The Gate and Vivid shoot Environment Agency films
The Gate Films and Vivid are producing two films for the Environment Agency, which have been scripted by competition-winning students, aiming to make 16-25 year olds aware of flooding and water wastage helplines.
The scripts were written by north west-based scriptwriting students as part of a competition judged by Mersey Films' Phil Redmond, Tara Cook of the North West Film Council and representatives from The Gate and Vivid.
One film features the voices of recent Celebrity Big Brother contestants Coolio, as a dancing, water-wasting, polar bear, and Terry Christian as an angry eco-aware penguin.
The Gate's Simon Lewis, who was part of the judging panel and is directing the films, says the very latest motion capture software has been employed to make the creatures move.
He said: "My animator mates at Red Frog suggested we use a brand new system available only to Dreamworks in the states. 'Moven performance capture' is a system that uses skin tight latex suits that the actors will wear.
"Using magnetic electronic sensors the suits send intricate details of the actors movements to a hard drive and this information will be used to make the animated creatures move. The guys are flying over from the states to shoot this with us, and we'll be the first people to use it here."
Audio was recorded at Manchester's 422, which will also handle post-production.