaun turns MAD SCIENTIST to fix the problem, things rapidly spiral out of control… With The Farmer missing and a wild beast roaming the woods of Mossingham, all the ingredients are in place for a monstrously fun family adventure.

Aardman/StudioCanal/Sky/GKIDS

With a cast including Dani Dyer in her first animation role (alongside Justin Fletcher, John Sparkes and Kate Harbour), Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom is directed by Steve Cox – who’d previously helmed Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas – and Matthew Walker (Lloyd of the Flies). Produced by Richard Beek (Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl) and Exec Produced by Sarah Cox, Peter Lord, Nick Park and Carla Shelley, the film is written by Mark Burton (Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, Paddington in Peru, Shaun the Sheep Movie) and Giles Pilbrow (Horrible Histories, Shaun the Sheep: The Flight Before Christmas).

Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom will be released in UK and US cinemas September 18.

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Star Wars Visions 2: Aau’s Song (©Lucasfilm)

The Bristol office in the Royal Talbot Buildings provides their creative and technical teams a fully serviced facility with a state-of-the-art screening room, meeting rooms and community space. Bristol, recognised by UNESCO as a City of Film, was selected for its proud legacy in animation and creative media, the vibrancy of its city life, and its proximity to London.

Establishing a base in Bristol was a natural choice given the city’s rich storytelling heritage and longstanding reputation for animation excellence. The move strengthens our operations in the UK and reflects our ambition to build a premium animation facility that harnesses the exceptional creative talent based in the city and surrounding areas.

-Natalie Adams (SVP Business Development, Triggerfish)

Helen Godwin, Mayor of the West of England, said:

I am delighted to welcome Triggerfish to the West of England, the country’s fastest growing regional economy. The creative industries are a key sector for our future, so an award-winning global studio choosing our part of the world for their UK base is a real vote of confidence in our Growth Strategy.

Bristol and the wider West are already world-renowned for animation and, with the support of Invest Bristol & Bath and partners across our region, this is a natural fit for Triggerfish. Working together with the wider cultural sector and investing our £25 million Creative Places Growth Fund, we will continue to create new jobs and opportunities for local people.

The studio will serve as a hub for creative development and physical meetings, while maintaining Triggerfish’s flexible, distributed approach to remote working. Most of the studio’s UK-based employees will continue to operate remotely, allowing the company to draw on talent from across the country.
Triggerfish’s commitment to nurturing British animation talent is also reflected in its participation in the BBC Ignite programme, the BBC’s flagship initiative designed to discover the UK’s next generation of animation creators. Launched in 2021, BBC Ignite provides selected creators with funding and development support in partnership with BBC Children’s & Education, with the potential for a full series commission.

As part of the programme’s second cycle, Triggerfish has been confirmed as one of a select group of production partners working alongside emerging creators as they progress to the final stage of development, helping to shape the next generation of homegrown British animation.
The opening of the Bristol office also brings Triggerfish closer to key clients and creative partners in the UK. The studio has long collaborated with Magic Light Pictures on their celebrated series of BBC One Christmas specials based on the beloved books of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler.

Triggerfish has animated seven of the award-winning specials, including Stick Man, Zog, The Snail and the Whale, Tiddler and, most recently, The Scarecrows’ Wedding, which drew the highest Christmas Day audience on BBC One over Christmas 2025. Across the slate, the productions have won multiple honours, including two Children’s BAFTAs and two British Animation Awards.

Together, the Bristol and Galway offices strengthen Triggerfish’s international network, complementing its Cape Town studio and its growing roster of global collaborators and co-production partners.

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Produced at Bristol’s Sun & Moon Studios, the series is created by local animator Sam Shaw, whose prior work spans illustration, shorts, music videos alongside key roles on Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, Maddie + Triggs, Kit & Pup, Hammer and Bolter and Doctor Who: The Macra Terror. The world of Duck and Frog sees its titular duo engaged in a series of slapstick misadventures in the modern British world, often oriented around Duck (voiced by Humza Arshad)’s attempts to keep employment being scuppered by Frog (Kevin Eldon)’s interference.

Skwigly touched base with Sam to learn about the characters’ origins, the Ignite development process and the team that brought the concept to life.

