Concept and creative process
Opening titles for the 1985/86 season of 'This Week Next Week'. This title sequence was an early example of motion graphics exploring the possibilities of the burgeoning technology of 3D computer graphics. The outline images and navigation of the Houses of Parliament were constructed using the computer software program ‘Picasso’, developed by 3D animation pioneer John Vince at Middlesex Polytechnic (now Middlesex University). ‘Picasso’ created an animation sequence as a series of key frames, plotting their position in space and interpolating all of the drawings required to move from one key frame to the next. The resulting drawings were drawn in black ink on clear cel acetates by a plotter using a Rotring technical drawing pen. The artwork, as in this instance, was painted and then filmed directly on a rostrum camera like traditional animation. The line drawings of the front and back bench politicians of the day were done by hand, similarly traced and painted and filmed but as a multiplane animation. The party leaders were filmed as a separate cel layer on a sheet of glass, raised above the backbenchers and their background, with both layers panning at slightly different speeds.
Character design - Ivan Allen.
Paint - Jane Beecham and Richard Adams.
Designer/Director – Mark Craig.