5 minute read
The New Rugrats Are Here
Alex Player 50/50 Heroes
The McFire Family Press Start!
Exploring New Horizons
Venturing into new territories, Cyber Group Studios introduces a slate of hot new shows to the market.
For the past few years, Paris-based animation powerhouse Cyber Group Studios has used the Annecy market as an effective launching pad for some of its new shows in the pipeline. The complications from the COVID pandemic and its global restrictions have not kept the company’s CEO and co-founder Pierre Sissmann from moving full steam ahead with a strong collection of dynamic new IPs in various stages of development and production.
Sissmann is quite excited about the company’s brand-new 15,000 square feet studio located in Roubaix in Northern France, which houses an Unreal Engine-powered real-time rendering and motion capture studio. The company which has been selected as an Epic MegaGrant recipient by Epic Games, which helps the studio explore new possibilities in the world of immersive entertainment.
The MegaGrant also helped launch a new show titled Giganto Club, an original scripted animated series that will expand on the success of the company’s children’s animated series Gigantosaurus, a blockbuster series that has already been greenlit for a second and third season by Disney and France Télévisions. The 52 x 11-minute series Giganto Club is animated using motion capture driven by Xsens technology and powered by Unreal Engine. Cyber Group Studios will also use the new technology in producing
Pierre Sissmann
upcoming shows Monster in My Pocket, Alex Player and Digital Girl.
“This technology has really revolutionized the way we produce animation,” says Sissmann. “We work with live actors and Unreal technology. We still need animation directors and animators, but we lose the storyboard and layout stage. It’s a different process, which is not necessarily cheaper, but it gives us a much higher quality of animation at a faster pace. The quality is unbelievable and very close to feature animation. You can really get realistic emotions on the faces of the characters.”
Another advantage is how Unreal can speed up the dubbing process. As Sissmann explains, “Our engineers at the studio have added a new layer to the tool, where you can shoot the project in the first language of your choice, and then, you can have all the other languages generated automatically. The lips will automatically adjust to Italian, Spanish, Zulu — any language of your choice.”
Sissmann points out that Cyber Group Studios has always put a big emphasis on developing new technologies that help them improve the quality of the shows they make for family audiences. “You can say that we have always been a tech geek company,” he mentions. “When we were producing Zorro: The Chronicles, we decided to have 50 different horses incorporated in the show. We had full CG-animated grass created for our preschool show Zou more than 10 years ago. To make a great show, you need to have good scripts, great images and music, and we were always in search of improving all three elements.”
Sissmann says he’s also quite pleased with the team that he has put together at the studio. Earlier this year, former Disney and Universal executive Karen Miller joined the company as President and CEO of its U.S. office. Also on board is Merritt Farren as General Counsel and COO of the L.A. unit.
“Our goal is to attract the top talent in the industry and to provide enough work for them to stay with us,” says Sissmann. “We’re trying to build what you’d call a center of excellence, where we find the best people for cartoon comedy, give them enough work and keep them happy and retain this talent. So, for example, we recently got Scott Kraft, who was the showrunner for PAW Patrol, to come work on our new show Press Start!, which is based on a bestselling Scholastic book. Right now, thanks to the growth of all the streaming platforms, there is a tailwind in our industry. So, we’re hoping to use this to expand our slate and continue to produce preschool, co-viewing and bridge shows, and even explore properties for teens and adults in the future. It’s all about fostering talent and creativity.” ◆
Taffy Nefertine
Hot Toon Slate
Here’s a quick snapshot of what’s new at Cyber Group Studios:
The McFire Family
This fun 52 x 11’ preschool show centers on the adventures of young siblings Jax, Sparkle and Tom McFire, who join their mom and dad on daring rescue missions, using high-tech tools and cool vehicles. Sissmann says he came up with the idea for the show after his grandson asked him about Spider-Man and real life heroes like doctors, nurses and firemen. “It’s one of the most beautiful-looking shows we have ever done,” says Sissmann, who co-created the show with VP of development Ira Singerman. Jacqueline Moody (Gigantosaurus) is attached as writer.
50/50 Heroes
This entertaining CG-animated children’s show (52 x 11’) centers on a Mo and Sam, half-brother and sister, who discover that their greatgreat-great-grandmother once had a fling with a superhero, and as a result, they have inherited some sort of superheroic half-power. This original graphic universe was created by members of STEAK Collective.
Press Start!
Sunny and Rue Zaki’s normal life becomes quite epic and exciting when the siblings enter the world of their favorite video game series Super Rabbit Boy. Based on Scholastic’s best-selling books by Thomas Flintham, this promising new 52 x 11’ preschool show is developed by Emmy-winning writer and showrunner Scott Kraft (PAW Patrol), who will also exec produce the series.
Alex Player
Billed as the first series based on esports, this 26 x 22’ series follows the high-energy adventures of a young boy named Alex who discovers the ultra-competitive world of esports when he moves to a new school. With his team of underdog friends Mike, Camilla and Amy, he sets out to become a pro-gamer, learning lessons about courage, perseverance and team spirit along the way. ◆
