The Octonauts have had to travel to all types of underwater environments. They have gone from the depths of the Mariana Trench to navigating large forests of kelp in the Pacific Ocean.

In season 3 the Octonauts needed to travel to Antarctica to explore above and below the ice. They needed a new gup capable of this type of exploration. The gup to do the job was to be called the Gup-S!

Octonauts creators, Meomi, took on the challenge of creating this gup. As with all Octo gups the Gup-S is inspired by a real-life sea creature, the narwhal.

As the gup is a polar gup, Meomi gathered multiple references of polar vehicles to inform them in creating their design.

After gathering these references they came up with the concept for the Gup-S. The Gup-S is built for Antarctica, the coldest place on earth and so the design was focussed on giving it the functionality it needed for the Antarctic environment. The Gup-S is multi-functional; it can split into two gups: the Octo-Shuttle and the Octo-Sled. The front part is the Octo-Sled, which can travel above the ice and the rear part is the Octo-Shuttle which can explore below the ice. The Octo-Shuttle can also activate tank tracks to drive along the sea floor and has a host of other functions which are mentioned below.

Once the design was approved, our team went about creating the model. 3d modeller Michael O’Callaghan took on the job of bringing Meomi’s concept to 3d. Working closely with rigging lead Darragh Duffy the model was created with functionality in mind. Technical challenges for the rigging would be the transformation from land-mode to sea-mode and the functioning of the tank tracks.

Then when the 3d model was visually approved by art director Stephen O'Connor, it was unwrapped and textured by texture lead Michal Uhruski giving it the look below:

We then built high-detail interiors for both the Octo-Shuttle and Octo-Sled. This was to allow them to serve more as detailed sets than as props. We also gave more attention to the lighting within the set. We wanted the light coming into the Gup-S to mimic cold, Antarctic lighting.

With all aspects complete the Gup-S was ready for the Octonauts special episode The Over Under Adventure. In this episode, the Gup-S was depicted in all its glory as we get to see both the Octo-Sled and Octo-Shuttle in their combined and separate states. We also see the Gup-S in both land and sea-mode, the skis for travelling on snow and ice, the ice drill, the monitor bay, the warming station for creatures that get too cold, the powerful turbine engine for jumping gaps and ice chasms, the anti-freeze system for when the gup freezes up, the bunk beds and the hot cocoa machine!

After airing on CBeebies, a nifty toy version of the Gup-S was made by Fisher Price. And we were happy to see all the functionality of the Gup-S was carried over to the toy gup so that Octo-fans could enjoy it as much as us.

With Season 4 of Octonauts on the way, you can be sure that the next adventures will see more gups being created to help the Octonauts on their missions!

Check out the Gup-S in action in The Over Under Adventure episode below: