Creation Studio Productions – 9th April, 2011

Creation Studio Productions recently showcased Madrigal the Secret Witch at Annecy, and as one of the only British animation studios with a stand, we had a great deal of critical acclaim and this led to us completing a pilot for the TV series, which is now currently under negotiation with several major networks and distributors

Madrigal The Secret Witch
based on the range of succesful book’s written by Elizabeth Webb, Madrigal is an every day dinner lady who holds a big secret that only the kids of Malaprop school know – she is a Secret Witch and none of the other adults can know.

Creation were commissioned to produce a pilot episode and bible and following a successful showcase at Annecy, we are currently pitching Madrigal the Secret Witch to major networks and disitributors throughout the World.

The following sections show more information and excerpts from the show…

Part 1 – The Opening Sequence
As part of a small series of videos, the following clip shows the opening titles for the show, Creation created the entire town of Malyprop, as well as the main builidngs which include a supermarket, shops and church, there are over 130 street lights, over 200 houses and nearly 400 trees and plants within the scene – although just the one bird!

The whole town took a little over a month to model and texture and the animation itself took several hours to render each frame due to the level of detail and lighting.

Part 2 – Madrigal Collects Ingredients
After receiving her first set of spells, Madrigal consults her spectacular spells book and ventures out to pick up the ingredients for her first spell.

This short sequence involved several detailed shots, and the rendering time of this section was the highest of the whole show due to the fact most of it takes place in the town and involves partical effects to create the magical cloud which flows behind Madrigal as she collects the ingredients.

Part 3 – Raz Wakes Up!
In this sequence Madrigal has just cast her first spell, to make a doll come to life. Razamataz springs to life, and it is soon obvious that he really is a bit of a clown!

To bring Raz to life our animators used a mixture of key frame animation and motion captured elements to add life to the living doll. Raz’s hair was created using the new fibre and furs system within Lightwave – as always with animation, we used a few editing tricks to hide the fact that we avoided hard dynamics for the fruit, and simply used quick cuts and keyframe animation to give the effect of the fruit being thrown from the bowl.

Part 4 – Raz is Bored
After being told off by Madrigal, Raz sits bored in the armchair, but it isn’t long before he has an idea!

For this sequence the animation was all keyframed animation, giving the necessary life and fun to the character. Although the plate falling could have been created with dynamic effects we decided to animate this by hand with keyframing to ensure the path of the plate matched the exact movement required for the shot.

After completing the pilot episode of Madrigal the Secret Witch, we pitched the show to various networks and distributors and held several private screenings of the show, all to critical acclaim. To help promote the show further we recently produced the following teaser, highlighting several shots from both the pilot episode and future episodes of the show.

Madrigal is a magical show aimed at 6-9 year olds. Narrated by Richard E Grant, the show follows the adventures of both Madrigal and the kids of Malyprop school and Razamataz her clown doll. We are currently going out to distributors and networks for acquisition, commissioning or co-production and if you would like to view the full screener, please contact us or alternatively please book an appointment to meet us at Annecy or Mipcom this year!