Framestore creates photorealistic bee for Man Vs Bee starring Rowan Atkinson
Brie Clayton July 13, 2022
0 Comments
Using comp, animation, and virtual production techniques the team created 600 shots in this highly anticipated Netflix comedy
Framestore and their work, as ever, was exemplary. The show was conceived and produced during Covid-19, so its scheduling was extremely challenging, but Framestore could not have been more helpful to the production and diligent in their dogged pursuit of excellence. The results, I think, are astonishing . said Rowan Atkinson.
Running over nine episodes, Man Vs Bee is a brand-new comedy starring Rowan Atkinson, which marks the actor's debut on Netflix, reconnecting him with Will Davies and Chris Clark who he worked with on the Johnny English films. Within the comedy, the protagonist Trevor, played by Rowan Atkinson, enters into an unexpected clash with a plucky bee whilst housesitting a mansion.
Framestore gave us our co-star: a bee so beautifully animated and richly-rendered it seems every bit as real and characterful as its human counterparts. Rob Duncan and his team were wonderful collaborators. From the outset, we worked hand-in-glove, choosing a specific real bee as our reference; finessing animation so that every detail could imply the bee's attitude to Trevor; dreaming up ways the bee's physicality could be transformed in reaction to Trevor's attacks, said David Kerr, Director. The Framestore team worked not only on the bee, but on a host of other really ambitious VFX shots. At every stage of the process, working with them was a joy .
Framestore's core team consisted of VFX Supervisor Rob Duncan, who has worked on two films with Rowan Atkinson: Mr. Bean's Holiday and Johnny English Reborn. Alongside him were Comp Supervisor, Ollie Bersey, CG Supervisor, Johannes Sambs, Animation Supervisor, Binal Shah and VFX Producer, Standish Millennas. Focussing on crafting the bee, together they brought a full suite of VFX skills to the production both on set and in post and delivered 600 shots in total with 202 shots of the bee.
As the bee was only one inch long it posed some interesting challenges. Rob was keen to use stand-in bees on the shoot, which were puppeteered by a professional puppeteer. This enabled Rob to direct their actions on-set, in anticipation of carrying the spirit of the bee's movement all the way through to the CG character later on in post. The puppet bee gave Rowan the opportunity to react to something live on-set, which would be really useful in achieving believable interaction in the final scenes.
We had some bee proxies made and placed on the end of a fishing rod, which sounds very simple, but it's got to behave like a bee, and when it's done poorly there can be a disconnect between what the actors are doing and how you are animating your character, so I decided to use puppeteering, said Rob Duncan. I'd done a lot of research into bees at this point, including how fast they move and how much they meander, so we had some basic ground rules locked in and as the puppeteer was a performer, they were able to subtly manipulate the one inch proxy and imbue a character into that.
A big bulk of the asset build was the groom variations created by Johannes' team and animated by Binal's team. However, they were careful to keep the character realistic and not stylised to make sure it always felt like an actual bee.
We had a lot of different groom variations because the bee is going through so many different scenarios, which I think is one of the most exciting things about the job, said Johannes Sambs. It gets soaked in a shower, sucked up in a vacuum cleaner, blow dried into a puff ball, and picks up all sorts of debris and particles along the way.
Part of the brief was that the bee shouldn't look menacing, but if you zoom into a bumble bee head it becomes quite alien looking and creepy, so we had to find a way of maintaining realism whilst ensuring a friendly-looking bee no matter how close up we are. continued Johannes Sambs.
The groom variations helped convey a bit of subtlety and emotion without forcing the bee to do something that it wouldn't do otherwise in nature, added Binal Shah. In terms of animation, we didn't have a lot of reference for a sad bee, so we played around until we found a pose that looked like a forlorn bee, and it worked out well.
The team also created some beefy effects, with one sequence involving Trevor luring the bee into a beehive which was rigged with explosives, leaving the bee looking the worse for wear.
It was a chance to have a bit of fun and a valid reason to change the look of the character. We wanted to feel like it had sustained some damage, but nothing too life threatening, said Rob Duncan. Really it was up to us to come up with those looks as they were not defined in the script and for us it seemed to be a good opportunity to add value to the character.
From the outset it was clear that there would be many dozens, if not hundreds, of shots requiring a CG bee - so the investment was made up front to streamline the VFX workflow so that finished-level shots could be turned around quickly to put in front of the filmmakers for their comments.
