Local animation studio FrameBreed becomes SpongeBob creation hub

Director and CGI supervisor Andrei Brovcenco, 24, and artistic director and CGI supervisor Vasile Brovcenco, 31, are behind many of the animations and special effects viewers see on a day-to-day basis in Romania and abroad.

The two brothers have a studio specialized in delivering animation and VFX for entertainment, movies and commercials. Their work on SpongeBob SquarePants 4D: The Great Jelly Rescue! earned them a nomination from the Visual Effects Society for Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project. The two brothers opened up to BR about their journey.

By Otilia Haraga

Why did you decide to start FrameBreed?

We founded the company five years ago. From the start, the idea was either to go out there in the world and make a name for ourselves, or to try to create something from scratch here. We have been doing special effects and animation since we were children; it was our passion. We are from the Republic of Moldova but we attended school here in Romania. I, Vasile, attended the informatics high school and the Faculty of Automatics and Computers within the Bucharest Polytechnic University. Andrei studied at the I.L. Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film (UNATC), with a major in film direction. This is a field that combines the two: technical and artistic skills.

We have been using our artistic skills since childhood and adolescence because we used to draw a lot. We used to cover all the walls in school with drawings! We would draw anything, from battles with horses to fruit or animals.

I (Vasile) am more active at management level while Andrei is more involved in the production. We now share our tasks differently – for instance, I may be good at one particular technical aspect and he at the other. This domain has many branches that are very different: modeling, composition, light, camera animation and character animation. In other countries, there are people specialized in only one branch; for instance, some do only camera animation.

Why did you decide to stay here instead of trying your luck somewhere else?

We could have left many times but we dreamed of having our own studio in Romania. We had the bad luck to open the studio right in the middle of the financial crunch. Not to mention that the entire global market was flooded with animation and special effects, while in Romania nothing like this was being done. So we opened the path to doing it in Romania. From when we appeared in 2009 until 2013, we barely had time to breathe. We did not have time to think about the marketing strategy or other stuff; we had to take project after project. We were busy all the time; we had no holidays. And all the plasma TVs in town ran stuff we had made.

What projects did you deliver during this time?

For instance, we delivered a project in Italy for Generali, which wanted the clip to look like a game.
Another foreign client we worked with directly several months ago was ZOHO, for an ad where we came up with the ideas, the concept and the character design.

We also did something for LinkedIn, where we made the animation for an interactive game Career-a-pult. Micheal Page, one of the world’s leading recruitment consultants, wanted to increase their online presence and establish themselves as an innovative and approachable company. The game gave professionals on LinkedIn the chance to pit their profile against a friend or colleague.

The main client we are collaborating with is a US production house, Super 78. Initially, it advertised a three-minute animation pilot called Mido Dino and we took part in the pitch. The company was researching studios abroad and we entered the pitch, did a test character and they were very impressed by the quality and the approach. So we did the first project with them, working in a team of four. This began a strong collaboration with them.

We also worked on The Last Stand, a 2013 film with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Forest Whitaker, for which we did some digital interfaces.

These were smaller projects until the pitch for SpongeBob was launched, where there were a lot of contenders. We proposed an interpretation of the character in 3D. The character is traditionally in 2D and up to that moment, the creators of the series had never found a 3D proposal that they liked. Even large modeling studios had proposed 3D versions of SpongebBob, but they did not like them. We were glad that our model was the chosen one.

The SpongeBob drawers said this was what they had wanted all along. We were very glad about this because we were great fans of SpongeBob, and we could not believe our luck. After a while we received the news that we would be working on SpongeBob for a seven-minute ride. And suddenly the wheels were set in motion. This was in the summer of 2012 and we worked on the project until March 2013.
Before the film is complete, it must be interesting to see from the very early stages. In the beginning, it is all bits and pieces, but with the voice and the montage on, it must be interesting from the start. And this takes time. We started from a Word document and did the storyboard, everything; we thought how the film should be. What we imagine the first time should coincide with what reaches the client, and it generally does.

