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McLaren, with Framestore · 40+ character and 200+ prop rigs

Tooned

Tooned logo above a crowd of cartoon McLaren characters on an orange background

Tooned is McLaren's animated series made with Framestore, which returned in 2013 for McLaren's 50th anniversary. As a technical director at Framestore, I built more than 40 body and facial rigs and more than 200 prop rigs for the series. I also wrote Python scripts that turned the Maya animation rigs into twenty Unity game avatars, keeping their joints and blendshapes.

Client
McLaren
Studio
Framestore
Role
40+ character and 200+ prop rigs
Year
2013
Tech
Maya, Python, Unity

The challenge

McLaren and Framestore marked McLaren's 50th anniversary in 2013 with the return of Tooned, an animated series that retells the history of McLaren's cars and drivers. The eight-part special gave historic champions such as Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna and Mika Häkkinen the Tooned treatment. The three-minute episodes aired weekly on Sky Sports during the Grand Prix.

The script kept adding characters, props and costumes, and the turnaround was fast. It was my first large-scale rigging job at Framestore, and a real baptism of fire.

The old mechanic in a woolly hat and goggles in a snowy forest under a shooting star

What I did

The five main characters (Prof M, Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Perez and the mechanic) were rigged by Framestore's Lead Technical Director, Amar Chundavadra. I rigged most of the rest across series 1 and 2:

  • More than 40 body and facial rigs, including Bruce McLaren, Sergio Perez, the old mechanic, Mika Häkkinen, Kimi and the Sisu, Emerson Fittipaldi, von Richtmacher, James Hunt and the Queen.
  • More than 200 prop rigs.
  • Clothing switches. With so many characters in the script, we had to reuse models wherever we could. In one case I built three characters from a single rig, with each outfit set up as a switch so the animator could pick the character they needed. I projected the skin weighting from character to character so that every version deformed well.
  • Game avatars. I wrote scripts that took our animation rigs and built game avatars for the Unity engine, twenty in all. The main characters kept all their joint setups and blendshape targets, so the facial rigs carried across to the game versions.
Cartoon Bruce McLaren in tan overalls holding a helmet beside a vintage red race car

The outcome

The series aired weekly on Sky Sports and built a big following in the sports world. The game avatars could be controlled and run around in real time, including in augmented reality, although McLaren never released the game.

Tooned previs artwork by Ian Spendloff ↗

Sepia still of young Bruce McLaren on a grassy hillside, with a car and a farmer behind him
  • Sepia still of young Bruce McLaren leaping through the air, captioned Bruce McLaren, Aged 14
  • Cartoon Sergio Perez in a yellow helmet sitting in a race car at night
  • Four Tooned characters, including two drivers in white team kit, talking in a garage
  • Cartoon Sergio Perez and Jenson Button in white team kit, one reclining, in a blue lab
  • Close crop of cartoon Sergio Perez in his helmet next to the professor holding a microphone
  • The elderly Tooned mechanic in a cap standing in a dark crowd
  • The bald professor in a lab coat leaning in close to the elderly mechanic in a cap
  • The old mechanic by a campfire in a snowy forest, with a small white-suited figure nearby
  • Cartoon Mika Häkkinen in white team kit holding a helmet beside a silver McLaren car
  • Cartoon Mika Häkkinen in a race suit and cape holding a finger to his lips
  • The professor in a lab coat standing beside cartoon Mika Häkkinen at sunset
  • Cartoon Mika Häkkinen in a white helmet driving a silver McLaren car with motion blur
  • Helmeted Sisu elders in a blue crystal setting, captioned Planet Earth needs you
  • Helmeted Sisu figures standing in a glowing blue crystal hall
  • Helmeted Kimi character in a blue crystal setting, captioned Kimi
  • Tooned characters in a race track pit lane, captioned Interlagos, Brazil 1974
  • Red and white McLaren Formula 1 car bursting through dark smoke and flames
  • Cartoon Emerson Fittipaldi in a red race suit cheering among a crowd of fans
  • Cartoon Emerson Fittipaldi in a red race suit holding a helmet next to the number 5 McLaren car
  • Grinning cartoon von Richtmacher wearing a laurel wreath in front of a Mobil 1 backdrop
  • Two renders of von Richtmacher in a black race suit, one young with a laurel wreath, one older with a helmet
  • Black and white cartoon scene of von Richtmacher raising a trophy on a podium
  • Two red and white Formula 1 cars racing along a harbourside street circuit
  • Cartoon James Hunt in a dinner jacket holding a helmet beside a woman in a white dress at a casino table
  • Long-haired cartoon James Hunt in a red race suit holding a helmet next to a McLaren car
  • Close-up of the smiling, blond cartoon James Hunt
  • Two cartoon drivers bowing to the Queen, dressed in yellow, on a red carpet
  • Three renders of the Queen character in purple, yellow and beige outfits
  • Tooned title above a line-up of cartoon racing drivers in red overalls and other characters
  • McLaren Formula 1 car emerging from billowing smoke
  • Cartoon James Hunt in a dinner jacket with a helmet next to a woman at a casino table, wider framing
  • Cartoon James Hunt in a dinner jacket lying handcuffed on a stone floor
  • Ayrton Senna cartoon model shown in colour between two grey sculpt busts
  • Front view of a cartoon driver sitting in a McLaren Formula 1 car inside a garage
  • Bearded cartoon driver relaxing on a sun lounger beside a pineapple and a cocktail
  • Jenson Button game avatar face rig in Maya, with facial joints and a helmet beside the head
  • Full-body Jenson Button game avatar in a T-pose in Maya, showing its joint skeleton
  • Maya viewport with rows of facial blendshape heads made for the Jenson Button game avatar
  • Tooned 50 logo on an orange background with cartoon professor, mechanic and drivers
  • Tall professor with glasses standing between two cartoon drivers in white team kit
  • Cartoon Alain Prost in a red race suit holding a helmet next to a red and white Formula 1 car
  • Cartoon Ayrton Senna in a red race suit holding a yellow helmet beside a red and white Formula 1 car
  • Render of the elderly mechanic in a cap, holding a walking stick, on a black background
Tooned (YouTube) · Hosted on YouTube. Pressing play loads content from youtube.com.

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