News from 2011
CelAction open over holidays
CelAction will be open as usual between Christmas and New Year.
Horrible Histories wins comedy award again
For the second year running, Horrible Histories has won Best Sketch Show at the British Comedy Awards held in London last weekend.
CelAction in Quebec
A representative from CelAction will be attending Cartoon Connection in Quebec on the 6th-8th December 2011. Contact us if you want to set up a meeting.
CelAction2D shows win big at Children's BAFTAs
At last night's Children's BAFTAs, CelAction2D once again demonstrated its importance to the UK animation industry. Peppa Pig by Astley Baker Davies won the Pre-School Animation category, and Hayley Bird who plays Peppa won in the Performer category. Bookaboo by Happy Films won the Pre-School Live Action category, and Best Comedy goes to the Horrible Histories team. Finally, the Tate Movie Project which gave rise to The Itch Of The Golden Nit by Aardman won the Interactive award.
Bradford gets the itch
The Itch Of The Golden Nit by Aardman Animations won the Films For Children Young person's Jury Award at the Bradford Animation Festival.
3 CelAction2D shows at Bradford
Marvin by Mark Nute, Tinga Tinga Tales by Tiger Apect Productions and The Itch Of The Golden Nit by Aardman Animations are all nominated for awards at the Bradford Animation Festival, being held on the 8th-12th November.
CelAction2D shows nominated for Children's BAFTAs
This year's Children's BAFTA nominations contain many CelAction2D shows. First, in the Pre-School Animation category, Little Princess by The Illuminated Film Company and Peppa Pig by Astley Baker Davies have been nominated. In the Performer category, Hayley Bird who plays Peppa in Peppa Pig has a nomination. In the Pre-School Live Action category, Bookaboo by Happy Films (which contains animation made in CelAction2D) has been nominated. Nominations for Best Writer and Best Comedy goes to the Horrible Histories team. In the Kid's Vote, both Horrible Histories and Tracy Beaker Returns are nominated. In the Interactive category, the Tate Movie Project which gave rise to The Itch Of The Golden Nit by Aardman has a nomination. And finally, in the Independent Production Company Of The Year category, long-time CelAction2D users Collingwood O'Hare Entertainment have been nominated, as have Fun With Claude producers Dot To Dot Productions.
CelAction has always strongly supported the UK animation industry, and we're proud to be involved in the continued success of our clients.
CelAction2D training course announced
King Rollo Films will be running a new CelAction2D training course starting on 21st November 2011. There are still some places available. See the King Rollo Films website for details.
Abadas begins broadcast
Abadas, a new 52 x 11' series by Dinamo Productions and Kavaleer Productions, begins its run on CBeebies on Monday 24th October at 9.30am.
CelAction growth in Poland and Canada
Following a successful Cartoon Forum and Television Animation Conference, it looks like there's going to be some new studios using CelAction2D in both Poland and Canada. Watch this space for more news!
CelAction at MIPCOM
A representative from CelAction will be attending MIPCOM in France on the 3rd-5th October 2011. Contact us if you want to set up a meeting.
CelAction at Ottawa
A CelAction booth will be at the Television Animation Conference in Ottawa (21st-22nd September) and also at the National Gallery of Canada on the 24th September. Contact us to set up a meeting in advance, or just drop by.
Tigers & Tattoos win at LUCAS
Tigers & Tattoos won the Audience Prize at the LUCAS 34th International Children's Film Festival.
Marvin selected at OIAF
Marvin by Mark Nute is in competition in the Shorts For Kids category at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (21st-25th September).
CelAction projects at Cartoon Forum
A CelAction representative will be at Cartoon Forum in Sopot, Poland (13th-16th September). Contact us if you want to set up a meeting. Additionally, there are two projects being presented there that were made with CelAction2D - Dave Spud by The Illuminated Film Company and Boj & Buddies by Pesky.
CelAction2D training course announced
King Rollo Films will be running a CelAction2D training course in October 2011. See the King Rollo Films website for details.
CelAction at London International Animation Festival
CelAction's Andy Blazdell will be talking about 2D animation software on the Software Beware? panel at the LIAF Industry Event held at the Barbican at 2pm on the 2nd September 2011. The event is free but the tickets are first come first served.
