The past 18 months have been a very busy and fruitful perdio for VFX powerhouse studio Framestore, which has delivered critically acclaimed work on features such as Barbie, Wonka and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 —the latter winning both the Annie and VES award for character animation, as well as Oscar and BAFTA nominations.
The company has also grown, adding studios in Melbourne, Mumbai and Vancouver to its roster. While this additional capacity means the company can deliver highly anticipated, animation-heavy titles like IF, Paddington In Peru and Wicked, it also poses a key question: how to maintain its unique, individualistic approach to animation while scaling up.
Framestore has created a short film examining ‘the invisible art’ of VFX animation, and the studio’s global director of animation, Michael Eames, shares his thoughts in this accompanying piece.
What would you say are the key characteristics of a Framestore animator, and what do you look for when bringing people into the team?
Michael Eames: Despite some undeniable industry setbacks, the demand for animators is pretty crazy right now. This can create an ‘arms race’ for talent that makes the market challenging to navigate for artists and employers alike. In my opinion, the thing to remember is that an animation career isn’t one you can necessarily fast track: there are no quick fixes or shortcuts, and learning your craft requires a slow boil. I’ve always thought that the animators who take the time to properly learn their craft in the right environment are better off in the long run. So, I still look for the same people: potential or experienced animators who are excited by the prospect of creating wholly believable, engaging characters and creatures — interested observers with inquiring minds always looking to discover what makes for better animation.
A lot of creatives — writers, directors, musicians etc. — talk about people-watching, and drawing inspiration from that.
A good animator does the same thing: they’re interpreting what they see and trying to figure out how it can be used. It reminds me of how one filmmaker I know talks about how you end up developing these unspoken languages: being able to observe somebody’s face when they say one thing in order to interpret its true meaning. There’s a lot of that in what we do – you’ve got to dig into performance to try to understand who a character is and where they’re coming from. I’ve often wondered whether a lot of animators are perhaps frustrated actors, because you’re essentially acting in a box, without actually having to be on display.
How would you say all this feeds into the Framestore ‘approach’ to animation?
It’s hard to pin down, but along with an overriding belief in quality we also believe in both the individual and their role as part of a wider team. From show to show, though, it’s not necessarily the same: you don’t give the same medicine to every patient. To return to the acting analogy, it often comes down to casting the right team.
It would be interesting to hear about the casting process, considering there’s such a wide range of projects going on — everything from grounded realism to total fantasy.
I’ve always had this belief that if you’re a good animator, you can animate anything regardless of personal preference. But, saying this, we run a system where we let people know which shows are coming up so they think about what they might prefer to work on. So, while I’ll have my opinions on who I think would work well on this show or that, our artists are also self-identifying so they can hopefully fulfill their own creative or professional aims.
As a company we aim for a broad range of projects, ones that will challenge us and allow us to deliver the best. I think you see these ambitions reflected in our animators, too.
What would you say unifies the animation, considering the diverse range of projects?
It boils down to fully immersing the audience in what they’re seeing and not letting anything take them out of the moment. Part of this is grounding the characters. For example, Paul King talks about how in Paddington he needed to affect the way he portrayed the real world, as a slightly heightened reality, to better sit a real-looking but talking bear. Sometimes it’s as much to do with design as having the right performance and you need to present an audience with a language they can readily accept.
How does this approach relate to the practical realities of scaling up as a company and building teams on different continents?
It’s definitely a challenge to grow, and even more so when you want to carry on producing the best, highest quality work. But who doesn’t like a challenge, however complicated it might be? I think the things we’ve been focusing on are balance, taking the time to get it right, and ensuring we have the right processes in place to maintain consistency.
It’s not just a question of taking something that’s working well and thinking you can just do it at a bigger scale — a lot of it depends on the individuals who make up your team, how you help junior talent develop and who’s out there that you might be able to bring in. Fortunately I work with people who understand this, and they’re trying to balance everything that goes with running a business alongside a genuine care for the quality of the work.
It’s interesting, though, because I often think of it in terms of my own journey — from first trying to get a job in animation to animating stuff on a lightbox and now trying to effectively do the same thing but with teams in five sites across the world working on multiple shows. Ultimately, it’s always been about the same thing: how to complete a shot in the best possible way.
What does the immediate future hold for Framestore?
2024 has already proven to be another busy year full of challenging shows. Our animation team has been conjuring up Imaginary Friends, following Paddington to Peru, magicking up the animal cast for Wicked and working on a huge number of other character performances for shows yet to be announced. Framestore’s reputation ensures we are fortunate to have plenty of amazing shows to keep our growing team challenged.
You can watch the studio’s stunning highlights reel below:
