Whilst watching kids TV with my wife, we were discussing the design components of Bottle Top Bill – a unique edutainment programme intended to inspire imagination and creativity at a young level. We weren’t entirely sure if the household elements used to create the characters were photographs or digitally created.
I decided to do some research and ended up asking the original creator, Cameron Chittock, about the design process:
You are both right!
I made some models and photographed them 24 times on a turn table. Then made a puppet using planes in 3D Studio Max and animated the photos as textures Max (Material) or Maya (Shader).
The arms and legs are true 3D components.
This idea is commonly used, just not in such a sophisticated way.