Now celebrating their 30th anniversary year, claymation superstars Wallace & Gromit are about to embark on a new frontier of state-of-the-art animated storytelling. Partnering with creators Aardman Animations, a group of British companies including Potato, Sugar Creative and Tiny Rebel Games will create a first of its kind immersive experience based on the beloved characters, with research support from the University of South Wales and financial backing from the Government.
“Aardman is a business built on great storytelling and creative ambition. We are delighted to partner with this bold project, developing brand new Wallace & Gromit content that can be interacted with on many levels,” said Sean Clarke, Executive Director, Rights and Brand Development, Aardman. “We are sure this will delight and engage fans, offer a unique experience and maintain Wallace & Gromit’s reputation as pioneers of technology.”
The collaboration will be a rich, multi-layered realization of innovation and technology for Wallace & Gromit fans as well as building a new storytelling platform for the future. The project will involve a multi-month campaign leading up to the opening of a groundbreaking location-base, multi-user augmented reality experience in 2020.
Jason Veal, Managing Director & Co-Found of consortium member Sugar Creative, said, “We are absolutely thrilled to be working in partnership with Aardman on such and iconic IP. Using cutting edge & traditional storytelling techniques, we are looking forward to launching a brand new Wallace & Gromit tale that will appeal to fans of all ages. We look forward to exploring new ways of bringing these globally recognized and beloved characters to life using immersive technologies such as augmented reality and live theatrical production.”
Chosen by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of the Audience of the Future program, which is a key part of the Government’s Creative Industries Sector Deal announced in March 2018, the consortium has been awarded a multimillion-pound R&D grant to explore and pioneer cutting-edge immersive experiences.
“It’s fantastic that we complete our line-up of audience facing demonstrators with this hugely ambitious collaboration between Tiny Rebel Games, Potato, Sugar Creative, University of South Wales and the creators of Wallace and Gromit. Their aim to revolutionize augmented reality gaming along with the advances in AI, haptics, audience interaction and film production technologies from our other competition winners means the public will be able to try out some truly groundbreaking experiences over the next 18 months,” commented UKRI Challenge Director for Audience of the Future, Prof. Andrew Chitty.
[Source: Sugar Creative]
