Digital Dimension Entertainment Group’s Saturday Animation Studio developing ‘Aiko and the Masters of Time’

Saturday Animation Studio, a subsidiary of Montreal-based Digital Dimension Entertainment Group (DDEG), has just announced the development of its second original children’s UHD-CGI animated series, Aiko and the Masters of Time.

Aiko and the Masters of Time is a serialized sci-fi action adventure for ages 7+ that is produced utilizing DDEG’s proprietary real-time pipeline based on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. Co-created and co-developed by Guy Harvey, André Lavoie, Aaron Simpson, Fred Faubert, and Louis-Simon Ménard, the series is set in an age after linear time has collapsed, and then been reassembled as one combined era resulting in Samurai, Cowboys, Knights, African Warriors and Stone Age Scavengers now living together in one Mega-City. Two star-crossed teens from different factions, Aiko and Wyatt, are caught in a life and death race with powerful forces who are intent on upending this fragile, blended existence for their own dark purposes.

Cookbook Media, which serves as Saturday Animation Studio’s global franchise management agency, will develop and implement a global distribution strategy for  Aiko and the Masters of Time to include content, consumer products, publishing, and digital activations. The agency will introduce the series to international buyers at this year’s MIPJunior market, along with Saturday Animation Studio’s first announced IP, Chase and Catch.

“Kids around the world will be rooting for our heroes Aiko and Wyatt in this mind-bending, thought-provoking, high-concept series that will deliver on all cylinders—action, adventure, and sci-fi,” says Fred Faubert, DDEG’s CCO and Showrunner.  “Our real-time animation pipeline powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine… will allow us to bring the entire universe and characters to life across multiple dimensions.”

A winner of six Emmy Awards and four Visual Effects Society Awards, Digital Dimension Entertainment Group is headquartered in Montreal. Its studios include Meduzarts Animation, Saturday Animation and KRAKN Animation, each of which is set to release new series in the upcoming months, including several original brands currently in development.

Saturday Animation Studio, launched last year, specializes in 2D and 3D real-time animation of kids’ and family content and has multiple projects currently in various stages of development. The studio benefits from world-leading proprietary technologies such as its real-time pipeline based on Epic Games’ Unreal Engine. Back in 2017, it pioneered the use of this pipeline to produce Zafari for NBCUniversal, the world’s first series ever to be produced with real-time technology. An Epic Games Mega Grant recipient, other series produced by Saturday Animation Studio include The Beachbuds for Disney+ Hotstar, Sadie Sparks for Disney Channel, Helen’s Little School Book for BBC Kids and Discovery Kids, and Mighty Mike, co-owned and co-produced with TeamTO.