“Bottle Top Bill” is a 52 x 12 minute computer animated series for kid’s aged 3-6. The series is a co production between Southern Star Entertainment, ABC in Australia, Channel 5 in UK and EDB in Singapore. The production was produced in a studio set up by Southern Star Entertainment in Singapore specifically to produce the series.

“Bottle Top Bill” is about inspiring young kids to tell stories using bits and pieces found around the home. As Bill and Corky travel through each story, the characters they meet and the places they go to, materialise from bits of junk that every kid might find around them.

Cameron became aware that Southern Star wished to produce original material for the international pre school market and submitted an idea designed to inspire young kids to be creative which Southern Star found very appealing.

After producing some visuals and story lines Cameron began to think about how to realise the concept. Initially Cameron considered producing the show using stop frame animation and produced some sample animation sequences, which received a positive response from Southern Star and interested international broadcasters. But when Cameron began to plan the proposed production it soon became apparent to him that a stop frame animation based production would never be able to meet Southern Star’s international delivery requirements.

Cameron turned to his long time associate George Port, founding member of Weta Digital and CEO of the Auckland based visual effects studio PRPVFX for help. George suggested the show could be created using computer animation. George produced some sample computer animated sequences, which Cameron found appealing. But the interested international broadcasters felt the computer-generated characters lacked the hands on feel that the stop frame animated approach expressed.

George introduced Cameron to a simple computer program “Creatoon“ that is designed to produce cut out animation using a computer. Cameron experimented with photographing his stop frame character models and animating the photographs in a computer. Cameron photographed his models 24 times on a turntable and used these photographs to make the character appear to turn towards or away from the camera in the computer. After completing some animation samples using this technique Southern Star wanted to then proceed with the production of a promo and a pilot for “Bottle Top Bill“, which Cameron produced with a small team of technicians in New Zealand. At this stage Cameron moved from using the Creatoon software to 3 D Studio Max enabling him to use particle effects and other tools, which the Creatoon software was not able to provide.

A deal was put together by Southern Star to produce the series, which meant the animation would have to be produced in Singapore. Cameron moved to Singapore and helped set up the Southern Star Singapore Animation Studio and train the local crew.

With a team of 50 people led by Cameron Southern Star Singapore produced one twelve-minute episode every month.

Series one was completed in June 2005 and series two was completed in May 2007. The show is currently screening on ABC in Australia where it is rating number one or number two in its time slot. The show is also screening in the United Kingdom on Channel 5 where the show is rating number one or number two on Milkshake TV.