
On Christmas day in the UK, BBC One delighted children nationwide with an animated adaptation of the much-loved picture book Stick Man, the tale of a happy-go-lucky father's epic journey to make it home in time for Christmas.
Martin Freeman, Hugh Bonneville and Jennifer Saunders lent their voices to the half-hour animated show produced by Magic Light Pictures. The show is available in the US to Amazon Prime members via SOVD. See the trailer here.
When they made the decision to produce the show, their fourth adaptation of a Julia Donaldson-written/Axel Scheffler-illustrated story, Magic Light opted to produce Stick Man entirely in CG, which presented some challenges in maintaining the tactile look of stop-motion models and real sets from the previous films. They turned to South African Animation Studio Triggerfish as their creative partner. We grabbed a few minutes with Triggerfish Producer Mike Buckland to learn how they went about it, specifically in terms of their approach to rendering.
What was the focus of your work on Stick Man?
Triggerfishs role on the project started with working with the Director Jeroen Jaspaert and Co-Director Daniel Snaddon to develop storyboards from the script. We then handled all the production design and art direction, the asset creation, character animation, lighting, rendering and compositing. Magic Light also managed the all the voice recording, postproduction, cusic and sound mix.
Why did Magic Pictures decide to do Stick Man in all CG?
The film is the fourth in a series, and distinctive style had been developed in the previous films based on Axels drawings and inspired by the tactile look of stop-motion models and sets. The films had actually utilized real sets over which they composited the CG character animation. The scope of Stick Man made it too expensive to build so many real model sets and characters, so the big challenge for us was to try an emulate this handmade approach to the whole film, but to do it all in CG. This meant we had to do a lot of work in sculpting, texturing, shading and lighting to achieve the look of physical models and lighting.
How did you approach rendering on this project?
We were using Softimage with the Arnold renderer and the StoA plug-in (Softimage to Arnold), and the ease of use and simplicity of Arnold render settings when trying to complete shots under production pressures was extremely helpful. We could achieve very good-looking results with a minimal amount of lights. We really love the way lights react in Arnold, and even with minimal light setups, we could produce beautiful results that feel natural. Although our look wasnt exactly physically accurate, all our lighting starts with a natural lighting approach. Arnold delivers that very quickly and beautifully, but it also allows you to make creative adjustments to achieve a specific look.
The lighters also appreciated the iterative progressive rendering that helped to speed up the lighting on a per-shot basis. Arnolds .tx converted texture files helped reduce render times considerably. We were able to render sets that were quite extensive and which incorporated a lot of assets with displacements to create the handmade' look, as well as many densely covered grassy surfaces thath required the rendering of many millions of strands. Despite extensive use of SSS shaders on our snowy scenes, we found that we could get noiseless renders comparatively quickly. We also made extensive use of the AOVs during the compositing process, which allowed us more flexibility in optimizing our render process and achieving the Directors specific vision for each shot.
What shaders did you use?
We used mostly the Arnold Standard shader. Skin_SSS was great for creating a snow shader, Sky Shader for reflection/refraction information, Hair Shader for strand rendering. Store in channel for custom aovs - that was particularly useful for the ocean foam, which relied on quite a lot work in the Comp suite to get the right look.
Any other notes on the production you'd like to share?
Triggerfish has a relationship with Magic Light that stretches back several years. (Their co-founder and producer) Michael Rose was kind enough to give us notes and advice on our script when we were in development on our first feature film, Adventures in Zambezia. So when they decided to produce Stick Man as a fully CG film and asked us to bid on it, we were very excited. We were already big admirers of their previous animated films in this series, The Gruffalo, The Gruffalos Child and Room on the Broom, which are beautifully crafted pieces of storytelling.
Images courtesy of Magic Light Pictures.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
09/09/2026
Italy launch follows UK and Germany as Nielsen expands product across EMEA
Milan, Italy, September 9, 2026 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, ...
09/09/2026
Planned solutions tackle accuracy, cost and latency barriers to deploying AI at ...
09/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/09/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, introduces its new Model 791 Control Console at IBC 2026 (N...
09/09/2026
Maxon, maker of powerful, approachable software solutions for creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, visual effects and visualization, is headin...
09/09/2026
NUGEN Audio unveils DialogCheck v1.2, the latest evolution of its intelligent dialog intelligibility and compliance tool, at IBC 2026 (Pod P27). With a sharpene...
09/09/2026
Trusted Partner Network Launches Fix It or Risk It to Help the Entertainment Industry Tackle Everyday Security Risks
Industry-Wide Campaign Launches at IBC2...
09/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/09/2026
AI has moved firmly beyond experimentation in UK advertising, with more than eight in ten marketers (83%) now actively using or piloting AI in production, accor...
