“One of our primary aims was to get the visual effects industry in the UK on the map,” recalls Hope.

DNEG was also well-placed to benefit from a dramatic rise in film and VFX production occurring in the UK, especially with the advent of the Harry Potter films. Very quickly, in fact, the studio began forming key relationships with filmmakers, producers and film studios. The Internet wasn’t up to much back then – remember ISDN lines running at a blistering 28Kbps? – so communication with the home base was pretty difficult.”įranklin suggests that “much of the ‘core DNA’ of Double Negative was laid down on Pitch Black, which was VFX supervised by Co-founder Peter Chiang, and still remains to this day. “Of course,” relates DNEG Co-founder and Visual Effects Supervisor Paul Franklin, “once we got there we had all sorts of technical problems getting our first SGI workstations set up, made all the worse by the fact that our tech team was 10,000 miles away. Also, Pitch Black was filming in Queensland, Australia, the other side of the world. The studio was without a permanent base in London and was yet to purchase much-needed workstations. Pitch Black would prove to be a significant challenge for the newly formed DNEG team (who did not even have a name when they started on the film – they actually referred to themselves as ‘Newco’, as in ‘new company’, for the first few months). Polygram backed the group to start their own outfit, with the first project the Vin Diesel sci-fi film Pitch Black. It was formed largely by a group of artists who had been working together at The Moving Picture Company in London for several years. Production Posse: Usually present on films made by Disney, Christopher Nolan, or Edgar Wright.While it is now a massive visual effects studio, DNEG started small.Live-Action Adaptation: Several, especially Prince of Persia, V for Vendetta, Doom and their work on the Marvel and DC movies.Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.The studio has also provided 3D conversions for The Tree of Life (Astral Realm sequence).

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists.

Nimona (finished animating the film after the original studio, Blue Sky Studios, was shuttered).

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter attractions Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Parts 1 and 2.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.

Doctor Who (Series 11-12 of the revival series).

The company's effects work can be sampled in: See also Ghost VFX, an effects studio that DNEG worked with several times. That very same year, the studio would help form Locksmith Animation, with their first feature Ron's Gone Wrong releasing in October 2021. On June 25, 2014, they merged with fellow effects studio Prime Focus. They've since expanded to become the largest European VFX studio with more than 750 people in their staff. Double Negative VFX (often shortened to DNEG) are a British Visual Effects company that first opened in 1998 with 30 people on board.

Double negative vfx