Rendered with Love: How Making Movies with Friends Inspired Frame48 - A Boundless Animation Studio
It feels apt for the origin story of an animation studio to begin inside of a movie theatre. The LA-based 3D animation and post-production studio, Frame48, has had an unconventional six-year journey, from a 2016 college advertising competition to their now award-winning portfolio of work in the advertising and music video space.
It was 2016, and Tom Teller and Julian Conner had spent the last four years at Chapman University, honing their craft: directing, and sound design and editing, respectively. As the sun slowly began to set on their time in Orange County, the duo decided to put themselves forward for a student film program sponsored by Coca-Cola and Regal Films as one last hurrah.
“The premise was to direct and produce a commercial for movie goers,” Julian, Frame48 co-founder and executive producer, tells LBB, “There were thousands of applicants, but our pitch was selected as one of the top five. We were flown out to Atlanta to meet with the entire Coca-Cola marketing team before our work began - a very ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’' type experience, except we didn’t get to keep the factory.”
This exposure to the world of commercial filmmaking came at the perfect time for Tom and Julian, just two college students and their computers starting to contemplate the road that lay ahead of them. Having previously not given much consideration to the commercial side of the industry, this experience made them realise that their filmmaking prospects need not follow such a linear path. “The competition gave us insight into the process of creating commercials. “It was a big step for us because we got to see at a younger age how the high level players in advertising operated while we were still students.”
Tom and Julian’s student film, ‘Crunch Time’, featuring a CGI popcorn-eating robot, ended up winning the entire competition. Elated, the two of them were flown out to Vegas where they were presented with their Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker’s™ Award at CinemaCon. The commercial would go on to play right before every movie showing at Regal Cinemas for several years following their win, but the impression the whole experience made on the both of them lasted a lot longer.
Friendly Foundations
By the time graduation rolled around, Tom had begun plotting out the foundations of what would later become Frame48. “Essentially, I wanted to start a production company that would let us keep making movies with our friends,” he recalls. “I wanted to start something that captured that infectious collaborative feeling, because we quickly realised that the ease of creating gets a lot harder once you're no longer sharing a dorm room.”.
It didn't take much to convince Julian: “We both wanted to build a creative community, a hub where we could continue to work with the people we had been working with, outside of the school setting, in the actual industry.” Appointing their good friend and trusted collaborator, Seth Josephson as the third partner and executive producer, the dynamic duo became an unstoppable trio – and they were off to the races.
Driven by an insatiable desire to prove themselves in a dog-eat-dog industry, and with their newfound connections through Coca-Cola Regal Films competition, the Frame48 team set about demonstrating their craft. As they observed the ever-evolving nature of animation and post-production workflows in their early commercial campaigns the three quickly recognised how the art of upskilling would help them grow. “When you start a creative business, you are selling your services and the only services you have to offer are the services you can do yourself because you have no money, right?,” Tom states plainly. “Initially it was like, ‘we'll make everything ourselves’ which meant the services we could offer covered me directing and doing visual effects, Julian editing and doing sound design, and Seth producing – those were the three key areas. The more projects we took on, the more we realised we needed to specialise a bit more to keep up with the demand. As soon as we were able to hire people and gain the resources we needed, we began to expand.”
And that’s exactly what they did; building out a team of animators, artists, and producers crafting 3D, design-driven visual art for commercials, music videos, and live experiences.
“We were really proud of the fact we had taken matters into our own hands and started a machine that could now employ us, our friends, and allow us to work on big projects that we were genuinely passionate about.,” says Julian. “It quickly took off after the competition win, but it always felt natural.”
Following the Inspiration
It’s easy for the team to identify the key influences that have shaped Frame48’s creative cannon so far. “We grew up with sci-fi and have a deep love for the genre – it has definitely been a big inspiration for us, especially in our early years,” Julian smiles. “We're pretty passionate about combining science with art and are always looking for that beautiful synergy between the concepts portrayed in science fiction and the very real-world content that we get to pitch on every day. ”
“A lot of our music video and visual effects work is infused with this kind of darker dystopian palette, very technical – it can all be grouped into science fiction driven concepts,” agrees Tom. “Our inspirations lie heavily in the realm of science fiction with strong art direction – movies like Annihilation, 2001, Interstellar, and Blade Runner are great examples. Works of this genre hold such imaginative world-building aspects that we're drawn to, which only allow us to push the boundaries of creativity more in the already ‘limitless’ 3D animation space.”
This passion for the genre is the common through line which marries the wide range of Frame48’s body of work: from the sleek, hyper-technical look and feel of their work with Japanese cycling brand, Shimano, to the surreal dystopian themes woven into music videos for English rock band, Muse.
This long-running creative partnership with Muse is front of mind when the team discusses their proudest work, with the most recent music video earning them a 2023 MTV VMA nomination. This comes as no surprise, given how big a scoop it has been for Frame48 to collaborate with music artists of this calibre, not once but on an ongoing basis. “Our work with Muse is how many people find us - we’re nearly canon characters in the Muse multiverse at this point. It’s great work that really demonstrates our capabilities in music, character animation and narrative projects.”
On the commercial side, their Shimano work is emblematic of the vast breadth of the team’s motion graphics capabilities: fine tuned, super polished motion design that push Shimano's sleek and futuristic brand image. “With a history in mountain biking myself, Shimano has been a dream client for us. With every project we do they are extremely collaborative, open to our ideas, and allow us to fully explore and push the envelope of what is possible with 3D animation,” says Tom.
As their client base grew over the years, so did their staff and offerings. Their proficiency in product-focused 3D animation organically paved the path for more opportunities in character animation, mostly led by the studio's CG supervisor, Enrique De la Garza. A prime example of this evolution lies in their recent collaboration on Ryan Reynolds’ branded entertainment venture, ‘Bedtime Stories With Ryan’. “We've really fallen in love with character animation, which has expanded our capabilities to new styles and content - such as warm and cozy kids content like Bedtime Stories,” explains Enrique.
Speaking with the team, it’s hard not to feel inspired by their story. The determined trio worked tirelessly to build their own bespoke infrastructure that could tackle a broad nature of projects, from start to finish. “We enjoy being there from the inception of an idea through to the edit, colour correction, and finishing. Everyone at our studio can give creative input at any phase of the process - our animators are in direct contact with our sound designer, our compositors with our editors. Our artists understand the entire post-production process beyond their individual job titles, which opens the floor for more natural and fluid collaboration.” says Tom.
Now, with a nimble crew of artists and producers, Frame48 are delivering their best work yet. The journey from college roommates with nothing but a dream, meticulously rendering shots on laptops, to a thriving studio with an expanded staff and a dedicated render farm has been nothing short of remarkable. Amidst this transformative journey, one foundational ethos has remained, a testament to their origins as young friends turned creative collaborators - every creation, every frame, is and will always continue to be, Rendered With Love.