It would be great to chat a little bit about the work that you’ve been up to over the years. Were you always from Bristol, or did you get called here?

I definitely got called here. I’m originally from around Cambridge way but, like everyone who’s a fan of animation, you end up trying to get into Bristol as fast as possible, because of Wallace and Gromit and everything like that. But throughout the whole area, especially when I was first looking around, I saw so many little independent studios making amazing things. So in 2011 I smuggled my way into UWE in Bristol, graduated in 2014 and, thanks to a very nice studio called Sun & Moon, I have been employed as an animator, a storyboarder, a designer, a director – anything I’m allowed to do! I’ve got to work on some amazing projects, most recently Maddie and Triggs, which just dropped, which is a beautiful CBeebies/RTE show about a comedy duo of really heartwarming characters. I’ve also been able to animation direct for Chicken Run 2, for the 2D segments, which was incredible, really good fun. I even got a bit of a bucket list job when I worked on the recreations of some old Doctor Who episodes with my favorite doctor, Patrick Troughton.

So the Ignite scheme kind of marks the turning point into creating and directing your own show. How did you kind of get wind of it initially?

It rippled through the animation industry in a crazy, crazy way, just word of mouth, everyone was talking about this initiative and how open it was. I think Sun & Moon did a few, but the one that got through was Duck and Frog, my own idea. I’d just thought to myself, If I don’t try and put them out there and see if it floats, I’ll regret it forever, so I took a chance. I’ve been drawing them for goodness knows how long, since before uni, so it was a matter of seeing if anyone else liked them and, if not, I’ll just keep drawing and animating them in my spare time. But yeah, luckily it all kind of worked out in a pretty amazing way.

So it existed before Ignite, did you have to tailor it at all to meet any brief specifications?

It wasn’t necessarily to meet brief specifications. They existed for a very long time, just as a comedy duo in my third year short film, and then just like GIFs and short films going forward. So it was just about refining what was there and collaborating with the BBC to develop their character dynamic. Originally, Duck was very much the straight man and the boring one and Frog was the anarchic, chaotic ball of energy that would keep the momentum of the show going. The BBC really wanted to make sure that Duck was funny in his own way as well, so we really fine-tuned his character to give him neuroses and innocence and naivety, as funny as Frog’s boundless energy and light narcissism. So yeah, it was more about just whittling down what we could, making sure that dynamic could work in a really good way, and making sure that the format of the show had longevity. Because originally, the idea was that Duck would get a job every single episode, and Frog would just infiltrate it and sneak his way in. But they came up with a really good idea of making them flatmates as well, so Duck is being hassled both at work and at home. It created a lot more scope and ways we could fun with these characters and have them interact with each other, which is the main core and the unique selling point of the show, I think.

Duck & Frog (BBC)

Ducks have popped up in a few other things of yours, as I recall. Do they have a particular quality that draws you to them?

Yeah, I think ducks are just really good people. I was brought up in a little council house, but my mum used to rescue any poultry she could find that just needed a home. So a lot of my upbringing was just raising ducks in my room; the first animation I ever did was done with a duckling asleep on my shoulder. But that aside, I’m a massive cartoon nerd, so the best cartoon animal is always a duck – Duckula, Daffy, Donald – I’ve always gravitated towards those characters. So yeah, the second it came for me to make a character that I wanted to draw for like, 15 years, I knew it had to be a duck.

When you’re developing a show like this, that needs to be sort of targeted toward a specific viewership, do you find yourself watching shows for that age range a bit more, to get a sense of the lay of the land?

That’s a really good question. As a cartoon nerd, I’m watching them anyway and trying to pick up on visual language and pacing, especially from the more fast-paced ones. Spongebob, Teen Titans Go! and Danger Mouse are really good and kinetic and punchy, and keep attention. They’ve definitely been an influence in how I’ve directed this. The age range is somethingwe’re super conscious of, and the BBC have been fantastic with either “No, there’s no way that’s getting through” or “Yeah, we can try and make that work, because that’s really funny”. So they’ve been really up for pushing the comedy a bit further than I even expected, which has been absolutely lovely.

