The company was founded in 1979 by Gerry Anderson alumni Ken Turner and David Mitton, and produced television commercials as well as miniature effects for films and TV shows.
The production logo of Clearwater Features was a pink Buick Y-Job parked at a film studio with palm trees, based on Clearwater, Florida, and it appeared on the ending of half the stories of Thomas the Tank Engine from series 1 and 2 (the other half ending with a nameboard gallery), and also appeared on a flag of a barge in the TUGS episode 4th of July.
When the studio closed, David Mitton became part of The Britt Allcroft Company, and Robert D. Cardona went to live in Canada.
Britt Allcroft, returning home from the US, purchased the models and sets which were used for TUGS, and the show Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends remained in production by The Britt Allcroft Company (later Gullane Entertainment) from 1984 until 2003, when it was produced by HIT Entertainment.
The cameras were used together with live action model animation,[1] to produce the image of character movements at eye level.