We have created 5 stand-alone animated clips for the National Maritime Museum to help illuminate objects in the museum's collection. Students visiting the museum can now get their hands on tablet PC's and carry them around the gallery snapping photos of objects that interest them… 5 lucky objects trigger our animations, which shed more light on subjects such as slavery, trade across India, and the use of ships in early intercontinental trade. Here we present all 5 clips (in case you're not a student, or visiting the museum any time soon!)…

Here's a screen-friendly version of our 5000 pixel-wide moving painting for the National Maritime Museum's amazing exhibition: 'Royal River, Power, Pageantry and the Thames', complete with behind-the-scenes footage..!

The looping animation adorns 4-screens above the museum's reception desk, and was visited by the Queen in April 2012. We like to think she stood awhile and reflected on the mastery of our digital trickery…. but we can't be sure.

We turned a Canaletto painting, 'London: The Thames on Lord Mayor’s Day, looking towards the City and St. Paul’s Cathedral (circa 1750)', in to a 3D environment which we explore. The water ripples, canons fire and flags billow in a truly immersive experience. The final sequence is a luxurious journey around Canaletto's painting, brought to life with technology. Installed in time for the Queen's visit, we had this response about the opening event from the National Maritime Museum: "People were having their photos taken in front of your animation rather than the actual painting!!! You’ve upstaged Canaletto!".

The painting itself is on loan to the National Maritime Museum and is in England for the first time since it was painted, over 260 years ago! Curated by David Starkey the exhibition runs from now until 9th September 2012, and we can well recommend a visit..

Director Matthias Hoegg created this beautiful and cute clip for CBeebies, to show on the run up to Christmas – twice a day from 12th December till 2nd January. It's the 6th seasonal clip we've made for the channel, and they are turning in to a fantastic series. This Christmas tale is about Bella and how she prepares for the big day, decorating the tree and preparing her oversized stocking… Oh, and asking Santa for Peace…! Take a look below, and feel the warmth..

Google? In China? Well… yes. We were asked to provide a high-tec but earthy 3D CGI sequence for an upcoming Google conference in China. Based on the idea of 'making dreams possible' we worked to an extremely tight schedule and created a wooden world upon which we see stencilled Chinese characters and illustrations. The video was seen by over 100,000 people on it's first day, online at youku.com, with a 99% approval rate (we know who you are, 1%).

We created a whole bunch of pre-vis for Google, some of which we're quite proud of:

Leo Bridle has created these action-packed bumpers for Nickelodeon and Weetabix 'Spoonsize'. Each 10-second bumper shows just what can happen when you munch on the mini cereal, taking in power boating, skating, motorbiking and hangliding…

Steve Smith created two emotional spots for Greek channel ET1's rebranding, via Red Bee Media. Based on "Humour" and "Astonishment" the two clips needed quite seperate thinking, despite both being realised in 3D. Mixed through both clips are high-resolution ultra-slow-motion live-action shots of exploding glitter, water jets and bouncing marbles!

Beakus' Spring-themed idents for CBeebies went down so well we were asked to create two more as Summer approached. Sarah Orenstein and Matthias Hoegg directed and designed one each and we present here Sarah's poetic visualisation of Kaysie and her brother's back yard fun, involving  paddling pool and lots of water.. You can watch Matthias' animation about beach boy Sam here.

Running between programmes right through Summer on CBeebies is this ident by Matthias Hoegg. After producing some beautiful idents in Spring for CBeebies we were asked to interpret young Sam's Summertime adventures by the sea which take him on a magical boat ride in the clouds.. Working to the pre-determined soundtrack of an interview with little Sam gave us a structure upon which to visualise his watery world and add our own imagination. To see our other Summer ident, by Sarah Orenstein, click here.

The studio has been full of the joys of Spring working on a series of animations for CBeebies… BAFTA nominated director Matthias Hoegg and new signing Sarah Orenstein took turns in visualising the cute yet surreal thoughts of several kids as they wax lyrical about the onset of Spring.. As we write, two of the four clips has been aired, and here we present the first: 'Eleanor', by Sarah Orenstein.

A major new work for the Science Museum by Leo Bridle, to accompany the launch of a new exhibit in the Main Hall – James Watt's Workshop. Leo was asked to provide an artist's reaction to the amazing collection of Watt's antique engineering tools, machines, and ephemera stored away in the vaults of the Science Museum in Kensington, London. The exhibition is a recreation of James Watt's 1800's workshop – all 8430 objects – which includes his prototype for the steam condenser (which basically initiated the Industrial Revolution) and a 3D sculpture copying machine! You can see the video in situe and learn more about the exhibition at http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/watt, and here's an article about it in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2011/mar/20/james-watt-workshop-science-museum. The film itself is a mix of photographic, live, and synthesized footage with 2D and 3D animation all mixed in together.

The film required a stop-motion shoot in the depths of the Science Museum, and some fantastic realistic 3D modelling, so here are some behind-the-scenes photos!