Framestore

A London visual effects and animation studio, founded in 1986, whose work includes Harry Potter, Gravity and Blade Runner 2049.

About Framestore

Framestore is a British visual effects and computer animation studio. It makes the digital effects that are added to films and television dramas, and it also works on adverts, theme-park rides and immersive experiences. Its own website lists departments such as Animation, Art Department, Colour, Previsualisation (planning a scene digitally before it is filmed), VFX, Virtual Reality and a Design Studio. Its film credits include the Harry Potter films, Gravity, Blade Runner 2049, Guardians of the Galaxy and Barbie, and its television work includes Black Mirror, His Dark Materials and The Witcher. It has won Academy Awards for The Golden Compass, Gravity and Blade Runner 2049.

Framestore was founded in 1986 by William Sargent and Sharon Reed with three friends, and in 1997 it took over the Computer Film Company, an early UK digital film effects firm. Its research and development team later spun out to form the technology company FilmLight. The company describes its purpose in its own words as using craft, imagination and technology to bring "extraordinary ideas to life in any space and on any screen", and its Bright Network profile says it aims to "reframe the possible". We found no separate list of values.

The company's headquarters is in London, on Chancery Lane, and London is its only UK studio. Wikipedia says it has about 1,000 people in London out of roughly 3,000 worldwide, although Framestore's own pages give figures of over 2,500 and over 3,000 on different pages, so treat headcounts as approximate. The rest of the company is spread across studios in Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Melbourne and Mumbai. Much of its UK film and TV work is done for studios and streamers, and its advertising clients named on its site include McDonald's, BMW, Waitrose and Barbour.

On culture, Framestore's pages emphasise craft and technical invention, and the same pages stress awards from the film world and from advertising, including a record number of Cannes Lions. The website calls its aim "pixel-perfect images". Its record of building its own tools, and the spin-out of FilmLight, points to a company that values engineers as well as artists. We did not find a staff-written account of daily life there, so the picture here comes from the company's own marketing and from Wikipedia.

A visual effects studio employs far more than artists. Roles include modellers, animators, lighters, compositors (who combine many image layers into the final shot), tracking and matchmove artists, pipeline developers who build the software, producers and coordinators who keep projects on schedule, and finance, people and IT teams. Subjects that lead there include art, design, computing, maths and physics. The company's own website is the place to check for current openings.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Digital effects, creatures and environments for feature films and TV drama.', 'title': 'Film and TV visual effects'}
• {'desc': 'Character animation, art direction and design for film and advertising.', 'title': 'Animation and design'}
• {'desc': 'Virtual reality, real-time animation and previsualisation.', 'title': 'Immersive and real-time work'}

Key facts

• Founded 1986 by William Sargent and Sharon Reed with three friends; headquarters on Chancery Lane, London
• Won Academy Awards for The Golden Compass, Gravity and Blade Runner 2049
• Wikipedia puts staff at about 3,000 worldwide with about 1,000 in London; its own pages say over 2,500 and over 3,000
• London is its only UK studio; others are in Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Melbourne and Mumbai

Website: www.framestore.com