Some of our greatest work might go unnoticed. But that’s the point. At Keyframe, a full service digital art, animation and visual effects studio, we create and manipulate imagery of all kinds. Some work you’ll see and love, other work will pass right before your eyes and you won’t even be able to tell we were there.
Founded as a studio in 1997 by Clint Green and Darren Cranford, we initially made our mark on the console and PC gaming scene with clients like Crystal Dynamics, Eidos, Mattel and Mindscape. Our unique approach to cinematics and 3D animation on popular titles such as ‘Panzer General 3D Assault’ and ‘Prince of Persia 3D’ established us as a serious player in the burgeoning video game industry.
Animation: In the area of animation, we’ve won numerous awards for our work on a feature-length children’s Christmas special titled ‘The Littlest Light On The Christmas Tree’. This 45-minute video consists of 20 fully animated characters and interactive backgrounds and was released on DVD both domestically and internationally. Our production experience and knowledge of provincial and federal tax incentives, landed us a co-production with Sesame Workshop, on their award winning series ‘Pinky Dinky Doo’. The series consisted of 52 x 8 minute episodes and 104 x 3 minute games. The show has been airing in the US and UK since September 2008 and has been receiving outstanding ratings.
VFX: Our team has also established a strong hold within the visual and digital effects arenas. In the area of television broadcast, we’ve produced digital effects, matte paintings (2D and 3D), digital screens, set extensions and animated 3D characters for hundreds of television hours. Our work can be found in such shows as ‘Mutant X’, ‘Wild Card’, ‘Monk’, ‘Regenesis’, ‘PlayMakers’, ‘The Dresden Files’, ‘XIII’, ‘Lost Girl’ and ‘Warehouse 13’ to name but a few. The effects for these projects and others range anywhere from electrical blasts and monitor comps, to fully integrated 3D creatures and set extensions. Broadcast deliverables are nothing new to us.
For film, we’ve completed effects work for such movies as ‘X-Men’, directed by Bryan Singer. We worked closely with Singer to create Pre-Viz and many on screen, monitor playback sequences. Our team has also worked with director Renny Harlin on ‘Driven’, starring Sylvester Stallone. We were initially contracted to produce Pre-Viz for Harlin however, we generated hundreds of monitor animations that were used as playback in the film. And for the film ‘Left Behind’, we generated numerous military jets and army tanks for the huge desert fight scene. A few other Pre-Viz and VFX contracts include ‘Highwaymen’, starring James Caviezel, ‘Head of State’, starring Chris Rock, ‘K-19: The Widow Maker’, starring Harrison Ford, ‘The Tuxedo’, starring Jackie Chan, ‘BulletProof Monk’, directed by Paul Hunter, ‘Secret Window’, starring Johnny Depp and directed by David Koepp, ‘Zombie Land’, starring Woody Harrelson. and ‘RED’, starring Bruce Willis.
Launching the company so many years ago with only two employees and a few small video game animation contracts, we now employ over 20 remarkably talented artists ranging in skill set from concept/design and 3D animation to digital compositing and visual effects. Depending on the demands of each project, it is not unusual to find 20-40 or more artists working with us at any given time.
The Keyframe Krew is a uniquely talented family of artists and animators. The team is loaded with passion, skill, dedication and drive. We work tirelessly to bring your stories to life (ok…sometimes the Krew gets tired, but there is a coffee bar in the studio). For the Krew, there is no greater reward than working our VFX or animation magic and seeing a scene come alive on-screen. We fall in love with every project that enters our studio, we fall in love with the puzzle each new shot presents…and then we fall in love with each creative solution. The team offers more than just our ability. We utilize our strengths, push boundaries and are staffed up with specialists in niche areas of industry expertise. (Fire? Dragonscales? Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion? We got you covered). Each member of our team is valued as part of the Keyframe family – not just another cog in the great machine or chip in the high-powered mainframe. Our Krew is the heart and soul of Keyframe Digital…the rest is just rendering!