For the first time, a 3D animation series is part of the “Sesame Street” television program. The program’s 40th anniversary season debuted today, including computer-generated (CG) segments delivered by SpeakeasyFX and made with Autodesk Softimage software from Autodesk, Inc. (ADSK: NASDAQ). The series features a digital version of the favorite Muppet fairy-in-training, Abby Cadabby. “Sesame Street” is the longest running children’s program on television.
SpeakeasyFX, an animation studio in New Jersey, worked on 13 nine-minute segments of “Abby’s Flying Fairy School.” These fully CG segments were created to foster preschoolers’ critical thinking and problem solving skills. Abby Cadabby, along with an eclectic gang of new friends, attends Fairy School with Mrs. Sparklenose. Abby and her friends solve problems using rhyme, reason and cooperation.
“Until now, Sesame Street used exclusively hand-driven Muppets. We went the CG route with ‘Abby’s Flying Fairy School’ so that we could bring to life all the wonderful physical action our writers envisaged such as underwater scenes,” explained Carol-Lynn Parente, executive producer at Sesame Workshop. “As well, the CG format allowed us to produce many online game options for SesameStreet.org, extending the broadcast experience.”
SpeakeasyFX used Autodesk Softimage to model, animate, render and composite “Abby’s Flying Fairy School.” “We’ve been using Softimage since we opened our doors,” said Scott Stewart, executive director at SpeakeasyFX. “Our mandate was to bring movie-quality animation to ‘Sesame Street.’ Of course, we needed to do it quickly, easily and on budget. Softimage was key to achieving these goals, because we were able to do everything we needed to in the software. It was essentially a single software workflow we love Softimage for its versatility.”
SpeakeasyFX created over 500 new props and characters for the series. The team’s greatest challenge was the development of digital characters that behaved like real-world Muppets. This required advanced fur and cloth simulations, and complex rigging. Stewart said, “To preserve the creative vision, we decided to build our digital Muppet models as if a hand was manipulating them from inside. This was a breakthrough modification to our workflow and was critically important in helping us find the right balance between CG and traditional Muppet performances.”
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