Penfold was Live

October was quite a month for us at Kilogramme, but one of the most exciting projects was a collaboration with CBBC HQ, Tim Searle, Blue Peter and Adobe. The mission was to have Penfold appear live on CBBC HQ, presenting the afternoon links with Hacker T Dog and Katie Thistleton and promoting the Halloween episode of Danger Mouse.

We'd seen live animation done before, but the technology hadn't quite been there to make it convincing. With a combination of next generation Adobe software, our in-house team, some very clever freelance support and the overseeing eye of Claire, who had worked on Danger Mouse back in the day at Cosgrove Hall, we managed to make magic happen.

Of course knowing Kevin Eldon would be voicing Penfold made the job irresistible, but fate got in the way and due to other deadlines I never got to meet him. So I cried a lot and ate some crab sticks in the office instead....while watching old clips of Black Books.

With the original rigs from Boulder Media, we were able to pre-animate a series of Penfold movements and gestures in Toonboom and then rig them up in Adobe Character in anticipation of the interactions he was to face. The CBBC Buzz Ap audience sent us a good few challenges for Penfold to achieve, including back-flips, tongue curling and star trek fingers, so he was certainly put through his paces.

If you didn't see it, you do get another chance to - we were filmed here in the studio by Blue Peter, as well as on the day. The results can be seen on Blue Peter on 22nd November.

On the day there was a lot to do with no room for error, but the great team at CBBC organised it beautifully and the comedic sparks flying between Kevin Eldon and Hacker had the team in stitches all day. While I held the fort in the office, Claire, Julia and Emma had a LOT of fun and reported back that the response from the BBC was extremely positive. Question is, where can we take it next?