30 Years of The Mill | 3D Animator, Laurie Estampes

What piece of work inspired you to get into a career at The Mill & why? 

It has to be the Heathrow Airport ‘Bear’ commercials that air during Christmas. I literally fell in love with those teddy bears. It’s a really simple story, with no dialogue but somehow within the first ten seconds, you just fall in love with these characters.

I really love the fact that with not alot of facial expression and a very settled animation you can still feel their personality and cuteness. It’s so important to build a connection with characters and this spot really nails that. It almost makes me want to catch a flight on Christmas day…

What will be the most defining change in the creative industry over the next decade? 

Technology is moving so fast, we now have a way to combine live events with real-time assets with Unreal Engine. If that’s not crazy I don’t know what is!

I believe that with all these new steps in technology, we’ll be able to collaborate on so many more unique projects. From a 3D perspective, now we as artists have a grasp on photo-real I think it is time to experiment and produce something different and out the box. Let’s be creative!

Discover more about 30 Years of The Mill here. We would like to thank everyone who has been part of our history – our clients, our partners, our collaborators and our staff past and present. All of you have been central to making our first 30 years so extraordinary.

You can also follow Laurie on Instagram @rigo_lorie.