Obituary
My friend and colleague Mike Milne, who has died of lung cancer aged 76, left an indelible mark on the UK’s visual effects and animation industry.
Depending on when and where you met him, Mike was an artist, a beachcomber, an educator, a graphic designer, a park ranger on a remote island or a creative powerhouse. His work on the BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs brought Hollywood visual effects to living rooms around the world.
Born in Hartfield, East Sussex, Mike was the son of Barbara (nee Chidley), the secretary of the Anglo-Italian Society for the Protection of Animals (AISPA), and Antony, a diplomat who was posted to the British embassy in Rome. Mike boarded at Ashfold prep school in Buckinghamshire, then Westminster school, but never attended university. He was nevertheless a fierce advocate for education, and never shy about letting universities know where their courses fell short of industry needs. In later life he received an honorary doctorate of arts from Bournemouth University (2002).
Mike worked as a graphic designer throughout the 1970s, with his first job at the engineering firm Smiths Industries. It was while watching a colleague use an early personal computer – an Exidy Sorcerer – that his interest in computing was sparked. This fascination saw him tumble down a typically Milne-esque rabbit hole that included research, practical trial and error and, in 1981, a night-school programming class at Middlesex Polytechnic (now Middlesex University).
From there he entered Soho’s burgeoning post-production industry, using graphics systems that today seem prehistoric. Nevertheless, he recognised their potential and by the mid-80s had won a design industry award for his work on the Spitting Image opening titles.
In 1992 he joined Framestore – now an Oscar, Emmy and Bafta-winning visual effects studio – working on pop promos, title credits and advertisements. At that time, the company created two-dimensional graphics – it was Mike who set up the animation team and led the way in three-dimensional graphics. He was an inspirational leader whose intelligence and tenacity found solutions even when challenges seemed insurmountable.
It was this force of will that helped bring Walking With Dinosaurs to life in 1999: a landmark series heralding a previously unseen sense of spectacle for natural history programming. His work on this show and others, including the US-British miniseries Gulliver’s Travels and the BBC’s Merlin, secured Emmy, Bafta, Peabody and RTS awards. Several Walking With … sequels followed, as did a range of film and TV projects such as the hugely successful science-fiction series Primeval (2007-11).
A true autodidact, Mike was resourceful, intelligent and creative. Casual conversation could elicit information about dinosaur anatomy, natural history or quantum physics – a breadcrumb trail of knowledge that was never imparted ostentatiously but with passion, excitement and intelligence.
In 2008, he received the Royal Television Society’s lifetime achievement award for contributions to the industry.
He is survived by his wife, Zoe (nee Simone), an events manager whom he married in 2017, and by his sister, Sue.
William Sargent
Sun 21 Jul 2024 17.49 BST
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/article/2024/jul/21/mike-milne-obituary
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Memory Wall
Mike was cordial, deeply engaged, visibly enthusiastic, humorous, leaning forward with an unblinking stare. I can still ’see’ that meeting for some reason, he made such an impression. The ernest discussion eventually centred around how much motion blur was required as render times were long…...
Much later in the new Noel St building Walking with Dinosaurs came Framestore’s way. I was roped in to put together the first test shot - to give Tim Haines material in his search for funding a pilot. A stock shot was chosen - savannah - we knew this wasn’t ideal as grass wasn’t in abundance at that time but the shot looked perfect for our purposes. The static long lens shot was of a back lit tree silhouetted in the early morning mist.
Mike sourced grazing elephants as a reference for the animation of a single Triceratops. Much later the renders were ready. Mike told me the legs of the Triceratops were proving tricky - they looked like the dinosaur was wearing very loose wellington boots rather like a pantomime cow. There were folds rather than joints. No matter - we hid the legs in the tall grass and the shot looked perfect. Mike was so pleased.
We then worked on the pilot. Mike’s enthusiasm for all things dinosaur was limitless. He and a very young Andy Daffy worked incredibly hard. As renders came out we put together shots, observed, re rendered, looked at tracking, back lighting, compositing with underwater stock shots, doing our best to make everything look as photo-real as possible.
25 years later, looking back at the pilot, it does of course show it’s age - today though, I think more about how much responsibility Mike took on his shoulders at the start of Walking with Dinosaurs, when there was so much to solve. And he did solve, the wellington boots soon became feet and dinosaurs were brought to television for the first time. What an achievement. What a unique person.
He gave me my job at framestore and treated me with such warmth and kindness that it was easy to imagine I was joining a group of friends on an exciting endeavour. He made it very clear to me that I was adding something valuable to the team and took an interest in everything I did, including pursuits outside of work.
He had an encyclopedic knowledge on many subjects and became something of an oracle for any group discussions that required expert input.
He was also extremely thoughtful and supportive. I will never forget the time I told him I didn’t have holiday left to cover the whole Christmas period so would have to come in, and he replied: “Just take it as sick days stuart!”. I remember being utterly taken aback by this and immensely grateful at the same time. It never occurred to me that somebody so uniquely brilliant in their field and so dedicated could place such importance on time out, and I will never forget the amazing dinner we had in his flat on the river, opposite St Paul’s Cathedral. Ive never been at my best in social gatherings but Mike looked right past that. He had a way of bringing out the best in people and this makes him very special indeed. I know that Mikes brilliance will forever remain part of our universe and that the essence of what he was to so many of us will live on.
Mike, i sincerely hope ive justified your faith in me and i thank you so much for everything 🙏🏻
I only worked with Mike for a short time but he was a very important figure to me in my first few years at Framestore:
Firstly, because his work and that of the Walking With team was one of the main reasons I was so driven to join Framestore. If you loved TV visual effects and the possibilities of CGI, Walking With XX (alongside the work on the Hallmark dramas) was the summit point, way up above the clouds, for those of us clambering up the steep slope of early TV VFX at other post houses in Soho! I was determined to get to Framestore and really start engaging in that "great work", which, luckily enough, I did in 2005.
Secondly, Mike was an incredible teacher. I was actually pretty scared of him at first - he was intense, brilliant and did not suffer fools gladly! I was grasping at a way to connect and, given that I was a new producer, he was wary that I wanted to "organise" him! Not knowing how else to start my first meeting with him, I simply asked if he could talk me through the entire process as I wanted to learn how it was done. That seemed to work. He smiled warmly, with that twinkle in his eye, and agreed that I should spend several sessions learning all the many process steps; from hand-sculpted maquettes, through to final lighting and rendering.
Thirdly, he was fiercely loyal and put his team at the heart of what he did. Though he could be incredibly combative when he disagreed with you, I also found him to be gracious and kind, always inclusive and always fought your corner if you needed him to. Watching how patient and nurturing he was of the artists in his team in those days was something new to me, and an important part in my schooling - that extraordinary work is the result of what happens when you bring extraordinary people together, in an environment of trust and collaboration, and give them the support, space and time they need to respond to exciting challenges.
Many hilarious stories too of the surprise he could give you with anarchic, spontaneous and, sometimes, truly off-the-wall behaviour - perhaps not to be related here... but thinking back on them certainly makes me chuckle! Suffice to say, he also knew how to remind you that he was a force to be reckoned with and not to be taken for granted!
RIP Mike, and thank you.
Thank you for being there, being that guiding light breaking through the clouds, supporting next generation, giving them a helping hand in their journey. May your memories and legacy shine brightly and be the beacon in storm, the eternal stardust lighting our way amongst the stars. Tam - M.U.M to many.
