Recently, the U.K.’s visual effects capability has been matched by digital character animation from four main fx houses: Cinesite, MPC, Double Negative and Framestore CFC.

London offers a capacity for engaging in high volumes of sophisticated visual effects, a world-class craft expertise and a reputation that has steadily grown in stature from the nadir of 1998’s Lost in Space — reputedly fraught with missed deadlines and poor execution.

Over the last two to three years that visual effects capability has begun to be matched by digital character animation as each of the four main vfx houses — Cinesite, Moving Picture Co. (MPC), Double Negative and Framestore CFC — has concentrated resources to win a bigger slice of the burgeoning character animation business.

“What we as a community are doing now has traditionally been awarded to post houses in California,” claims Courtney Vanderslice, head of production, Cinesite. “The most exciting thing for all the major U.K. facilities has been the growth of a ‘U.K. Plc.’”

“The growth in 3D has come about to meet demand,” adds Cinesite ceo Colin Brown (who resigned from the facility in September). “The number of films with digital characters has risen and these are not just peripheral characters but performances central to the film.”

The spurt in business has occurred despite the unhealthy spike of 2005 when major productions withdrew or threatened to withdraw from the U.K. after the government ended — and failed to announce a replacement for — the tax breaks that had helped create Soho’s vfx industry.

According to William Sargent, joint chief exec of the U.K.’s largest facility, Framestore CFC, “U.S. studio funded pictures are the key driver for our business and they in turn respond to favorable tax scenarios. Even five years ago, we weren’t in the same league as Los Angeles or Wellington. If you wanted a career in visual effects, you had to go to the west coast. Now capacity has grown 10 fold and as a community we consistently execute the post-production lead on multiple Hollywood pictures.”

Official figures from a study commissioned by the U.K. Film Council (July 2005), indicates that the U.K.’s film post-production industry provides a breadth of resource that ranks second only to the U.S. More than 90% of the country’s facilities — ranging from costume and make-up specialists to pyrotechnics, edit suites and CGI — are located in the capital ringed by sound stages at Pinewood, Shepperton, Leavesden and Elstree. On a turnover of $740 million, the direct contribution of the film post-production industry to U.K. GDP is estimated to have been around $300 million in 2004.

Since no facility yet has the capacity to accommodate all the work for a vfx intensive project such as Harry Potter (producers also prefer to spread the risk), the number of shots for a single film is often split among the four market leaders. They each employ an average permanent staff of 300, invest regularly in technology ($13 million in R&D spend alone for 2004 and $100 million of fixed capital investment between 2000-05) and rely on winning key new or returning franchise contracts to reinforce this capacity.

Framestore CFC’s work on the Hippogriff for the third Harry Potter put the U.K. on the map for digital character animation. © 2004 Warner Bros. Ent. Harry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R.

“U.K. facilities have the almost unique ability to evolve technology for a big budget feature,” insists MPC managing director David Jeffers. “They have the talent to write software, which overcomes pipeline issues or creates an entirely new look. That’s something other markets outside of the major centers cannot do. Producers like the fact that we solve problems and it’s why we’ll continue to have a competitive edge.”

The U.K. has a longstanding reputation for 2D and stop-motion animation, most notably through the work of Bristol’s Aardman Animations, but arguably the start of digital character work was a short zodiac sequence produced by Digital Pictures for The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988). Over the last five years, this side of the business has really taken off.

“There’s been a hockey stick shaped growth curve,” reports Franklin. “A small start then a massive rise in a short space of time. Tax breaks have made it a very attractive to place to work. That has built capacity, attracted better work, which in turn pushed the abilities of the U.K. visual animation community. Over the last two years, it has reached tipping point where producers will post in the U.K. because of the quality of work in its own right.”

“There’s been a ‘Catch-22’ in which we all needed work to prove we could do it and we’ve grown little by little,” remarks Vanderslice. “It’s not like one facility has expanded independently. We’ve all done it gradually so as to make a really attractive base for large productions.”

Framestore CFC: Walking with the Best
A significant part of the creation of “UK Plc” was Warner Bros.’ decision to keep the post for the first Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in London and near to the Pinewood shoot. “The early Potter films gave everybody a chance to show what they are capable of,” continues Vanderslice, acknowledging the part that the successful rendering of the half-horse, half-winged Hippogriff played in putting the U.K. firmly on the map. That work, for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), comprising 80 shots, was performed at Framestore CFC.