British animation and vfx house CharacterShop has completed production on an animated series based on the popular ’80s television show Knight Rider for mobile media company Player X. Each of the six episodes of Knight Rider: Turbo Boost is between three and three and a half minutes in length and has been made at TV resolution and resized for mobile.
The original Knight Rider series debuted on NBC in 1986 and starred David Hasselhoff as a police officer recruited by a secretive government agency to fight crime in a gadget-loaded, talking Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. The show’s main characters have been recreated in 2D using Flash, then imported into Autodesk’s 3D Studio Max to give the look of a 2D program made with 3D software. To avoid problems with video compression from mobile phones, the team stuck with medium shots and close-ups, and minimized camera moves.
In addition to scripting, designing, storyboarding and producing the series, CharacterShop made a 30-second viral promotional ad featuring Michael Knight and his famous car, KITT. For more information on the series and other CharacterShop activities, go to www.thecharactershop.co.uk.
