Sun and Moon Studios: Adapting Lost Television
Whilst looking for inspiration and looking at animators/studios based in the UK, I came across Sun and Moon studios, a Bristol-based animation studio that work in 2D and 3D. Their motto is their animations are “packed with character” which can be seen across their work.
Whilst I might name drop a few of their other works, what I want to talk about is their adaptation of the lost Doctor Who story “The Macra Terror”, an animation production made in 20191.
A bit of context for the project, “The Macra Terror ” was a 1967 Doctor Who serial that was wiped in the later 60s/early 70s, along with many of the original episodes of the first two eras. Since 2016’s “Power of the Daleks”, BBC Studios have been adapting these into full-blown animations, reanimating as many lost episodes as possible.
Sun and Moon studios have only contributed to “The Macra Terror” so far, but in personal opinion, this particular adaptation feels the most fluid and alive out of any animation that has come before it or since. As the studio themselves note, Martin Geraghty (who drew for Doctor Who Magazine as noted by Nothing at the End of the Lane2) handled the character designs – striking a unique balance between maintaining the likenesses of the original actors and actresses whilst adding stylisation to fit the “illustrative graphic novel” art style. Geraghty notes that when creating his designs, he simplified it as much as possible, stating “Excess line work in the character of a face really has to be pared right down to allow the animators to work as economically and fluidly as possible. Troughton has a jowly, hang-dog face that is a joy to transform into pencil, but in animation you have to rely on the studio more to tease his idiosyncratic performance to the screen.”
The fluidity I previously mentioned may come from the use of 2D rigging. By using Toon Boon Harmony, the animators could control the facial features and movement like a 3D model, enhancing the character performance that they looked for. It also means the characters are moving a great deal more than if they were animated frame-by-frame. Subtle movements such as head tilts and the hair followthrough or gestures can be achieved much quicker than drawing a few frames to achieve the same effect.
Original Telesnap (BBC) Recreation (Sun and Moon)
It’s not just the handling of character animation that’s impressive. Doctor Who in the 60s was well known for being a low-budget show. Monsters in costumes, wobbly sets and the like were the norm at the time, yet thanks to animation, the team at Sun and Moon studios were able to build up a visually impressive world whilst keeping the spirit of the original alive. Josh Snares has documented some of these changes, including the city design above to build up an image of the colony to the audience3.
Original Telesnap (BBC) New Storyboard (Sun and Moon Studios)
As Snares once again notes, these background changes are accompanied by changes to the storyboard, often to add more tension or drama that wasn’t possible due to the budget for props and sets in the 60s. The once flimsy operated Macra prop now moves and runs around threateningly, conveying a danger the original production couldn’t have.
Whilst this was research made only for the sake of finding a British studio to analyse, rigging in 2D is something I’d be interested in learning. But more importantly, character animation is very much alive in this production. The level of expressions, the way the characters interact with the space is something very impressive. I’d like to look at more productions like this that adapt the idiosyncratic performances of real actors in a way that feels as alive and real as Sun and Moon’s adaptation of “The Macra Terror” does. Once again, the idea of how we construct our worlds in animation comes back up. Do we recreate a 1:1 with the source material? Or do we elevate and be bold enough to change it as the team here have done? A question I’d like to come back to later.
1 – http://sunandmoonstudios.co.uk/work/doctor-who-the-macra-terror/