Paul Kavanagh designs Shoebox Zoo characters

BBC Post Production 3D animator Paul Kavanagh has designed a group of fanciful, computer-generated characters for Shoebox Zoo, a 13-part children’s series that debuts on BBC One this Sunday. The mixed live-action and animated programme follows a teenager’s adventures when she discovers ancient Celtic animal carvings in a shoebox at her Edinburgh home. The animals spring to life and enlist her on a quest to find an alchemist’s lost Book of Forbidden Knowledge. ‘The animals had to possess a certain darkness to be believable, but they also needed to be likeable,’ Kavanagh says. He collaborated with Canadian animation house Calibre Digital on the creation of Edwin the Eagle, Bruno the Bear, Wolfgang the Wolf and Ailsa the Adder (pictured), and also designed graphics for the series, including titles, credits and emblems.