Dream Teams: Michael and Tracey Miller’s “Crazy Adventure” that Never Ended

Michael and Tracey Miller are a husband and wife team, and in their 20 years together, 10 of those have been spent working on 9iFX Studios, their full-service post-production studio in Portland, Oregon. While Tracey runs the business side of the company as managing partner, Michael assumes the roles of VFX supervisor and creative director - and this chemistry has been present and driving their joint success, says Tracey, from the moment Michael “swept her up in his wake.”

Her future husband was on a road trip through Washington when their paths first crossed as teenagers. Later on, and unhappy with her Gamestop job and community college classes, she tells LBB’s Ben Conway that she dropped everything to join his “crazy adventure”, leading to three years of South American backpacking on a shoestring budget. “You’re glossing over the part where we started an import export business out of Ecuador in 2009,” adds Michael, explaining that he then started learning visual effects. 

“I used YouTube as a platform to work my way up to being the VFX supervisor on NBC’s ‘Grimm’, while Tracey used her experience to land a Fulbright scholarship to get her MBA in Spain (and in Spanish no less).” These things all served as the base the couple needed to launch 9iFX in 2013.

Tracey’s MBA at the Madrid IE Business School gave her a strong foundation in business administration, marketing and entrepreneurship, while Michael gained valuable experience on a national TV show - making the year they had to spend apart on different continents more than worth it. “We couldn’t ask for either of us to give [those opportunities] up, and we weren't going to give each other up either,” says Michael. “What's a few months when we had the rest of our lives together? That attitude is a strong foundation for us knowing that we can be the best partners in life and all things. It’s not about the short-term gratifications. It’s about the long term and knowing when to make the right sacrifices to build a strong future.”

This philosophy has helped them develop a successful and balanced dynamic as both business and personal partners - even if those lines often become blurred - with Michael adopting a more “dreamer or visionary” role, and Tracey acting as “a builder who can execute”. 

“We both have the same goals and are good at keeping each other motivated and on track,” says Michael. “When I want to throw my hands up, she’s good at pulling me back in and showing me how far we’ve come… She’s great at re-inspiring me when I start to get burnt out.” He adds that they try to stay in their “own lanes” on different aspects of the business, but also offer their different perspectives and support when needed. “Admittedly though, I do have a tendency to share my opinions when she’d rather I stick to the artwork!”

Above: 9iFX's 'Novoloop X On Running' campaign

Despite Michael having the ‘creative’ title, Tracey certainly isn’t lacking in that department either - after all, it was her DragonBall Z artwork that caught her husband’s eye as a teenager. The six-time winner of the local Lord of the Rings costume contest (yes, six consecutive years), it’s fair to say she likes getting crafty, designing, building and generally getting her hands dirty. 

“For 9iFX, I get called in to give feedback and an outside perspective on projects that our team has been staring at for hours that I’m seeing with fresh eyes. Sometimes I come in with a simple solution that solves a problem that the team has been agonising over.” She continues, “At other times, I come in with some pretty outlandish ideas that get shot down because the budget or time isn’t there to pull it off. I’d say overall, we strike a pretty good balance.”

Early on, 9iFX began with TV work before the pair realised the wide potential of commercial and motion graphics work in the Portland scene. Their biggest clients quickly became creative agencies, and the work evolved from standard VFX jobs into AR and VR projects, interactive web experiences, event activations and more. With a well-developed local industry, including the Wieden+Kennedy global headquarters, a myriad of other agencies and Nike all in their backyard, 9iFX carved out its place as ‘the shoe people’ before branching out post-pandemic.

“We have clients all over the world, and have worked in a wide array of industries,” says Tracey, “from food to cosmetics to live events to software to video games and more.” Her proudest moment, however, is the team’s work for ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ - a ‘RuVeal’ campaign for the show’s 13th season. “We handled creative development and managed the full post process for the entire campaign, including editing, colour, on set supervision and direction, and 3D digital sets for over 50 unique 30-second edits.” 