09/09/2026
IBC2026 - Stand 7.D22
At IBC2026, Pixitmedia by DataCore will showcase its latest capabilities designed to simplify distributed production, accelerate workflow...
09/09/2026
Stockholm, Sweden September 9th, 2026 At IBC2026, on booth 1.B47, Net Insight will showcase Open Live Media, its architecture for delivering resilient live ...
09/09/2026
Net Insight today announced that DMC Production Norway is continuing the use of its Open Live Media technology for premium European football, deploying Nimbra 5...
09/09/2026
Amagi, the media industry cloud platform for unified broadcast, streaming, and monetization, will showcase four new AI-native capabilities at IBC2026, Hall 5, S...
09/09/2026
Limecraft today announces version 2026.6 of its AI-powered production platform, extending capabilities for connected media operations. An AI-assisted approach t...
09/09/2026
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, today announced the next evolution of its Practical AI strategy, evolving its comprehensive portfoli...
09/09/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the appointment of Brian Doheny as Chief Executive Officer (CEO)....
09/09/2026
LiveU is now a Clarus Integrated Reseller, bringing Starlink's fast, reliable broadband directly into LiveU's cellular bonding EcoSystem through a singl...
09/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/09/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/09/2026
Wisycom is showcasing the latest additions to its ecosystem of professional RF technologies at IBC 2026 (Stand 8.D60). This includes its new MATF Wideband Anten...
09/09/2026
AMSTERDAM, IBC2026 VisualOn, Inc. and Cires21 today released an updated joint whitepaper at IBC 2026 demonstrating measurable, high-impact improvements in visu...
09/09/2026
Sony Electronics Introduces Its First Fisheye Zoom G Lens
Brie Clayton September 8, 2026
0 Comments
Compact, lightweight SEL814G Full-frame lens deliv...
09/09/2026
Blackmagic Design Announces DaVinci Resolve 21.1
Brie Clayton September 8, 2026
0 Comments
Major update adds AI assistant integration, expanded camera...
09/09/2026
Cuez Integrates AI into a Unified Broadcast Production Workflow
Brie Clayton September 8, 2026
0 Comments
Cuez announces the expansion of its cloud-ba...
09/09/2026
Twenty Years Strong...
09/09/2026
At the IBC conference, running Sept. 11-14 in Amsterdam, the creative, technology and business communities are coming together to turn ideas into action and dis...
09/09/2026
RT brings three packed days of live radio, entertainment, news, weather and fun
Join RT Radio 1: Morning Ireland, Oliver Callan, Today with David McCullagh,...
08/09/2026
Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) has announced a multi-year agreement with A E...
08/09/2026
Spectra Logic today announced the availability of Media Insight, a new capabilit...
08/09/2026
Rogers Communications and Quebecor have announced a 12-year sublicensing agreement for French-language national NHL games beginning with the 2026-27 season. TVA...
08/09/2026
Skyline Communications and Bridge Technologies will demonstrate two integrations...
08/09/2026
Boland Communications will make the European debut of its 4K55HDR7SNB 55-inch super-narrow-bezel monitor at IBC2026 (Stand 12.C57, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Ateme and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) have announced a collaboration comb...
08/09/2026
Haivision has joined the IBC Accelerator Media Innovation Programme as part of t...
08/09/2026
Blackmagic Design has announced price reductions on its PYXIS 6K and Cinema Camera 6K models, effective immediately through Blackmagic Design resellers worldwid...
08/09/2026
AI-Media will demonstrate its LEXI Suite at IBC2026 (Booth 5.C34, September 11-1...
08/09/2026
Bitmovin and Ad Insertion Platform (AIP) have announced the first live deploymen...
08/09/2026
Grass Valley will demonstrate story-centric media workflows at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), connecting newsroom production, content ma...
08/09/2026
M2A Media and Ateme have announced a partnership integrating Ateme's video processing solutions into M2A Media's MediaToAnywhere platform for live sport...
08/09/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at IBC2026 (Stand 12.A31, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), including a Day 1 introduction of new cameras in the UNICAM XE series. Additiona...
08/09/2026
Broadcast industry analysts will be gathering plenty of insights at the 2026 IBC Show this weekend in Amsterdam, but Caretta Research has offered up some though...
08/09/2026
SENSHI and DAZN have announced a global broadcast partnership that will bring SENSHI's live events free to viewers in more than 200 markets. The partnership...
08/09/2026
New architecture built with Evertz will bring 4K HDR to Monday Night Football, N...
08/09/2026
Built for rap producers, by rap producers
Sauceware Audio, the independent plug-in company founded by Grammy-nominated producer Jacob (Travis Scott, 21 Sava...
08/09/2026
Classic Sound Techniques design revived
Warm Audio's latest release delivers a meticulous recreation of the preamp circuitry employed by the Sound Techn...