Timmy is a 10-minute, 52 episode animated series and has already been pre-bought by Disney Channels Worldwide including the US, and has also been pre-bought by CBeebies in the UK. Timmy is scheduled for television broadcast in 2009.

Timmy is based on sketches by Oscar Nick Park Wallace & Gromit in a Close Shave. It was introduced on the series Shaun the Sheep, now airing on Disney Channels around the world.

The DeckLink HD Extreme and Intensity Pro cards as used by Aardman, are the only HD capture cards to work with Stop Motion Pro. The Blackmagic Design and the Stop Motion Pro workflow have enabled the animators at Aardman to unlock new creative processes within the stop motion animation environment.

The biggest advantage, the company says, is that animators can now work in HD using uncompressed video while being able to get instant on-set feedback, such as onionskinning.

By using Blackmagic Design capture cards with an HD video camera and Stop Motion Pro, animators can now film claymation and other forms of stop motion animation at the highest quality uncompressed HD video possible.

Blackmagic Design GM Europe, Middle East and Africa Stuart Ashton says, “Blackmagic Design and Stop Motion Pro have breathed new life into stop motion animation, enabling the highest quality stop motion productions to be made. At any time, animators can play back the footage in the highest quality, even out to a dedicated monitor at the exact frames per second, and all in real time.”

Aardman head of production technology Ian Fleming says, “Filming stop motion animation with HD video cameras means the animators can see what they are filming in very high quality, this speeds up the animation process enormously. With the integration of Stop Motion Pro and Blackmagic technology, we are able to roll out a common standard of animation production across the company. Our animators can move between productions, using either digital SLR cameras or HD video cameras.”