Small Scale, Big Impact: Inside the Creation of Transpennine Route Upgrade Films

It’s pretty cool to watch what can unfold when you put the right team together. The latest Transpennine Route Upgrade films are the wonderful combined effort of director, Tom O’Meara, producer, Sam Hope, and post-production by Stone Dogs. For the team, this project has been a journey of passion, dedication, and unyielding collaboration. It’s easy to underestimate just how much goes into bringing these miniature worlds to life. Stop motion animation at its core, is a labour of love, but when pulled off, is nothing short of brilliant. It’s hard to find anything else that compares. 

Sam got into animation back in 1996 as a bit of a happy accident. She was always a fan, growing up watching it on TV. After joining a company because she wanted to get involved in live action, she actually fell in love with the animation side of the business. “I never looked back,” she tells us. “To see the industry evolve over the last 27 years has been amazing.” She’s spent time working at some of London’s top animation companies, but today, she produces for Passion Picture’s director, Tom. 

Tom has long specialised in animated storytelling that is defined by his signature charm, craft and fun. He’s regularly awarded for his work and films for the world’s most impressive brands. For Tom, his love for animation comes from the process, “I like all of the different elements that go into making a film. The storytelling, design work, model making, lighting, audio, post-production. The list goes on.” With stop motion, he feels like he can amalgamate all of his interests in one place. “It’s as though I can melt them down in a big pot and come out with a little film,” he explains. 

A tiny world is not without its challenges, “We can’t get too close to the characters as they are so small they don’t actually have features,” says Tom.  He found himself searching for inspiration in films that contained scenes with trains, such as the Polar Express, Paddington 2 and Skyfall. “When looking to create the films, it’s been all about that balance between making them feel cinematic and fluid, but also leaning into the nature of miniatures, and making sure the audience can see that everything is hand-crafted,” we’re told.

When it comes to post-production on stop motion, it takes a gentle hand, says Sam. “When months of work have gone into crafting and building each element of the sets, props and characters by hand, and you have brought it to life through painstaking animation, what you need is a post production that is happy to enhance it and master it, without being tempted to over fix or digitise some of the quirks captured in the process,” she explains.  

For Brian, this was more than just a piece of work. “I've always loved stopframe, from shooting super 8 as a teenager to filming Lego with my daughter as a grown up (yes we did the voices too)” Being part of the project, and witnessing the expertise of the team was “truly inspiring,” and reignited his passion for the craft. 

Brian walked us through the post process: “After Tom locks the edit, viewing the film frame by frame alongside the director is a crucial step, where we identify the areas that might need refinement,” Brian tells us. “The animation process itself is inherently ‘destructive’. The hands of animators  can unintentionally shift set pieces , or create imperfections in the meticulously crafted scenes.” Whilst of course, some of these instances contribute to the charm of the final product, the team at Stone Dogs aimed to enhance overall visual consistency by addressing these issues in post-production.

When it comes to more intricate setups, Stone Dogs often execute multiple passes of elements on the motion control rig, which are then meticulously combined during post-production to seamlessly construct a cohesive and visually stunning scene, Brian tells us. “This intricate process, though demanding, is essential to achieving the final polished result in stop-motion animation.” Stone Dogs were determined to ensure that the narrative was maintained, despite the constraints of smaller frames. “This required a thoughtful approach to storytelling within these spatial limitations,” says Brian. 

Colour grading also played a pivotal role in achieving a cohesive look. “It’s very director led,” Brian explains. “It’s used to unify disparate elements and enhance the overall visual appeal.” Stone Dogs’ colourist, Holly Greig, worked to bring out the key elements of each scene, “whilst keeping to the authentic in-camera lighting set ups,” says Sam. “Brian in flame patiently erased pin holds in the set, and rigs and clamps. This takes hours, even days, and the true art of it is that you would never know it had happened,” she adds. In post-production, the real magic often exists in those seamless touches that audiences will never really see. Sam adds, “We know what work was done, but people viewing the films will never notice the holes filled in, or the scaffold poles removed, and that is stealthy quiet magic that we come back for time and time again.” 

The success of this project is owed to the fine-tuning of collaborative creativity. The mutual passion and dedication to the authenticity of the work is undeniable. It’s a reminder that often, pulling off truly great work, really does take a village. As audiences tune in, they’re invited to witness what can unfold when the right team comes together to bring tiny figures to life.