It’s Oscar time!
The 94th Academy Awards ceremony is taking place this Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in LA, and with Jonathan Fawkner being nominated for Framestore’s outstanding work on No Time To Die we’re all starting to feel the Oscar buzz.
It’s an o-men
If the teaser for Men didn’t creep you out enough, then you’re in luck A24 released a full trailer for Alex Garland’s latest head-twister, which premieres on 20 May. The trailer gives us a sneak peek of the amazing work created by David Simpson and the LDN team. Spoiler alert – you’re in for one mind-bending journey with no shortage of Rory Kinnear.
Magical moments around the corner
Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore will hit cinemas on 8th April and it seems like we have the chance to welcome some new creatures to the Wizarding World. This clip (featuring the show’s Overall VFX Supervisor, and our own Creative Director, Film, Christian Manz!) reacquaints us with old pals Pickett and the Niffler while introducing us to new wonders like wyverns and manticores. Hats off to Christian and our teams in MTL and LDN who brought all these Beasts so brilliantly to life!
And just because we have a magical suitcase big enough to contain as many beasts as we can lay our grubby hands on, here’s some more FB3 content: a selection of newly-minted posters. Excuse us while we have a sensible, polite and well-reasoned debate as to whether Niffler or the Pickett is the best…
Sphinx and you’ll miss it
The wait is nearly over: only one more week until we finally get to watch Moon Knight and see what our amazing FPS and VFX teams have been working on.
Snowfall
For Season 5 of Snowfall on FX, our NYC team was tapped to create, animate and integrate a CG tiger and a human limb for key scenes in Episodes 505 and 506. To create this gruesome scene, they pushed the boundaries of the photoreal quality generally found in an episodic project. Beginning with creating muscle simulations of the animal, an intensively detailed groom followed in Houdini, in addition to a highly specific rig which helped to elevate the visuals using Mudbox and Maya.
March Madness
To celebrate March Madness with AT&T, our LA-based team returned to work on a behemoth of more than 20 spots for broadcast, digital and half time show integrations. With a nine-day shoot followed by a speedy three-week turnaround, they worked their magic on crowd tiling within the arena and bleachers, court and stadium branding, and general finishing for a cohesive look. Final colour grade by Company3.
Vancouver in the spotlight
Work continues at pace to fully integrate our new film and episodic colleagues in Vancouver, Melbourne and Montreal. Our VAN studio hit the news this week as part of this work, with the announcement that the dream team of Naomi Stopa and Jinnie Pak would be joining the studio as Head of Studio and Head of Production respectively. With some tasty projects on the horizon it’s exciting times ahead, so watch this space and, in the meantime, read more about Naomi and Jinnie in this piece for Variety.
Press
BBC Click
With No Time To Die being nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Visual Effects category, Jonathan Fawkner spoke to BBC Click about bringing the film to life. Watch the full video below.
Stash Media and Little Black Book
Stash Media and Little Black Book covered our work on Super Pumped which features a one-minute title sequence created by our CHI studio that sets the show’s tone and energy, while introducing various themes of the show.
[FRAMED]
This week, we introduced you to Lead Compositor Xuechu Zhang (MTL) who survived another cold winter in Montreal and recently learnt that a well-meant comment can potentially end a friendship.
In other news
Spidey at SparkFX
CG Supervisor Eric Noel gave a talk at SparkFX on the Mind-Bending VFX of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Our team worked on the ‘spellbound’ sequence that opens the doors to the mirror universe, as well as the epic, reality-skewing chase sequence between Doctor Strange and Spider-Man that twists New York City out of shape and merges it with the epic landscape of Arizona’s Grand Canyon. Check out the talk on FTV here.
Bonjour Framestore
Students at ArtFX and ESMA followed a Masterclass organised by Freddy Salazar, CG Supervisor Real Time, and Toyah Dunningham, Senior Recruiter.
A magical visit
Creative Director, Film, Christian Manz visited Rowledge School recently to discuss the wonderful world of visual effects and how what we do feeds into the Potterverse. How long before we see some of these young wizards joining our ranks?
National Apprenticeship Awards
Amy Smith attended the National Apprenticeship Awards with her partner in Birmingham this week, where she was nominated for Outstanding Contribution to the Development of Apprenticeships. You both looked dashing – especially Amy with her tasty looking choice of shoes!
Launchpad: PRO
We’ve opened up applications for our Launchpad programme in our Montreal office! Hear from some of the artists and team that were part of the PRO edition on Environments, which is an accelerator for artists who want to kick start their careers in VFX. Find the link here.
Mumbai Celebrations
Our colleagues in Mumbai shared some images with us to showcase this year’s Holi celebrations. As our Mumbai studio is growing at a rapid pace, we also celebrated the opening of the south wing by holding a traditional Pooja ceremony.
Montreal turns green
Some of our MTL staff celebrated St. Patrick’s Day in the office last week with festive decorations and Irish coffees! We also held a cooking challenge with Alana Shahbazian’s ‘Beeramisu’ taking home the winning prize.
Watch out – several Framestore projects are nominated for the 94th Academy Awards this Sunday, and the British Arrows on Thursday, 31st March. Good luck to all nominees!
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