"It was one of those big shocks, " says Boulder Media producer Anne Tweedy. "We really, genuinely, didn't expect anything."

The episode, which is nominated in the category of Outstanding Animated Programme (for programming of one hour or more), was the last Foster's show Boulder Media worked on and it was finished about this time last year. "It was kind of a distant memory at this stage, " says Dublin-born Cullen (33) with a modest smile.

The nomination, however, is the culmination of two years' hard slog for Boulder Media, during which it created 26 half-hour episodes for one of Cartoon Network's most popular shows . . . a project that catapulted the tiny Irish studio into the big league of the global animation industry.

Now employing about 50 full-time staff, the company is one of Ireland's largest animation studios, and has worked not only with Cartoon Network but with other major US studios such as Disney and Nickelodeon.

Foster's, which airs on Cartoon Network, Boomerang and TG4 (with Irish voiceovers), was the work of US animator Craig McCracken, creator of Powerpuff Girls, and was first broadcast in 2004. "There was high anticipation for Foster's because the Powerpuff Girls was a huge global hit and this was his next show to come out, " says Cullen.

"We were lucky enough to get the contract [to do the animation] and we never looked back."

Boulder Media worked as a "service studio" for Cartoon Network on Foster's, which means the animation on a tranche of episodes was outsourced to Cullen and his crew. They received the scripts, character designs and storyboards developed by McCracken in the US and they then animated each episode themselves.

Foster's is set in a higgledypiggledy mansion where imaginary friends go once their creators outgrow them. In the Emmy-nominated special, Good Wilt Hunting, one of the characters . . . Wilt . . . goes on a quest to discover the person who imagined him. "It's basically his journey around the globe trying to find his creator, so it's kind of like a road movie, " says Cullen. "It had the feel of a feature compared to a half-hour. There was more scope, more characters, and it went into Wilt's personality and background a lot more . . . but still kept the gags flying fast. . .

There are also references to things like The Straight Story, The Big Lebowski and The Shining, stuff that kids wouldn't get at all, but it's a knowing nod and a wink to the parents."

Boulder Media's city centre studios do not exactly give the impression that this is where the cartoon's imaginary friends come to life. Indeed, as a modern studio working principally on computeranimated projects, it could easily be mistaken for the workaday premises of any business, with its rooms full of rows of PCs. The only clues this is an office with a difference are the colourful posters on the walls and the little models of cartoon characters scattered about on desks. To give them their due, the company has only moved into the building within the past couple of weeks, having relocated from Dublin 6. But while these animators have yet to make their mark on their new premises, they have certainly made their mark on the industry at large.

5The company was established in 2000 by Alan Quigley and Cullen, at a time when there was not much animation work in Ireland. Cullen, a graduate of Ballyfermot College of Further Education, had spotted a gap in the market for creating animation using Macromedia Flash, a computer program designed primarily for web design.

"I was introduced to Flash about nine years ago and I could see that a lot of the animation on the internet was pretty crude. It was done by people who knew the program but weren't trained animators. So we hired a small office in the Guinness Enterprise Centre and at that stage there were three or four of us doing e-cards and stuff like that for American companies."

Flash, which enables a quicker turnaround than traditional animation while still achieving high quality, has now become an industry standard for television cartoons . . . and Boulder was one of the pioneers of its use for animation. "The work the studio did in the earlier days was among the first animations ever produced using the program for commercial animation, " says Boulder Media producer Peter Lewis.

When Foster's was first broadcast, it was one of the most highprofile shows to use Flash, according to Cullen. "There were a slew of shows after Foster's using Flash techniques because I think studios realised what we could achieve with it, so it did start a whole new trend."

Indeed, it was the quality of Boulder's Flash animation that helped it get the Foster's contract in the first place. Having sent a showreel to a number of US companies, Boulder was invited by Cartoon Network to do a test animation for Foster's.

