Manchester, UKs 422 Ltd. used Cambridge Animation Systems' Inkworks software to achieve a traditional cel look in 3D for two recent projects. Mr. T is a 30-second commercial produced by Equinox Film & TV Productions and directed by Gary Cowan for the Accident Group, a compensation claims company. Mr. T was first modeled in Maya and prepared for animation using the software's set-driven keys and animation features. Once the pace of the animation was determined, Inkworks was used on the outlines and scenes were painted with the Maya renderer to achieve a cel look. The commercial began airing on British television earlier this year and has become the Accident Group's most successful ad campaign to date. 422 adapted the outline effect they achieved in Mr. T for the title sequence of Voom's I LOVE THE 80S television series. Director Andy Frith filmed various people in nostalgic 80s clothing and environments with memorabilia of the time. These images were then rotoscoped and composited into 3D environments painted with Inkworks, giving the entire set of titles a consistent look. Inkworks allowed the studio to develop the concept, rotoscope more than 650 frames and complete 3D aspects in two weeks. The series appeared as part of BBC2's Saturday night programming beginning in January and ran for ten weeks. Inkworks is an exclusive product of Cambridge Animation Systems, known worldwide for its 2D and 3D animation Animo software.
