The Crown Season 6 Trailer
This week Netflix dropped the official trailer for The Crown’s sixth and final season. Featuring VFX from our LDN teams, the award-winning series will premiere in two parts, with part one releasing 16 November, and part two on 14 December.
Brace for Leave the World Behind
This week we got another look at Leave the World Behind in a new trailer from Netflix, and Variety Magazine released their review praising the film’s ambiguity and referencing the menacing deer created by our studio in MEL.
Read the full review here, the film premieres on Netflix on December 8th.
The Nissan Z ‘Be Moved’
Back in August, our NYC team joined forces with TBWA\Chiat\Day and Fluent360 on the Nissan Z ‘Be Moved’ campaign featuring Jay Ellis. Working across 74 VFX shots, Framestore created larger than life CG set extensions and crumbling clay vehicles demonstrating Nissan’s thrilling and thoughtful design philosophy.
The compositing team focused on two sequences, creating the reflection of the legacy Z as it zoomed past, and paying homage to the sports car’s heritage by making the previous models disappear as the new 2023 vehicle drives off into the distance.
Coming Soon
Paddington in Peru gets release date
In an exciting announcement this week, Studio Canal announced that Padding in Peru featuring work from FPS and our studios in LDN, MTL and MUM will premier on the November 8th 2024 in the UK and January 25th in the USA and the rest of the world.
Video Game Adaptation Announcement
The release date for a certain video game adaptation😉 has been announced this week, with the film due to enter cinemas on April 24 2024. Our team in MTL is in the final stages of delivering their shots, which include creatures and splashy FX. The assets were created by both LDN and MTL teams, with postviz provided by our FPS team in LDN.
Press
Tim Webber on Bloomberg AI IRL
Chief Creative Officer, Tim Webber, discussed with Jackie Davalos and Nate Lanxon of Bloomberg’s AI IRL how AI is used in the visual effects industry. From the way Framestore uses AI to speed up, for example, animation rigging to the future potential of creating fully immersive “volumetric” 3D movies.
Watch the full interview here.
IF features MEL’s new Head of Studio
Lara Hopkins returns to Framestore to head up our MEL Studio after 4 years at ILM Sydney. Lara brings three decades of global animation and VFX experience to the role and a passion for unearthing the best talent, building teams and creating supportive workplaces. With an outstanding team, she’ll be focused on maximising the opportunities of Framestore’s global network of studios to open new creative possibilities for both talent and clients.
Read more about Lara’s career and her future in MEL here.
Shots | The Eyes Have It
Shots spoke to NYC‘s Animation Supervisor, Jon Burke, alongside other animation experts, to discover the process it takes to perfect eyes in all animated forms, from hand-drawn anime to CG. Jon shared insights on our work animating the iconic Geico Gecko and the philosophy of storytelling and crafting shots that convey insights that words and actions cannot express.
Read the full article here.
Befores& Afters | World VFX Day Launch Date
Framestore supports World VFX Day, a new initiative aimed to recognise and showcase the visual effects industry.
Find out how you can get involved in World VFX Day this December, and explore the discussions from View Conference over at befores & afters.
LBB Making the imperfectly perfect VFX
LBB spoke to Head of CG in LDN, (Advertising, Episodic, and Immersive) Johannes Sambs, together with other VFX experts to explore the way artists create imperfect moments to convey more realistic settings. Johannes shares that it is the infinite tiny imperfections that make CG creations seem real.
Read the full article here.
LBB’s Immortal Awards Judging
LBB have covered the LDN studio in collaboration with Company 3 hosted the Immortal Awards UK judging panel. CCO, Mike McGee had the pleasure of being on the judging panel this year, helping to select the top 5 projects from the UK to go through to the finals.
Read more about their decisions and process here.
Awards
CICLOPE Shortlist Nominations
Ciclope has announced their 2023 shortlist and we’ve received a nomination for our work on Nike ‘Footballverse’ in the VFX category! And a big shoutout to Framestore’s very own VFX Supervisor & Creative Director, Alex Thomas for acting on the jury board for this year’s ceremony.
Winners will be announced 9th November in Berlin during Ciclope Festival.
Events
VANAS Conference
Our VAN team was in full force at the VANAS Digital Entertainment Conference last weekend, connecting with aspiring artists.
Head of Production, Jinnie Pak moderated a panel discussion that included VFX Supervisor, Ross McCabe, VFX Associate Producer Viv Venkat, and Lead Animator Shuchi Singhal. The panel explored best practices to foster effective collaboration between Supervisors, Artists, and Production teams, aiming to streamline VFX workflows.
Autodesk Maya Webinar
Animation Supervisor, Nathan McConnel took to the screen this week exploring the way we used animation software Maya to help create characters such as Rocket from Guardians of the Galaxy With over 200 people watching live, those who didn’t catch the webinar can watch on demand here.
In other news
Goodbye To Simon
Our MEL studio said a fond farewell to a longstanding member of its team this week: Head of Studio, Simon Rosenthal. A core part of the MEL team for close to three decades, Simon’s tenure spanned three separate incarnations of the studio (Iloura, Method and now Framestore) and stunning titles such as Mad Max: Fury Road, Elvis and Christopher Robin. Liked and respected across the industry, Simon was core to making the MEL studio such a resounding success – we thank him for his leadership and dedication, and wish him all the very best for the future!
Visitor in MEL
Chief Executive Officer, Film & Episodic, Fiona Walkinshaw has spent the past two weeks in MEL meeting the team face to face and welcoming Lara Hopkins as the new Head of Studio.
Garba Evening in MUM
This Monday, we graced Navaratri celebrations ( a 9-day Hindu festival observed in honour of the goddess Durga) at our MUM studio by dancing to the lively and eclectic tunes of Garba (a traditional dance form native to the state of Gujarat).
That’s all folks!