"The other companies who were doing tests for them were big established companies and they wanted us to use 3D Studio Max, Flash and a few other programs, so we turned it down initially because, one, we wouldn't be paid for it and we were anxious to pay the bills, pay the rent and, two, we didn't know 3D at that stage, so we didn't think our chance would be much against the big companies, " recalls Cullen.

"But a few months later Cartoon Network came back to us saying they weren't happy with the tests from the other studios so we said, well, we'll do it, but we'll do it the way we normally do our stuff. So we did a test and they loved it and we did another test to make sure it wasn't a fluke and they loved that as well. Contracts were signed, we got the gig."

The deal was a baptism of fire.

"It was pretty unprecedented for a company that big putting on such a show to get six people in Dublin to pull it off. So we hired 28 people within three or four weeks. We had to find new premises and 30 computers and train all these people up and basically hit the ground running because the production started within a month. The first few months were a bit hairy. . . but eventually we managed to get into our stride."

Evidently, the struggle has paid off. Since finishing up on Foster's last September, the company has been working for Nickelodeon on its new flagship cartoon show, El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera. The US premiere of the first series attracted 3.4 million viewers, outperforming even that of SpongeBob SquarePants.

However, for the second series, Nickelodeon has commissioned Boulder to make just six episodes at a time . . . presumably to see whether the ratings keep up.

It is partly for this reason that Boulder is also developing its own projects rather than continuing to rely exclusively on service work from large US studios. But with the links Boulder has established, it is now in a good position to begin selling its own work.

"Particularly in the US, we would be the studio of preference for the bigger networks, " says Lewis. "But the next challenge and opportunity for us is to take that reputation and talent and actually create and co-own the material."

Boulder is currently working on the script of a feature film based on Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant and also has four TV series in development, with high hopes resting in particular on Carter and Son . . . the story of a master illusionist and his son who travel the world solving mysteries. The four shows will be presented at the upcoming MipCom television market in Cannes in October, where Boulder is hoping a major network will snap up at least one of the series.

The success of Boulder is not unique; Ireland has become a nation of small animation studios, with the lowcost/high turnaround model of computer animation enabling several studios to become established . . . and make a name internationally. This has led to a renaissance in the Irish animation industry.

Back in the '80s, a number of government incentives had attracted large international studios such as Sullivan Bluth, Emerald City and Murakami Wolf to establish a base on the island but when they closed down in the mid-'90s, the effect was devastating. "It left a big hole in the domestic industry. There were a lot of trained people who had worked for a very long time and suddenly there was no work, " recalls Lewis.

The current model, of smaller indigenous studios getting involved in international co-productions, while also developing, producing and raising finance for their own projects, is more sustainable and robust. "The difference between now and then is that the Irish people are not just employed . . . they're employing, " says Tweedy.

Oscar-nominated Brown Bag of Give Up Yer Aul Sins fame, for example, has just begun working on Olivia, a major new series it has sold to Nickelodeon in the US, while Kilkenny-based Cartoon Saloon's Skunk Fu! is currently being aired on BBC. Jam Media has also signed a big deal with the BBC for Funky Fables, which it is working on with Boulder Media.

And Telegael, based in Galway, recently won a second daytime Emmy for its postproduction work on the NBC show Tutenstein.

According to the Irish Film Board (IFB), the animation sector is now bigger than it was when Sullivan Bluth was operating from Ireland. The value of the industry is estimated at 23m and accounted for 10% of the overall output of the Irish audiovisual industry in 2006.

"The Irish animation sector is thriving and Ireland has a growing reputation for outstanding animation talent, " IFB chief executive Simon Perry said recently.

There are high hopes this talent will be rewarded at the Emmys next week . . . both as recognition for past achievements and to solidify plans for the future. "If things all go well at the Emmys, I'm sure we'll be going to Cannes a couple of inches taller, " says Cullen.

Whatever the outcome, Cullen need not worry. Boulder Media is on a roll.