The studio, combining traditional skills with the latest technology to create long form 2D character animation, had been required to transition quickly to offsite production and establish remote capability.

As Studio Manager at 12field Animation, Kelly Lynagh, explained, “12field’s a studio that’s very familiar with the Flash-Animate pipeline for production. At the time we were talking about making Season One of The Strange Chores we felt it was a good opportunity to break away from our known pipeline and explore some new software that would give us more features. We also knew Strange Chores needed more options in the VFX department and we clearly saw that Toon Boom Harmony ticked all the boxes for us to switch over for this production. It was a steep learning curve and we were keen, moving into the second season, to have robust support which became even more crucial when we all went remote. After discussions with Digistor we felt they were the ones to help us navigate that.”

12field needed advice on hardware that could better handle the system requirements of Harmony for the show’s second season and manage the rest of the software that they use on a regular basis. This led to discussion of the technology and design with Digistor.

Lynagh continued, “It was about designing a system that protects our files with both security and retention, plus a transition from an onsite studio to essentially running a remote studio when COVID arrived. It was a huge leap out of our comfort zone. We’re obviously not alone in suddenly needing all our artists to have the capacity to work from home but having professional direction from Digistor on how to do that was invaluable.”

In the animation field artists are usually experts at their chosen software, but find the hardware and operation harder to master. As Lynagh pointed out, Digistor stepped in by advising on hardware and how to ensure it worked efficiently.