Uploaded November 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Characters are at the heart of all great stories and at Framestore we pride ourselves on crafting animated performances that engage audiences across genres. The directors we work with demand the same levels of performance from these characters as they do from human actors: emotionally driven, captivating and authentic performances that just feel real.
In Directing the Invisible Art we sat down with six very different directors that have collaborated with the Framestore team. We asked them about their approach to marrying live action worlds and on set actors with the animated characters that inhabit them. From the importance of light, the search for a feeling to the significance of doing very little and why great is better than good, each tells us what it takes to bring characters like Paddington, the Wild Things, Rocket, Groot, Cosmo, Toothless, King Shark, the Hippogriff, Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger to life.
We’ve worked with each on the following:
0:25 Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity, Children of Men and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
1:32 Marc Forster - Christopher Robin
2:17 James Gunn - Guardians of the Galaxy Volumes 1, 2 & 3, Suicide Squad, Superman (2025 film)
2:57 Dean DeBlois - How to Train Your Dragon (2025 film)
3:58 Spike Jonze - Where the Wild Things Are
5:39 Paul King - Paddington 1 & 2, Wonka
Watch James Gunn: Directing the Invisible Art and Spike Jonze: Directing the Invisible Art next, or revisit The Invisible Art, here on our YouTube channel.
Characters are at the heart of all great stories and at Framestore we pride ourselves on crafting animated performances that engage audiences across genres. The directors we work with demand the same levels of performance from these characters as they do from human actors: emotionally driven, captivating and authentic performances that just feel real.
In Directing the Invisible Art we sat down with six very different directors that have collaborated with the Framestore team. We asked them about their approach to marrying live action worlds and on set actors with the animated characters that inhabit them. From the importance of light, the search for a feeling to the significance of doing very little and why great is better than good, each tells us what it takes to bring characters like Paddington, the Wild Things, Rocket, Groot, Cosmo, Toothless, King Shark, the Hippogriff, Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore and Tigger to life.
We’ve worked with each on the following:
0:25 Alfonso Cuarón - Gravity, Children of Men and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
1:32 Marc Forster - Christopher Robin
2:17 James Gunn - Guardians of the Galaxy Volumes 1, 2 & 3, Suicide Squad, Superman (2025 film)
2:57 Dean DeBlois - How to Train Your Dragon (2025 film)
3:58 Spike Jonze - Where the Wild Things Are
5:39 Paul King - Paddington 1 & 2, Wonka
Watch James Gunn: Directing the Invisible Art and Spike Jonze: Directing the Invisible Art next, or revisit The Invisible Art, here on our YouTube channel.