Above: 9iFX's 'RuVeal' campaign

Pulling the entire campaign off in about a month, the campaign blew the brand’s marketing benchmarks out of the water and netted 9iFX three Telly awards. “I just really like the sassy attitude we created for the campaign,” she adds. “It’s super fun and bubbly (literally, there are bubbles) and brought some playfulness to our portfolio. The bragging rights with my friends and colleagues have also been fun.”

For Michael, it’s a bit like picking a favourite child, as each project is memorable for different reasons, be it the better-looking technical accomplishments of newer campaigns, meaningful ones where strong relationships were built, or the exposure of some that allowed them to reach new heights in the early days. 

“Nike ‘Ultrabreathe’ stands out because it was the first big project done mid-pandemic that pulled a crew together into one place,” he says. “It was also my first time working with a newer motion control robot arm and it utilised many technical modalities like stop-motion, GFX text/motion, CG detail shots with fabric and fluid sims, and CG integrated with live action. Plus, it had lots of compositing that you wouldn’t know was there. We were also working simultaneously with a big interactive web experience for ‘Jurassic World’, Dreamworks and Netflix. So there were lots of fun technical challenges, creativity and good people involved all around.”

Above: Nike, 'Ultra Breathe' - VFX by 9iFX

This progression to such deeply technical and large-scale projects is something to admire, as 9iFX began with a classic ‘dining room table’ startup story. The company’s first project - a campaign for Puma - saw a makeshift team of friends and colleagues scramble to work after their usual office jobs in the couple’s kitchen. “My role at that time was head chef,” says Tracey. “Now, we still work with some of those same artists, but we have a proper space and hold evenings and weekends as sacred space for living life. We also offer health benefits, a retirement plan and PTO. As the business administrator, my role has expanded significantly from head chef.” 

Creating this work-life balance for the team has always been the goal for Michael who, after experiencing sporadic, long and difficult shifts, never wanted 9iFX to be labelled with the negative “sweatshop studio” image. “I wanted to create a place that someone could grow old at and raise a family,” he says. “Proper benefits, normal work hours and creative expression working on really cool projects. Some of us have worked together for over 15 years. Sure, you have to earn your stripes and hunker down to get a particularly tricky project done, but how can you be creative without also living life?” 

Tracey adds that their goal for this year and next is to get the word out about their work, team and new facility - a 4,800 square foot warehouse that they renovated and fine-tuned to their needs. After plenty of late nights and weekends in scrubby clothes, absent from their usual social circles while hard at work, the pair are pleased with the result and excited to put its new capabilities to the test.

“It’s been a big move. And wow, does it show,” says Michael. “Having the space to work with large installations for projection mapping, an organised server room and in-house render farm, large desks for workstations, lounge spaces for team building - regular game nights and ‘Smash Bros’ tournaments - client spaces for collaborative work… the benefits go on and on.” 

He adds, “It did snuff our social life for a little bit over a year but our friends forgive us and now have a fun place to hang out with us in.”

Above: The 9iFX Studio

All of this has been made possible through the Millers’ strong and balanced partnership. Being authentically themselves and open to constructive criticism means that the married couple rarely waste time politicking or playing nice when decisions need to be made, and their 20 years together means that they have a deep understanding of how each other thinks.

“It’s a bit different from partnering with a friend,” explains Michael, “because my gains are her gains and there’s no real room for someone feeling like they are being slighted. We’re both carrying our weight in different ways that aren’t limited to just the job.” As spouses, these responsibilities get divided across both work and home life - adapting interchangeably as each of their workloads at the studio rises and falls - with one picking up the other’s slack either at the business or at home and vice versa. 

“It’s pretty rare when we’re not on the same page about things as a result,” says Tracey. “My best advice to any new business partnership, married or not, is to make sure that you’re foundationally on the same page, and have a similar approach to work. It also helps to have opposing skill sets so that multiple areas are covered, and there aren’t any toes being stepped on.” 

Michael agrees it's imperative for co-working couples to handle different parts of the business, but advises new partners to be experts in both roles so they can give each other advice - and to learn how to argue constructively. “Align on how you want your lives to function and where you want to spend your life energy the most,” he says. “We only have this one life and, as a creative or storyteller, it’s up to you how you want that story to play.”