I saw that (veteran BBC Commissioning Editor) Jo Allen was involved. Was that her area?

Yeah. she’s got a great sense of humour, she was really pushing for some jokes, it was lovely. I thought that so many of the initial ideas in the scripts would just be met with “No, can’t do that”, “That doesn’t make sense”, “A kid might not get that one”, but they’ve been so open to the collaboration of it, within the BBC guidelines.

Can you break down the phases of development the show went through once it was selected for Ignite?

There were a lot of stages. The process changed a little bit as it was going along, and there were a few stages where they were refining pitches and selecting some for the next round and the next round. I think that happened three times before it was commissioned, or greenlit, and that’s when the real work has to happen, where you’re going to places like Cartoon Forum and pitching for collaboration and distribution and funding and stuff like that. So even when Ignite’s happened and it’s been selected, there are still hoops to jump through. But the BBC was super supportive throughout and it never felt too daunting or stressful.

Duck & Frog (BBC)

I was also interested in the casting process for a show that doesn’t have dialogue.

Frog is played by Kevin Eldon, who has been amazing with the amount of prep he’s done for every episode. He comes into the recording booth and he’s practiced and rehearsed the character, he’s really invested in it. That was so lovely, to have something that’s just been sitting in your head for donkey’s years be better because of someone else’s input. And the same goes for Humza (Arshad), who plays Duck; the second we heard him, we were like “This is the perfect Duck”. They’ve both been incredible. I thought it would be a lot harder to get people who are willing to just make the right noises. But both of them were instantly just bulldozing their way through the scripts and making the characters completely their own.

As it’s very slapstick comedy-oriented, are they working to a script or do they have visuals to work off of?

We record during the animatic phase, so we’ve got a locked animatic and they’ll run through the scenes a few times. As that’s going on, we then build a library of their sounds and stuff. So we have all of the “Hmm”s and “Aah”s and stuff we need, so they can focus on the really silly, bespoke stuff we want. Like, we’ve got Frog scatting in an episode, and it sounds incredible.

And I’ve seen on the screeners that I’ve watched, you’re credited as the director -is that the case with every episode?

I direct 49 out of the 50, with one episode directed by my Assistant Director, Erinn Lucas.

Had you done much directing before?

A little bit, never anything this big. I mentioned that I got to be the 2D Animation Director on Chicken Run 2, I also did a little bit on Maddie and Triggs as well in an interim period. A lot of client work, a lot of agency work, but nothing quite at this scope. It’s lovely that the BBC took a bit of a chance on that.

I’d imagine, when they’re characters that you go back with a long way, there’s sort of a personal connection where you want to have that aspect of control – but at the same time, you’re kind of giving up some elements, handing it over to other animators, other departments. Was that a tricky part of it?

I thought it would be harder than it was. Luckily, we employed really, really talented people, so that was great. I’m especially keen on design, and very picky about it, so I thought I would be all over that like a hawk, but we’ve got some amazing artists who have drawn it better than I ever could (annoyingly)! So that’s really helped. I was over storyboards quite a lot, and I’ve storyboarded quite a few episodes myself, but again, that team has just knocked it out of the park. The funniest episode isn’t boarded by me, and it’s so much funnier. The choices that have been made are so much better than the ones I naturally would have, and that’s how this show has gotten so good, by adding on to what was originally there.

The credit list has a lot of names I’m very happy to see grouped together. Did you have any say in assembling that team?

A little bit, especially when it came to picking the directors, and then I would basically delegate. The people who were running the departments know them better than I could, so I didn’t want to step on any toes, and I wanted them to be able to make it their own, as well.

Duck & Frog (BBC)

For the stories themselves, are you coming up with the initial concepts and having them fleshed out, or is the writing team pitching ideas to you?

Writers pitched ideas. I had a few that I wanted to do, that I gave as a springboard. But everyone came in with, I think, two or three ideas to the writers’ rooms, and then me, Sun & Moon and our amazing Head Writer Alex Collier would all talk in a massive Zoom meeting for half a day, just going through those ideas, developing them there and then, and selecting the ones we thought were good. We had Jo Allen in the room for a load of those as well, who was also chiming in with some really, really good ideas. Then we would take those ideas and have a little discussion internally, and select the ones to go ahead with and develop with some notes, and then have a few rounds of feedback with me and the BBC, and then they’re done!

