Creating animated art

Peter Baynton is an award-winning animator whose work on Oscar-winning short films has proved a favourite with audiences worldwide. Interview by Kate Chapman.

His work has brought joy to audiences around the world and award-winning animator, illustrator and director Peter Baynton couldn’t ask for more.

Peter, who grew up in Uffington, near Stamford, originally trained as an architect, but after deciding to deploy his talents in a more fun and creatively freeing way, he turned to animating short films. His portfolio includes credits on Paddington 2, The Tiger Who Came to Tea and directing with Charlie Mackesy the 2023 Oscar and BAFTA award-winning short film The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse.

His latest directorial role was for The Night Before Christmas in Wonderland, which features the voices of Gerard Butler, Emilia Clarke and Simone Ashley, and premiered on Sky in the UK in December.

Based on the children’s book written by Carys Bexington and illustrated by Kate Hindley, the animated family musical mashes up two classic tales: Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Clement Clarke Moore’s poem, ’Twas the Night Before Christmas.

Peter says: “I love the storytelling side of animation. I also love the way it brings joy to people, entertains them and makes them feel something, makes them laugh.

“When I was younger, I wasn’t aware animation could be a career. So now, to have made an Oscar and BAFTA winning film it’s amazing – a dream come true. When that happened, it made me think back to when I finished my first short film and how I wondered if I could make a career in the industry, but I love it.

It all boils down to having a good story – that’s what inspires me.”

Early inspiration
Born in Germany, where his dad was stationed with the RAF, Peter’s family moved to Lincolnshire when he was posted to RAF Wittering.

Although animation always interested him when he was at school, first at St Augustine’s Catholic Primary School and later Stamford School, Peter says it never felt like a viable career option.

In 2001 he took up a place at Queens College, Cambridge to study architecture and worked in the industry following his graduation.

“I remember being at school when Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers came out – I loved that, I even had the talking alarm clock! But I didn’t realise it was a career option,” recalls Peter, who now lives in London, with his wife and two young children.

“After I started work as an architect, I remember thinking that I wasn’t any good at it. I really wanted to work on something that was a bit more playful. I completed a short course in animation and really enjoyed it, so I studied for a postgraduate diploma in character animation at Central Saint Martins.

“With architecture, there’s lots of drawing involved, but ultimately you’re making a building, and the drawings are just in service of that. I wanted to do something where the drawings themselves were the finished product. I considered illustration and fine art, but animation had this additional element where the drawing comes to life, and you build up a story. That really appealed to me.”

Directorial debut
Peter secured a job with his programme mentor and spent a couple of weeks working on an online game for V Festival before joining Tandem Films, where he worked with Oscar-winning director Daniel Greaves.

He drew characters for the studio’s films, juggling this alongside making his own animated films. Peter made his directorial debut in 2007 with Over the Hill, which was set in a nursing home, where a trio of grannies uncover a sinister secret.

He followed this up in 2011 with Save Our Bacon – the story of an honest Lincolnshire farmer, hit hard by the credit crunch, squeezed by a greedy supermarket and struggling to survive.

“I loved directing and thought I’d like to do more of it, but I still had concerns that I couldn’t see a career in it, there wasn’t enough money,” he explains. “I made a music video for Benjamin Scheuer for his song ‘The Lion’ – that was a really big one for me, it was a special project and fun to do. It was also a different challenge, arranging the film to his music.”

Peter collaborated with Scheuer again, creating five videos over the course of five years, but then decided it was time to return to his first passion – storytelling. He worked on 25 episodes of the CBeebies show Sarah & Duck, which he describes as a fantastic, but intense experience.

“There were just two weeks to storyboard an episode, which involved producing 600 storyboard panels – it was very fast drawing, almost like doing shorthand,” he smiles, “but it was a fantastic experience.”

Award-winning work
Another memorable project followed – producing 2D animation scenes for Paddington 2, directed by Paul King, a project which Peter says was a privilege to work on. He then oversaw the animation team on The Tiger Who Came to Tea, directed by Robin Shaw, before being asked if he would be interested in making an animated version of The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, based on the 2019 illustrated book by Charlie Mackesy.

It is described as a story of kindness, courage, friendship and hope for all ages and Peter says after reading the book and meeting with Charlie, he knew it had the potential to be special. And special it was, going on to win the Best Short Animation at the Oscars and BAFTAs in 2023.

Peter says the process to create each film is very different. He veers towards older techniques using modern methods rather than CGI and explains that for The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse every frame had to be drawn by hand several times, including rough drawing, neatening the images, tracing with a special brush and colouring.

The day after he finished work on it he dived straight into his next, festive project, which used very different methods, involving software to create 2D puppet images, with new elements swapped in for each frame.

“I really love just painting as an art form,” says Peter, who also mentioned several secret projects in the pipeline at the time of interview.

“The idea that you can tell a story through painting and illustration, that’s what really gets me going. I can’t really say what’s coming next due to NDAs, but hopefully lots more films which will keep entertaining people!”

For more information about Peter Baynton’s work, visit www.peterbaynton.com

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