How long did you work on it?

About four-and-a-half months in total. I spent the first three weeks making the animatic and modelling the standard elements, i.e. helicopters, buildings, etc. The characters were already designed from previous episodes. The next three months were spent breaking down animatic into scenes, creating the 2D animation (characters already drawn and set up in Flash from the previous series), building and rendering scenes and finally compositing the 2D with the 3D elements. Then we spent the last month tweaking the edit, and making any changes proposed by Harry Thompson.

None of the modelling was too hard as the poly count had to be low for rendering reasons, and there isn't much need as most objects are in the background. It was all rendered on one Dell Precision dual 2.8ghz machine with 2GB ram. Some of the scenes, partially the hotel scene had a lot of objects in them so it was very slow to work with. It would have been nicer to have had more time and a render farm, then the scenes could have been more complex and detailed. But to be fair this is not really in the spirit of the series as a whole. I didn't spend much more then two or three days modelling any of the objects. The textures were very basic too.

How do you and Damian work together?

Damian Fox would take the script and draw up the animatic in Flash. Then we have an excellent guide for timing, etc. I then break down his animatic into scenes and drop it into After Effects. Then we start animating, laying on completed scenes as they are finished. Damian provides me with completed 2D sections as PNG files sequences. I take these and combine them with the 3D, adding other effects in the compositing. Eventually it all shapes up to the final piece.

Tell me about Damian Fox?

Damian is a 2D animator, director and illustrator. He has worked on all the Bruckheimer (Anne Frank, the Crusades, They All Come Home) send-up sketches in all three of the Monkey Dust series. He designed the characters from scratch. The first two series he did with Slinky Pictures with Emily Skinner doing the 3D. He came to Sherbet for They All Come Home, as Emily couldn't work on it. This is where I stepped in to co-direct with him and do the 3D and compositing.

Do you write the sketches as well?

No, the series is written and create by Harry Thomson and Shawn Pye.

Do the writers just give you a script and let you get on with it?

After you get the script you put together an animatic, you can suggest changes to Harry Thompson the series creator and writer. After a few versions and tweaks the animatic gets the green light then you can start animating. But obviously with 3D I could start modelling straight off.

What are you working on now?

I have just finished two jobs: one was for the science program "What We Still Don't Know" on Channel 4, for Hipster Medium, and the other a title sequence for a kids show called the Fugitives, for Voodoodog and Shed Productions. I am currently working on a few pitches, and some of my own work.

I look forward to seeing more of your work on the TV Luke! Thanks for talking to us about Monkey Dust! You can see more of Luke's personal work at his website.