Well, I’m looking forward to seeing more episodes, now that you’ve birthed it into the world – are things calming down for you a bit, or are you jumping onto something else?

We still have 25 episodes in the oven that need to get done pretty soon! So, yeah, if anything, now’s the busiest part. This interview’s been the most relaxing thing I’ve done all day!

Duck and Frog is available to watch on CBBC and iPlayer. You can follow Sam Shaw on Instagram, BlueSky and his website.
For more on the work of Sun & Moon Studios visit sunandmoonstudios.co.uk

Bristol Animation Meetup is an initiative of Skwigly Online Animation Magazine, Rumpus Animation and Sun & Moon Studios. For updates follow us on Instagram.

The post Duck and Frog | Q&A with creator/director Sam Shaw appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Duck & Frog (BBC)

The first production to emerge from the BBC Ignite animation programme, Duck and Frog (50 x 7’), debuts on BBC iPlayer on Friday 13 February, and will air on CBBC on Monday 16 February. Created by Bristol-based animator Sam Shaw and produced by Sun & Moon, Duck and Frog is a slapstick comedy set in a modern British world, bringing energetic, anarchic humour to audiences aged 7–12.

Animation fans can also look forward to more homegrown talent coming through the pipeline, as the second round of the BBC Ignite scheme advances seven new animated projects into the final stage of development. Launched in 2021, BBC Ignite is a one-of-a-kind initiative designed to uncover the UK’s next standout animation. Selected creators receive funding and support to co-develop their ideas in partnership with BBC Children’s & Education.

In this second cycle, designed to cultivate ideas and support original children’s content from early development through to potential commission, the seven shortlisted projects are now progressing to Stage Three of development. Working alongside leading production partners, this phase focuses on honing creative concepts and producing proof of concept materials. Confirmed partners include Blink Industries, Passion Pictures, Triggerfish Entertainment UK, Rumpus Animation, Jam Media, Mackinnon & Saunders, and A Productions, collectively helping to nurture bold new voices and original stories for young audiences.

The post BBC Ignite announce launch of first animation programme series ‘Duck & Frog’ appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

The film portrays the emotional journey of Rhi, a young woman who, in the midst of a house move, is propelled into a tumultuous journey through her own mind and memories. There, finding herself a child again, she confronts a miasma of her internal fears and impulses alongside a masked, theatrical spectre representing an abusive, coercive figure from her past. When fear turns to anger, she fights back to regain control and find a way to heal.

Following its world premiere at the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation & Technology (PFCAT) in August of last year, Brain Space had its UK premiere at Bristol’s Encounters Film Festival, subsequently screening at national events including Aesthetica Short Film Festival (ASFF) and Manchester Animation Festival (MAF), where it received a Special Jury Mention. With the film longlisted for a 2026 British Short Animation BAFTA nomination earlier this month, Skwigly were excited to speak with director Laura Tofarides about her career in animation and Brain Space‘s incredible, oceans-spanning production journey.

Can you tell us a bit about where you came from and your journey into animation?

I was born and grew up in Wales, but I went to uni in Bristol at UWE. I knew from the start that I really wanted to work at Aardman. I don’t know if it’s still the case but, at the time, Aardman only took interns from a few universities in the UK, and UWE was one of them. So I was very deliberate in choosing my university based on trying to get into Aardman.

I also did a certificate in character animation, which was run through NFTS, but actually ran at Gas Ferry Road. It was very similar to the Aardman Academy courses that run now.

It’s quite a nice initiative to have people really focused in on getting a handle on that specific quality of performance.

It definitely helps, being trained in a house style. But for me, I’d come out of uni and my showreel probably just wasn’t up to scratch in terms of the physicality of animating. I learned a huge amount at university, but not all of it was animation related; you’re also learning how to be an adult, how to not kill your housemates when they use your tea towels to mop up bin juice, all these things. So I knew that, when I graduated, I really needed to do a focused course. It was also my first time ever doing a dedicated 40 hours a week, 9am-6pm, and each week we would get a new task that we would animate. It was just real, focused work with fantastic feedback.  That’s how you improve, just real basic stuff, like, how do you do a walk cycle? What are the hips doing? What are the shoulders doing? Where is the weight? And then you move on to performance from there. But you really do need to kind of have that baseline.

