The London CGI Studio Phenomenon

There are just a handful of cities around the world that have become creative media centres serving the worlds appetite for extraordinary imagery. Although we might traditionally expect places such as Hollywood to provide many of the top CGI specialists, it is London with its long history of TV advertising production that began to spearhead the use of visual effects and computer graphics as far back as the 1980's in the central London district of Soho.

With the high budgets used in commercials production combined with the memory limitations of computers of the day, the 30 second TV spot became the experimental playground for what was to evolve into a now burgeoning local industry that employs nearly 10,000 skilled workers in London CGI Studios.

The boom in visual effects and computer graphics spawned such institutions as Framestore, The Mill and The Moving Picture Company who all started their businesses providing exclusive services to the advertising industry and eventually the film industry as the technology became powerful enough to handle the massive data that a 2 hour film contained. What we now take for granted was a technological break through in the late nineties when 'Digital Intermediate' allowed film production to seamlessly visit the cgi shops for tweaks and effects as a matter of course. When Ridley Scott's 'Gladiator' won the Best Visual FX Oscar for The Mill in 2001 the London CGI studio phenomenon was unleashed.

Today the industry has matured but is still growing, with second generation studios entering the fray, each with their own skills and specialities to offer the ever growing universe of computer generated imagery. From the now classic VFX studios to the specialist outfits like Blotto Studio that provide CGI product images to the world of internet retail, London CGI Studios continue to be a world renown resource for getting things done and getting them done well. As London evolves as an international centre for computer based and creative skills, the workforce that it attracts has become ever more refined and capable, ensuring that for years to come LondonCGI Studios will represent the very best in visual effects and computer generated imagery.