SpongeBob SquarePants: The Great Jelly Rescue 4D attraction will premiere this summer in various theme parks, zoos and aquariums around the world. We had a great experience working side by side with Nickelodeon Animation Studios, SimEx-Iwerks and Super 78.

So how do you divide the tasks between the team?

We share our tasks among ten people. In the beginning, we did everything ourselves, but now we must delegate. Right now, there are ten of us, but two are currently not involved because there are no projects for them at the moment. It’s all project based: there used to be 14 of us working full-time on the SpongeBob project. But if we get to work on a series or a project that can last for two years and need to deliver a high quantity, we will need to hire people, and we may come across problems. It is hard to reach a team of, say, 30 people, because it is hard to find specialists.

Where do you recruit from?

We mainly recruit from the gaming industry and film production, and there are also those who do these things out of pure passion for modeling and 3D.

There are some attempts at teaching this in school. Even at UNATC, there is an animation section, but it does not have anything to do with what we are doing. First of all, they don’t apply new techniques, and in animation they still use stop-motion, which is rather intuitive; it is not the technical stop-motion that we are doing today. Animation studios such as Laika and Aardman use very advanced techniques. They sketch every frame in 3D, the characters are then animated in 3D, then those 3D characters are printed. In school, no such things are taught; what is taught in school is elementary stuff. There are no experienced people who can teach it.

There should be a core team in which someone works on something, and then delivers it to someone else who – irrespective of who worked on the project before and what skills that person had – must be able to take that project over and work on it. And if that person decides to leave, they need to be replaced easily, but it is not easy to do that because what people know is vague. It’s not like in the West where there are people who do character modeling on a certain niche – for instance stylized in a certain way, or realistic.

We are considering organizing an internship or making presentations at certain schools and faculties to inform them of what this is about and then they will also know what to learn.

How is creating an animation for a film different from creating it for an ad?

We try to do our best on any project. Even though the client is not aware that we add certain effects, we do it, because we are paid for it. On the other hand, when you work with someone who has experience from the visual point of view, it can be more difficult, because even if you understand what they’re saying, in their mind they picture things differently.

In the case of an ad, a project can last for three weeks, one month at most. With a film, there is a large work volume which requires stricter management; you must estimate how much time it will take, how many people will be working on the job, and who will be involved – you must plan the entire project from the start.

Also, with a film, it is important who you are working with. For instance, for SpongeBob we had to do a presentation when the project was mid-way. Things went like this: they rented a movie theater in Los Angeles, they flew from New York to LA, then the lights went off in the cinema and the screening of what we had done up to that point started. And of course, there is a lot of pressure because they could even delete half of the movie. We were lucky: this did not happen to us, as they were happy with the project.
Soon, we will start working on a new SpongeBob. Already, the entire documentation for the next project is written based on our execution. SpongeBob was the most well-known and loved animation in the United States, so the series is pretty important. The production for the new SpongeBob is set for May 2014 and it will probably end at the end of 2014 or the beginning of 2015. We don’t know the name of the project yet.

Company profile: Framebreed
• Founded: 2009
• Projects:
Film: SpongeBob SquarePants: The Great Jelly Rescue 4D attraction, Last Stand (visual interfaces), Mido Dino Trailer, Don’t let the weekend surprise you!, The SteamPork
Ads: Christian Tour (Plane Tickets, Aqua Park, Buletinul Vacantelor, Paris, Hotel), Romtelecom (HBO, Business Solutions), Cosmote (3G), Orange (Karaoke), ZOHO – Fruitful Apps, Aspacardin, Star (Football Championship, Dreamer, Popcorn), Pepsi (Penguin, Meerkats, Collection Cans), Granini, Plafar, Bramac, Faringosept, Margaritar (Sugar Bas-Relief)
• Headcount: ten at the moment; project based
• Turnover:
2009 RON 131,641
• 2010 RON 536,463
• 2011 RON 378,859
• 2012 RON 938,072

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