Laura Tofarides

What would you say was your first big break into the world of stop-motion?

Chuck Steel: Night of the Trampires was my first job. I started as a runner, because I had never sculpted, so I needed to learn how to sculpt before they would hire me as an animator. It was Josh Flynn who taught me how to sculpt, between all my other runner duties, getting a test unit set up, and begging them to give me little shots to get started. It was off the back of that that I then progressed to assistant, then junior, then full animator by the end of that film, because there were three feature productions happening at the time and animators were like gold dust. That’s partly why I was promoted so quickly, but also I was working really hard.

I imagine there was quite a lot to do.

Oh, a huge amount. It was a very in-depth feature film. It was sculpt-through, plasticine stop motion on singles! Honestly, pretty much every other job has felt easy by comparison. That’s quite nice, because that was a trial by fire. I learned so much on that job, because there were so few of us. There were a lot of new grads, and we were covering a lot of different departments ourselves. But that meant that I learned how to rig, I would sometimes have multiple units on the go, I was really learning that workflow and how to get stuff sorted myself. It’s really stood me in good stead ever since.

Around that time, or nearer the end, Early Man was happening as well. Did you work on that a bit?

Yes, I did three years on Chuck Steel, jumped on and did three months on Early Man, and then three weeks on Isle of Dogs.

That’s a pretty good trifecta!

I think that’s the luck element of career, though. Obviously, you have to work really hard and you have to get good at your job. But I couldn’t have created that scenario, you know. I think success is a combination of hard work, good luck and timing, and I graduated at a good time.

Then at some point, did you go overseas?

New Zealand – we did a year on Kiri & Lou. By that time we were making Brain Space as well, so we moved the entire film there.

Are there any other career highlights in the lead up to Brain Space?

Working on Robin Robin was such an amazing project for me. I’d always wanted to work with Mikey (Please) and Dan (Ojari), because I was a fan of their short films, and so to get to work on this magnificent, stop-motion, needle felt musical was a thrill. It was in 2020 during one of the lockdowns and I remember being on set, so happy to see the crew and to be like, ‘Okay, we’re finding a way to do this’, you know? Just a really, really special project.

Then I think Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl has to be up there as well. I had worked with Nick (Park) and Merlin (Crossingham) on Early Man, but as I say, I was only there for three months, and I didn’t have as much contact with the directors at that time, whereas Wallace and Gromit was part of the reason why I wanted to be a stop-motion animator, so it really was like a dream job. Nick and Merlin were really keen to have lots of feedback from the animators, we had a lot of creative input into our shots, when we were planning them out. It was a really collaborative process and I really loved my time working on that film.

Were there any particular shots on that that you hold aloft?

I have a sequence of the Norbots singing the “handy, nifty Norbots” song – which obviously just lived rent free in my head for about three months – I’ve got a sequence there where Gromit is kind of being unwittingly trapped in the shed by Norbots. He’s in a wheelbarrow, and he’s flipped up on a fence and he’s on a trampoline, and there’s an incredible sequence of getting him into that shed. For me, Gromit is the pinnacle of character animation. I mean, I’m biased, but because he doesn’t speak, and all you have is like the brows and the body language and the timing and the posing to be able to tell the story through. Just a very slight, wry raise of an eyebrow, and the audience knows exactly what is on his mind, and everyone really empathizes with him. So it was always my goal to get some Gromit shots. Obviously, Gromit is Nick’s baby, and it took a little while to kind of get that trust. So yeah, it felt really gratifying to be trusted with those shots.

Laura Tofarides

So how long was the idea for Brain Space in the air for?

I’ve been thinking about making this film – or a version of it – for maybe 10 or 15 years, and then obviously the production took five years as well. So yes, a very long, long time.

With what you were saying about luck and circumstance, I imagine that plays quite a bit of a role with getting the right planets to align, to get a film off the ground and get funding and whatnot.

