The Royal Television Society Craft & Design Awards were a special one for Framestore this year, with the company's Director of Computer Animation, Mike Milne, receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards were presented on November 24, 2008 at London's Intercontinental Hotel in Park Lane, at a ceremony hosted by Fern Britton.
Milne received his award from RTS Chair, Wayne Garvie. In a short acceptance speech, Milne stressed the collaborative nature of the projects he'd worked on, thanking his many friends, colleagues and collaborators over the years, both from within Framestore and from companies such as Impossible Pictures, who were responsible for initiating the WALKING WITH DINOSAURS programs, widely regarded as Milne's crowning achievement within the industry.
Milne began his career in the mid-1960s as an artist and beachcomber, developing a passionate interest in wildlife and all aspects of natural history and evolutionary theory, an interest which was to influence his entire professional career. In 1980 Milne decided that the future of graphics lay in computers, so he took a night school course in programming at Middlesex Poly, subsequently becoming one of the first users of a commercially-available computer animation system. He was an early pioneer of combining CGI with live action and won a D&AD Silver Award for his work on SPITTING IMAGE.
Then, in 1992, he formed Framestore's first computer animation team. The next few years saw the team grow and develop, bringing their expertise to bear on cutting-edge commercials, television and film work. The application of computers brought new possibilities to life -- creature animation, morphing, liquid simulation. 1999 saw the appearance of the first series of WALKING WITH DINOSAURS, a program that revolutionized television creature work, bringing big screen-quality vfx to the small screen for the first time. The unprecedented success of WALKING WITH DINOSAURS created a host of sequels and spin-offs, which Milne has continued to supervise, taking viewers to the earth's most remote past, beneath its oceans and even into space.
Attending the ceremony were a number of his colleagues and friends from Framestore, including Joint CEOs William Sargent and Sharon Reed, Framestore Chairman John Spearman, Mike McGee, Fiona Walkinshaw, Andy Lomas and Esme Long.
Other vfx awards given by the Royal Television Society include:
Visual Effects - Digital Effects Tanvir Hanif THE STREET (Series 2), Granada for BBC OneNominees:Gareth Edwards, Luke Wilmot & Tony Gilbert ATTILA THE HUN, BBC Productions for BBC One Jellyfish Pictures Frankenstein Jellyfish Pictures for Impossible Pictures
Visual Effects - Special Effects Millennium FX BEING HUMAN, Touchpaper Television for BBC ThreeNominees:The Model Unit HUMAN BODY: PUSHING THE LIMITS, Dangerous Films for Discovery Channel
Visual Effects - Picture Enhancement Dan Coles BATTLE FOR HADITHA, Pepper Post Production for Lafayette Films/Channel Four Films & Film Four for Channel 4Nominees:Aidan Farrell BOY A, The Farm for Cuba Pictures for Channel 4Kevin Horsewood HE KILLS COPPERS, Pepper Post Production for Ecosse Films for ITV1
For a complete list of winners, go to www.rts.org.uk.
