2D & 3D Animation - Motion Graphics
At Bottletop we eat, sleep and breathe animation. Our award winning team has designed, developed and produced animation for major television channels, production companies and businesses throughout the UK from our Nottingham base.
Creative animation enhances any on-screen presentation whether a series for TV or an opener for an annual conference or exhibition. We are experts in our field - our team comprises ex-BBC/ITV staff and all of our motion graphics projects are produced to broadcast standards with the exacting attention to detail you would expect from industry professionals.
Your animation may end up on TV, the web, DVD or in the cinema ... we don't discriminate between formats, or clients, and will always deliver a superior, innovative and creative product - on time and on budget. Always.
Project examples
Creative animation enhances any on-screen presentation whether a series for TV or an opener for an annual conference or exhibition. We are experts in our field - our team comprises ex-BBC/ITV staff and all of our motion graphics projects are produced to broadcast standards with the exacting attention to detail you would expect from industry professionals.
Your animation may end up on TV, the web, DVD or in the cinema ... we don't discriminate between formats, or clients, and will always deliver a superior, innovative and creative product - on time and on budget. Always.
Project examples
Getting it right
Our animations usually start with concept development, design and comprehensive storyboarding which allows for full discussion of the project with the client before labour-intensive animation starts, highlighting any tricky areas. This way our clients know exactly what a finished animation will look like and exactly how much it's going to cost.For smaller, simpler animation work, such as a 3D animated logo for a conference opener, we may create an animatic - a short 'tester' animation - to better illustrate our ideas and timings for the client.
We will work with you at whichever level you prefer.
We know from experience that our forward planning and cost effective budgeting will ensure the smooth running of any project no matter how big or small.
How we do it
At Bottletop we work with Final Cut Pro, After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator to create the elements for our animations. For 3D we use Maxon Cinema 4D.
Of course there are no hard and fast rules and most animations are a combination of 2D and 3D with a smattering of live action, stop frame animation and hand drawing thrown in.
The most important thing of all is the idea
which usually starts with a pencil ...
... we've won this one!
2D or 3D, What's the difference?
You might not be sure whether you are looking for 3D or 2D animation or you may be concerned that 3D animation could be expensive.Talk to us first - 3D might not be as expensive as you think and quite often there can be a 2D solution to a 3D problem which will be more cost effective for your project.
If you discuss your ideas with us early on then we can advise how best to approach your production, combining 2D and 3D in many instances to maximise the budget.
Project examples
Combining live action with animation
and digital special effects
The Bottletop team's experience in live action direction and production at a professional level for both BBC and ITV means that you can rest assured that, whatever it is you have in mind, we've probably got the answers to any questions you may have. We can combine green or blue screen studio shots, live action or archive footage into our animations and motion graphics. We have been trusted by ITV to make people appear and disappear, to create explosions and fire, crowds where no people existed and to freeze time.
Working from script level we can advise and direct, on location and in studio, so, what at first seems impossible can be become reality.
Did you know?
In 1991, Disney and Pixar agreed to produce Toy Story. They finished a little later than the two to three years estimated, but the wait was well worth it.The 79 minute film has 114,240 frames of CGI animation, employed 28 animators, used a renderfarm of 117 dual and quad-processor SPARCstation 20 systems, 1,300 Renderman Shaders, 4.5 million lines of object code, and 34 terabytes of Renderman data files.
If Pixar began rendering Toy Story today on an average one-processor home computer, the animation would take 43 years to render.