Iconicles premieres on CBeebies
Iconicles, the new 26 x 30 minute series with animation produced by Dinamo Productions, starts its run today at 3.45pm on CBeebies. It features stories made in 2D with CelAction2D, which are introduced with live-action segments augmented with 3D CGI.
Aardman chooses CelAction for Tate Movie Project
CelAction is pleased to announce the completion of The Itch Of The Golden Nit by Aardman Animations and Tate. This half-hour film was created using ideas and drawings from literally thousands of children aged 5-13 years old, and animated by Aardman’s team. Voices were provided by stars such as David Walliams, Rik Mayall, Catherine Tate and Alexei Sayle.
CelAction2D was the animation software selected by Aardman to maintain the hand-drawn quality of the characters, and to enable them to be animated quickly and to a high quality by the production team.
“Working with Aardman was a real highlight,” said CelAction CEO Andy Blazdell. “It’s always a pleasure to see such talented people using our software, and on a project of this scale, for such a worthy cause, we feel proud to be a part of it.”
"CelAction2D was the perfect solution for the Tate Movie Project - it was the only animation software that kept the scanned-in textures at perfect quality,” said Emma Lazenby, Art Director on the Tate Movie Project. “This meant that the drawings being animated were the ones actually drawn by the children, with just a few adjustments by our team using felt tips, pencils and paint to make alternate shapes and angles, and a little tinkering in Photoshop to give joints more movability. For this project, we made over 450 characters, all animated using CelAction2D."
“This was a very challenging animation project,” said Andy. “The sheer amount of characters and different graphic styles would have been impossible to handle using other methods. Once again CelAction2D is proved to be the software that can do the jobs that other software can’t.”
Last chance to see our Canada tour!
There are still limited places available on our Canada tour. We will be in Montreal on the 3rd of August, Toronto on the 5th of August, and finishing up in Vancouver on the 8th of August. Contact us now to book your place.
CelAction speaks at Skillset
CelAction's Andy Blazdell will be presenting a Case Study during the Student Seminar section of the Skillset Animation and VFX Showcase to be held in London on 14th July.
CelAction has best ever MIFA
At last week's MIFA in Annecy, CelAction revealed a major point release to their flagship product CelAction2D. Version 3.5 has two important new features that significantly improve productivity. The first is the ability to import Palettes from Adobe Illustrator, and then to animate transitions between those Palettes. This enables a scene to be rendered in daylight colours which can then smoothly merge into night-time, for example. A full range of blending and mixing options are available for creating different Palette versions.
The second new feature is called the Ranger - a unique Exposure Sheet tool that allows visual manipulation of frame selections in an intuitive way and also at breath-taking speed.
"These features increase productivity so much that we wanted to get them in the hands of our clients as soon as possible," said CelAction CEO Andy Blazdell. "Once people see the Ranger in action, they won't believe how any animation software can operate effectively without it - it's that revolutionary."
MIFA itself proved to be challenging for the CelAction team, as the increase in visitors to their stand caused unforeseen problems, like running out of showreels and not having enough time to give every visitor a demo of the new version. This was partly due to the Pre-Production Conference held the morning prior to the show generating a lot of interest in CelAction's unique workflow, and in addition to that, special offers being run throughout MIFA giving significant price reductions on the Professional Editions of the software helped to increase traffic.
Also being shown to select clients at MIFA was a sneak peek at CelAction2D Version 4, which has a whole new feature set relating to morphing and deformation tools for both bitmaps and vectors. "The response we got to the deformation toolset was incredible," said Andy. "We're ahead of the competition by at least a year. This is a great time to be producing 2D animation."
Get ready for Annecy!
From 8th-10th June at the MIFA in Annecy, CelAction will be on stand 2-15 showing the latest version of CelAction2D. There will be discounts on purchasing the software and even bigger discounts if you are one of the first 50 visitors to the stand. We're in the New Technologies section at the Imperial Palace, and you don't need the full MIFA pass to get in. So come along and talk with one of our experts, see the software, and grab yourself a bargain.
We would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our support for the Annecy Festival and MIFA in particular. The MIFA team do a great job, and MIFA is a very important part of the European Animation Industry. We have always supported European animation, and we pride ourselves on enabling Europe to compete in the international animation market.
