Back in the 70's a couple of blokes (writer S. A. Wakefield and illustrator Desmond Digby) came up with a series of incredible Australian Bush fantasy books called Bottersnikes and Gumbles. The series were my favourite books growing up as a kid in the 90s. My dad found out of print copies during his time as a teacher librarian and took them home to read with me. When I was 7 we made a Bottersnike costume for book week. The photo below is of me in that costume, circa 1995 winning a our school dress up comp. Needless to say, when I first met up with Darren Price, founder and director at Mighty Nice and he told me he wanted to develop the books into animation I was more than a little excited.
Cut forward 4 years and Mighty Nice in collaboration with Cheeky Little have signed a deal with Netflix, BBC and Channel 7 to make a 52 episode TV series and they need a title sequence. It was an absolute blast to come up with this stylised opening for something that's held a place in my heart for such a long time. It was also so great to colaborate with an incredible roster of artists. Please check them out in the crew list below. They are all top shelf!
Director
Alex Grigg
Executive Creative Director
Darren Price
Producer
Angiline Atkins
Head of Studio
Jeremy Howdin
Storyboard/ Animatic
Alex Grigg
Lead 2D Designer
Jason Pamment
Concept Art
Alexandre Diboine
2D Animator
Murray Debus
Catriona Drummond
Alex Grigg
Mike Singca
Compositing
Josh Edwards
Vincent E Sousa
2D Clean Up
Joel Williams
Mike Singca
Catriona Drummond
3D Animation
Lawrence Jet Wong
3D Lighting & Compositing
Wayne Osborne
Animation/Layout
Mike Singca
Graphic Design
Eddy Herringson
Composer
Michael Szumowski
Design Assistant
Ling Siu