As computer animation director at Framestore, the largest digital imaging and effects group in Europe, Mike Milnes has brought numerous award-winning projects to life. Most recently he combined his CG talent with his love of wildlife and the natural sciences in 'Walking with Dinosaurs,' the critically acclaimed and BAFTA-winning BBC documentary. Before leading a seminar at the Darklight Digital Film Festival, Mike talked to Brian Lavery about 'Walking' and the future of his work.
Looking back on the success of 'Walking with Dinosaurs,' what surprises and challenges did you encounter along the way?
It's hard to pin down anything that isn't better than I hoped it would be. … When he [Tim Haynes from the BBC] came to me I said to myself, 'If I don't do this project I'll kick myself for the rest of my life.'
I'd been dealing with people who called themselves computer animators, and had been for some time, but they were really just graphic designers. … What you have is people who've grown up as graphic designers with computers, saying 'I'm gonna animate.' And they just don't have the training. I'm one of them, so I know.
So you brought in people from the games industry.
Yes, they were all people who were just ready to make that jump. They had spent four years doing nothing but walk titles and run titles and turns, and all that sort from games. But it meant that they could do it without thinking. They just lived and breathed motion.
They come to me knowing all about movement. I can supply them with the realism; I can show them how to build a dinosaur that looks like one, because that's what we do well.
Getting back to your original question, there are very few aspects of it that don't make me think, 'Wow, how did we ever do it like that?'
How did you work together with the scientists on 'Walking'?
They came into our building, where we have a little preview theatre in the basement. That was turned into a college lecture hall for a few days. We got all the animators down there, and we just went back to school.
They [the scientists] told us everything they could. They'd been thinking about it and lecturing about it for many years, but they'd never actually seen it. You could just see their eyes light up when they saw the creatures walking. The other thing I noticed was that if the animator produced something that the animator thought looked realistic, usually the palaeontologist would say, 'I think that's absolutely right.'
The BBC contributed more of the project's $10 million budget than the other distributors involved, like the Discovery Channel from the States. How did you deal with those outside commercial forces?
It was the best working relationship I've had. … Apart from them [Horizon producer and director Tim Haynes and Jasper James] we had no creative input at all from the BBC. There were no fleets of producers or bosses wandering around. We just had support, and they just stood back and said 'Okay, you've got the money.'
And the sequel, another six-episode mini-series, must be another huge undertaking, along with your other projects.
It only covers the last 60 million years. And it's perhaps a little less varied in that it's really the rise of mammals. There was this almost amazing explosion of the success of mammals right after the dinosaurs. It [the sequel] takes you up to mankind: the last character in the series is Neanderthal Man. The technical challenges are huge. There are a lot of furry creatures, which are a real pain to do.
Meanwhile, we also have something called 'Dinotopia' … a children's book that was very successful in the States, not so successful over here, by a guy called James Gurney. … It's sort of Atlantis meets Jurassic Park, like a 'Lost World' in the middle of the ocean, where dinosaurs live with humans in great harmony. It's a very beautifully illustrated book, and they've tried to make a film of it a few times.
A mini-series is not as expensive as film, and from the effects point of view it's far more forgiving. You can do effects which are every bit as sophisticated as film effects, but because TV resolution is one-sixteenth of film resolution, you've got a lot less actual work to do in each frame.
Along with the outside lecturing you do, there seems to be an important educational aspect to your work.
If there's education in it, it's just a bi-product, really. I like the idea of knowledge; I like the scientific method, and trying to find things out. I think it's nice when you can use the sort of technology that's usually only used for pure entertainment to try and do some finding out, and showing off a bit science rather than a bit of arse.
Will the success of 'Walking' make it easier to keep up that principle?
In my mind, I now want to stay doing this type of programme only. I've found what I like to do, and it is what I'm going to stay doing. I do realise of course that a lot of people on our team want to do work that is more entertainment-based, so we're taking on those projects as well. But my own personal focus is to stick to documentaries.
Can you balance that with Framestore's commercial work?
Until about two years ago, the commercial side was definitely the breadwinner. … What's happened now is that we've geared up to a higher level; we've got more people, and the revenue that we get from the mini-series stuff is about the same. It's not the poor relation anymore.
London is the capital of Europe's commercial business, and it's a good business to be in. It's a young man's business, though. … I wouldn't go so far as to say that you have to be on drugs, but you certainly need an awful lot of energy.
- Brian Lavery