CelAction presentation on Pre-Production
CelAction's Andy Blazdell has been invited to talk at the MIFA Conference on Pre & Post-Production. It will be at the Chambre de Métiers in Annecy at 9.30am on Tuesday 7th June.
Gory Games premieres on CBBC
Gory Games, the Horrible Histories spin-off gameshow featuring animation made in CelAction2D, begins on CBBC in the UK today at 5.45pm.
CelAction at MIFA
CelAction will be exhibiting at MIFA in Annecy on 8th-10th June 2011, on stand 2-15. Be sure to come and visit us for special offers and be among the first to see our exciting new software tools! The first 50 visitors to the stand will get extra discounts, so the sooner you visit, the better.
Poppy Cat debuts on Nick Jr
Poppy Cat, by King Rollo Films and Coolabi, starts broadcasting today on Nick Jr in the UK at 10am, and is on every weekday with two episodes back-to-back.
CelAction workshop at FMX
Andy Blazdell from CelAction will be doing a workshop at FMX in Stuttgart, talking about how to make successful 2D animated series. It is on Wednesday 4th May at 5pm, and more details can be found at the FMX website.
Anifest nominations
Little Princess by Illuminated Film Company and Laika by Avgousta Zourelidi are both nominated in the Anifest International Festival of Animated Films, to be held in Teplice in the Czech Republic from 26th April to May 1st.
CelAction stand at FMX
CelAction will have a stand on the Trade Floor at FMX, to be held in Stuttgart from 3rd-6th May 2011. Come and see us for a demonstration of the new features in CelAction2D, and all visitors to our stand can get discounts on our range of software. We look forward to seeing you there!
CelAction at MIP TV
A representative from CelAction will be attending MIP TV in France on the 4th-7th April 2011. Contact us if you want to set up a meeting.
Horrible Histories wins RTS award
Horrible Histories has won the Best Children's Programme award at the Royal Television Society Awards 2010.
Horrible Histories up for RTS award
Horrible Histories has been nominated for Best Children's Programme at the Royal Television Society Awards 2010, to be held in London on the 15th March 2011.
CelAction2D shows nominated in Tehran
Mixed Bag by Isabelle Favez, Memee by Evelyn Verschoore and Little Princess by The Illuminated Film Company have been nominated in the International Competition section of the 7th Tehran International Animation Festival, to be held on the 6th-10th March 2011.
Tigers & Tattoos spotted in New York
Tigers & Tattoos by Copenhagen Bombay is having its US premiere at the New York International Children's Film Festival. It is in the Short Films One programme, and will be shown on March 5th, March 12th, March 20th and March 26th. See the New York International Children's Film Festival website for more details.
CelAction at Cartoon Movie
A representative from CelAction will be attending Cartoon Movie in Lyon, France, on the 2nd-4th March 2011. Contact us if you want to set up a meeting.
CelAction show wins at KidScreen awards
Horrible Histories has won Best Mixed Series in the Kids Category of the KidScreen Awards, as well as the Best Acting and Best Writing awards.
CelAction show nominated for KidScreen awards
Horrible Histories has been nominated for Best Mixed Series in the Kids Category of the KidScreen Awards. The award ceremony will be held on 17th February.
CelAction at KidScreen Summit
A representative from CelAction will be attending KidScreen Summit in New York on the 15th-18th February 2011. Contact us if you want to set up a meeting.
CelAction2D shows nominated for Broadcast awards
Horrible Histories has been nominated for Best Children's Programme and Tinga Tinga Tales has been nominated for Best Pre-School Programme at the Broadcast Awards 2011, to be held in London on 2nd February.
Horrible Histories wins comedy award
Horrible Histories has won Best Sketch Show at the British Comedy Awards held in London last weekend.
CelAction at Forum Blanc
A representative from CelAction will be attending Forum Blanc in France on the 12th-14th January 2011. Contact us if you want to set up a meeting.
CelAction expands in 2011!
In 2011 CelAction is partnering with some big names to grow our business and further improve our products. We are in the process of interviewing applicants for our new Canadian development hub, so if you are a programmer with experience in animation software and can work in Canada, make sure you give us a call. Happy New Year, everyone!
Site Updated: 20th December 2024
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