Case Study – animated series: Art direction
One of the world's best-known preschool brands, with eight decades of history and a reach of about a billion households worldwide.
Thomas & Friends
From model-based production to full CG, my work on the Thomas animated series helped bring Sodor to life for a new generation. As Art Director, I refined the show’s visual language while preserving the character and history audiences knew. The transition to CG opened up new possibilities for camera movement, action and detail, but the world still needed to feel grounded and consistent. I developed richer surfacing, set dressing and foliage, giving locations a more lived-in quality. I also created the Sodor Steamworks and helped shape Arlesburgh Harbour from early layout sketches through production. For Vicarstown, I designed a grand Victorian railway terminal that connected the island to the mainland. These projects balanced practical storytelling needs with the established look of the series. Explore this Thomas animated series case study to see how thoughtful design and technical craft made Sodor feel like a real place.
One thing has stayed consistent through years of storytelling on Sodor: Thomas never learns... ;)
Going CG was only the first step. Making it look right took longer. I raised the standard of the surfacing, set dressing and foliage, so Sodor read as a real place: worn materials, dressed sets, and landscapes with actual growth strategically placed for cameras to achieve a more natural look.
Sodor is a small island with a long history, and the Sodor Steamworks was never part of it. I created this location from scratch: a new industrial site with its own architecture, layout, machinery and character, added to the map of a world that had been established for decades.
A new town starts on "paper", not in the 3D software. Arlesburgh Harbour first appeared on screen in the 2015 special Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure. Until then the series had only used generic dock sets. So we began with thumbnails to find the layout, the landmarks and the routes the engines would run, until the place felt like it had always been there.
CG let the showrunners put cameras right on the engines, and the directors wanted action: Thomas braking hard, sparks flying from under his wheels. The problem was that the engines had been modeled after scale models with no brakes and almost no detail, down to wood screws where the hubs and bolts should be. I re-engineered them for a true industrial feel: real brakes, and bolts wherever a close camera would look.
Some guest characters were designed to a likeness brief.
Sailor John: head options and expression studies.
Vicarstown is the gateway between Sodor and the mainland, yet the show had only ever given it a small country stop. For Season 20 I redesigned it as a grand Victorian terminal on a stone viaduct. I started from a top-down plan of the town around it, with streets, tramways and bridges, scaled against Knapford, and tested the roof in several versions. The final design went into full production.
The very first version of architecture and layout
The final version that went into full development and production
Vicarstown Railway Station
Sodor Steamworks
Arlesburgh Harbour