So it was Ffilm Cymru, and some of that money comes from BBC Wales as well. It was the BFI network funding pot, it’s one of their regular funding things that they do. A few people have asked me about the funding, and I don’t really know what the landscape is like out there, because we applied, and we were long listed, and then we were shortlisted, and kept having conversations, and then they said that they would fund us, which was amazing. We did eventually run an Indiegogo campaign just for finishing funds and festival submissions and stuff, but that was last year, right at the end of the production process.

Having secured the funding, do people from that end weigh in at any point with tweaks or suggestions or enhancements, so to speak, of the film, or were you able to stick to your original concept?

So COVID hit, basically, and the BFI network fund at that time was mostly a live-action short film fund, and so they were really reticent to release the funding because they didn’t want to be seen to be encouraging filmmakers to go out and break lockdown -even though we were like, “Hey guys, we’re already in a bubble, we can make this in our bedroom right here!”. But what that meant was that we went through about a year of script revisions, because that’s one thing that you can do. So we had lots of back and forth with Ffilm Cymru. I did find that quite difficult, but also I am really grateful for it, because I am so glad that we didn’t shoot version one. It was a very different film, so actually spending the time on the story was immensely important.

Making Brain Space (Dir. Laura Tofarides)

Are there any fundamental differences you can go into?

It was a lot darker and just not as tight. There was a lot more looking at different parts of her brain, like embarrassment and fear, and tonally it wasn’t as good. Also it kind of leaned more on the very stark, direct, brutal aspects of things; it took me a long time to listen to people and pull back from that, because I thought that they were maybe being a little bit precious and not really wanting to talk about the topic at hand. It took getting some great feedback from directors at Aardman for me to finally listen.

It’s interesting you bring that up because, of course, it is a pretty heavy subject, but it’s told in a way that I think really keeps the viewers’ attention. Aesthetically, it remains quite comfortable and inviting, and audiences can understand what the film is saying without being put in an uncomfortable place. Was there a fine-tuning aspect of it, to get that balance?

I mean, firstly, thank you for saying that. I really appreciate that. Of course, tone plays a huge part of it, but it was important to me that I not have an adversarial relationship with my audience. I’ve been to plenty of festivals and pre-selected enough films to know that, yeah, some people take the tack of almost putting the audience through an ordeal. A really important part of this for me is to connect with an audience, so I was trying to think, “How do I do that?” You need to build up the empathy with the characters before you then put them in peril, and it was important to me to get them into the story really quickly, into the theatre of the mind, and to keep the audience on side. It’s been amazing in the screenings that I’ve attended that people come up to me afterwards and say that they really empathize with the characters, and they had a strong emotional reaction to it. And I think that’s amazing. That’s what we want, right? As filmmakers, we want to connect with people and to move people.

For the puppet making, you worked with Sculpt Double – or was it just Josh?

It was predominantly Josh. I think Nathan (Flynn) did make one of the armatures, but it was mostly Josh, who only signed up to make the puppets and ended up animating most of the film because I was busy animating on things like Wallace and Gromit and Kiri & Lou, but luckily, he’s a good animator as well.

Joshua Flynn

Could you tell us a little bit about what they do, and your relationship with them over the years?

So I met Josh and Nathan on Chuck Steel, they were two of the main sculptors on that film. Josh is my boyfriend as well, he taught me how to sculpt and a lot of puppet making stuff. They work on a lot of high-end features, they did some of the main sculptures for the faces on Isle of Dogs and sculpted some of the dogs, and kind of informed the characters Atari and Tracy. They also worked on The Grand Budapest Hotel and Frankenweenie and all kinds of stuff, Robin Robin, Love Death + Robots, the Over the Garden Wall 10 year anniversary special, as well as a whole bunch of commercials. So they’re incredibly talented, and obviously having Josh on board, he gave up years of his life animating, mostly for free, to help me make this. I asked him “Why?” and he just said “Because I want to help you to make this film to fulfil your vision”.

