After the relative success of "Alexander the Mouse", Postgate agreed a deal to make his next series on film, for a budget of £175 per programme (a minuscule amount even at that time). Making a stop motion animation table in his bedroom, he wrote the Chinese serial "The Journey of Master Ho": a formal Chinese epic, about a small boy and a water-buffalo. This was intended for deaf children, a distinct advantage in that the production required no soundtrack, which reduced production costs. He engaged a painter to produce the backgrounds, but as the painter was classically Chinese-trained he produced them in three-quarter view, rather than in the conventional Egyptian full-view manner needed for flat animation under a camera. This resulted in Firmin's characters looking as if they were short in one leg, but the success of the production provided the foundation for Postgate and Firmin to start up their own company, solely producing animated children's television programmes, initially for ITV, but soon afterward with the BBC.