But I think he also got a lot of creative satisfaction out of it, because he designed the puppets, he made all of the replacement faces – they’re all handmade, there’s no 3D printing. That’s a technique taken over from Isle of Dogs, because Wes Anderson loves everything to be real and in-camera and not using computers as much as possible. He also got to set up the cameras and the lights and to animate it all mostly himself. So, yeah, I think he got a lot more creative satisfaction out of the shooting than I did. Quite frankly, I found the shoot a really frustrating process because, for the most part, I wasn’t present, and trying to do everything through someone else I found quite difficult. I would never advocate for trying to make a short film at the same time as working full time. It was too much. But when I started, I didn’t have a job, and I kind of thought, I’ll make my own short film. I’ll hire myself as an animator. And then everything got busy, as they do.

And you mentioned having to bring it overseas, did you have to bring it back again? Or was it finished when you were over there?

Oh no, we had to bring it back here. So, in the time we made this film, I worked on two feature films, four series, one half-hour short and a bunch of commercials. And, yeah, we moved it to New Zealand and back, and we shot in four different studios. Everything about it is crazy, and it’s been really a hell of a journey. I am quite thankful it’s finished!

Making Brain Space (Dir. Laura Tofarides)

Thinking of the design for the villain character, the concept, visually, with the mask and everything was really nicely done. I was sort of wondering if there were any kind of specific sort of cultural roots in the depiction of the character?

We’d been watching Sichuan opera online, and they do this amazing thing where they put the arm in front of the face, and then there’s a mechanism in the head that changes the mask to show changing emotions. We thought that was really cool. But with his overall design, there’s not that many masks, maybe, like, seven or eight, so we’ve got no in-betweens. We wanted to make them really visually distinct and really see how far we can push them. Obviously, he starts out quite neutral-looking, and then gets freakier and scarier. But the whole idea behind them is that he’s obviously a bad guy, and it is a big old visual metaphor for coercive control and people being manipulated. He has a very mercurial personality, you don’t know where you stand with him. Who is the man behind the mask? We don’t know if we only see what he shows us. And so, when he is then finally unmasked, and he’s hiding in the glare of the light of truth, that’s when we see him, and he doesn’t like that at all.

As well as Josh, pretty much everyone in the credits was someone who felt like a real get. I was wondering to what extent were you able to assemble an ideal crew? Or was that a decision that was in someone else’s hands?

The crew was up to me, I would say. I mean, we had a very, very small budget, so actually, the credits make it seem as though there are a lot more people working on the film than there actually were. For the most part, it was just me, Josh, Nia (Alavezos, producer), and Zuhair (Mehrali, VFX and editor), and then all the other people there came in for like a week or two as a favour for us. I think that’s the benefit of having worked in the industry and having those connections, is that I can ask the best people in the industry, and sometimes if they’re not busy – or even if they are – people really like a creative challenge, their motivations for doing things aren’t solely monetary a lot of the time. A lot of people who worked on it just thought it was a really cool concept, and they just genuinely wanted to help us. And I’m so grateful to all of them, because we could not have done it by ourselves.

Making Brain Space (Dir. Laura Tofarides)

It’s a lovely thing, and I’ve seen it a few times in Bristol. There’s something about the local community where people do want to band together a bit.

The Bristol creative community is amazing. It’s part of the reason I love living here is that you’re surrounded by amazing, talented artists.

And it was very nice to be able to give it its UK premiere in Bristol at Encounters. How has the festival response in general been?

Yeah, Encounters was the best place for our UK premiere. It was great. Generally, we’ve had a really good time at festivals. Our world premiere was at the Portland Festival of Cinema, Animation and Technology in Oregon, so the benefit for us was that we also got to meet a lot of the animators who worked at ShadowMachine and Laika. And I managed to get a tour of Laika, which was a bucket list tick for me! We’ve also taken it to the Bucheon International Animation Festival in South Korea. We only got to spend four days there, which I feel is crazy, because I had to get back to my job and carry on animating, but it was a pretty magical four days.

Laura Tofarides

And BAFTA contention has to be exciting. Do you have anything kind of special planned for it in the lead up?

The BAFTA longlisting really genuinely took us by surprise. I was immediately elated. And then just like, “Oh no, I’m really on the back foot here. I should have planned for this!” One of the producers on Chuck Steel once said, “Laura, you need to learn to plan for success” – there’s wisdom in there! We’re having lots of chats with lovely people such as yourself, I think we’re screening it at a couple studios. I just had a screening today, actually, here at Aardman Aztec West, with all the Shaun the Sheep crew. I think we’re also screening at Blue Zoo quite soon, and the Women In Animation online event. Just showing the film to people and seeing what they think.

We’re doing a talk at Animatex in February in Egypt, so I’m really excited to go to that. That’ll be in Cairo. I’ve heard lots of good things about it, plus I’ve never seen the pyramids, so that’ll be great! There’s also been a few people actually inviting us to festivals in the past few days. So that’s a new thing for me, it’s very exciting. But who knows what the future holds?

For more on Brain Space visit the film’s Instagram and lauratofarides.co.uk

Bristol Animation Meetup is an initiative of Skwigly Online Animation Magazine, Rumpus Animation and Sun & Moon Studios. For updates follow us on Instagram.

The post Brain Space | Interview with Laura Tofarides appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.

Joanna is responsible for overseeing and strengthening the creative vision of A Productions’ award-winning children’s content, ensuring each show has its own unique and authentic voice.

Joanna Hepworth, creative director at A Productions

She has 18 years of experience in animation production and has been a director at the creative-led studio since 2019.

Joanna has worked on many notable shows including Sesame Street animated specials for Sesame Workshop, namely Furry Friends Forever: Elmo Gets a Puppy, and Sesame Street The Nutcracker starring Elmo and Tango, as well as several series for the iconic show.

She also worked on Pip and Posy Let’s Learn, produced by Magic Light Pictures for Sky Kids with animation services provided by A Productions, among many other productions.

Independently-owned A Productions, which recently marked 40 years in business, makes children’s content for TV and film for audiences in the UK and around the world, working with leading broadcasters and streamers including Disney, Netflix, Max, CBeebies and CBBC, and Sky.

Joanna will have creative oversight across all project development, encompassing A Productions’ service work and its own original content.

We will continue to take pride in creating authentic, imaginative content that our audiences will love, and we look forward to sharing some very special projects with them in the year ahead.

-Joanna Hepworth (Creative Producer, A Productions)

With her extensive industry experience and creative talent, Joanna is a huge asset to A Productions, helping to ensure the future success of the studio.

-Katherine McQueen (Managing Director, A Productions)

The A Productions team is currently working on My Friend Maisy, which is being co-produced by BBC Studios Kids & Family Productions and Trustbridge Entertainment for Sky Kids, with animation created by A Productions and Karrot.

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Helen Beard

Reporting to Managing Director Sean Clarke, Beard will shape a people and culture strategy with a focus on long-term impact, that protects the studio’s open, collaborative environment, aligns with its global ambitions, and supports its continued success as a leading force in animation.

Collaborating closely with employees and the Executive Board, she will champion creative excellence, building the skills, talent and leadership needed for the future whilst ensuring that employee ownership (EO) principles remain deeply rooted in the business.

Beard joins from luxury lifestyle brand, Mulberry Group PLC, where she most recently held the position of Group HR Director. She led a global HR team through significant milestones and periods of change and worked closely with the Executive Committee in delivering its turnaround strategy. She previously held senior leadership positions at the Arcadia Group Ltd.

Beard takes up the role of Chief People Officer on 12 January following the retirement of Paula Newport, who worked at the studio for 27 years.

As someone who has long admired Aardman as an iconic British brand I am both excited and honoured to join the team in its 50th anniversary year. I look forward to contributing to Aardman’s continued growth and success as we shape the future together.

-Helen Beard

We’re delighted to welcome Helen to Aardman. She is a proven and thoughtful leader, bringing deep experience in people management and skills development, alongside a values-led approach that feels entirely aligned with who we are as a studio. At the same time, it’s important to recognise and celebrate the extraordinary contribution Paula has made during her many years at Aardman. She has played a key role in shaping our culture whilst supporting many people along the way. We are hugely grateful to her and wish her a very happy retirement.

-Sean Clarke (Managing Director, Aardman)

The post Aardman appoints Helen Beard as Chief People Officer appeared first on Skwigly Animation Magazine.