Generally, there's quite a delay between the various stages, but for this project we could animate a bee in the morning and see it comped in the plate by the afternoon, which helped create an efficient feedback loop. said Binal Shah.
One of the biggest tests the team faced was portraying the bee's POV.
There were a small selection of shots depicting the point of view of the bee in flight which was photographed using a camera normally used for VR capture, with a 360 degree field of view - this allowed us in post to very carefully adjust where the bee was
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
22/10/2025
Prime Video Inks Deal To Present NFL Black Friday Game Worldwide By SVG Staff
Wednesday, October 22, 2025 - 10:06 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story ...
22/10/2025
NBA Tip-Off: ESPN Goes 1080p HDR End-to-End, Flipping HDR Switch on REMI and REM...
22/10/2025
FloSports Empowers Division II, III Athletic Departments With Turnkey Production...
22/10/2025
Wall Street Video Summit Debuts, Bringing Together 200 Financial Enterprise Vide...
22/10/2025
Dueling Pianos: International Chopin Piano Competition Is as Competitive as a Ba...
22/10/2025
In 1995, a young Colombian artist released an album that would change Latin pop ...
22/10/2025
Over the past few months, a photovoltaic system has been installed on a three-he...
22/10/2025
The Orion spacecraft for NASA's Artemis II mission is stacked on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kenn...
22/10/2025
L3Harris' Hybrid SATCOM is resilient by design, offering path diversity that eliminates vulnerabilities by routing data across the best available networks i...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. Organizers of NAB Show New York said they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countries along with 260 exhibitor...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Masque Sound, a leading theatrical sound reinforcement, installation and design company, supplied an extensive gear package of professional-grade equipment for ...
22/10/2025
Lightware, a global leader in signal management and AV connectivity solutions, is seeing strong market momentum for the UCX-3x3-TPX-RX20, a compact transmitter-...
22/10/2025
MELVILLE, N.Y. Chyron has released PAINT 10.2, the latest update for its telestration platform, adding support for SMPTE ST 2110 IP workflows, expanding brandin...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON Run3TV today said NBCUniversal is joining as an investor in the ATSC 3.0 Framework Authority, which develops the Run3TV NextGen TV application platfo...
22/10/2025
ATLANTA swXtch.io will feature two new networking solutions extending the company's reach across more cloud and on-prem workflows at NAB Show New York, set ...
22/10/2025
The Warner Bros. Discoverys HBO Max streaming services has increased prices for all its streaming tiers effectively immediately for new customers. Existing cust...
22/10/2025
LOS ANGELES OpenDrives has signed a new distribution partnership deal with Versatile Distribution Services (VDS) to strengthen its channel and streamline how it...
22/10/2025
WASHINGTON, D.C The organizers of The 2025 NAB Show New York have announced that they are expecting more than 12,000 registered attendees from about 100 countr...
22/10/2025
Samora Pinderhughes Brings Immersive Sound to Berklee's Signature Series The artist and composer, who's worked with Herbie Hancock, Robert Glasper, Co...
22/10/2025
BMI Day at Berklee Celebrates Composer Fil Eisler and Awards Scholarship to Stud...
22/10/2025
October 22nd, 2025 TRIBECA ANNOUNCES STAR-STUDDED LINEUP OF MEMBERSHIP EVENTS F...
22/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF cooperate in drone defense Rohde & Schwarz and TRUMPF partner to deliver a comprehensive drone defense solution combining Rohde & S...
22/10/2025
European Broadcaster Upgrades To Grass Valley's NativeIP LDX 135 Cameras And...
22/10/2025
Everyone Gets a Better Deal on Verizon with New FOX One Perk The $15 FOX One streaming service perk is yet another way Verizon continues to add savings for cu...
22/10/2025
First Look Hidden Assets Series 3
Premieres on 9th November 9:30pm on RT One & RT Player
WATCH HERE Promo Link: Hidden Assets Series 3 | RT
The Crimin...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Although AES Show Is on Its Own, Audio Will Be a Major Part o...
21/10/2025
NAB New York 2025: Business of Broadcast and Media,' Future of Content'...
21/10/2025
SVG All-Stars: Ethan Folz, Senior Director, Digital Operations and Quality of Ex...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: Livestream Offers Graphic Overlays, Predictive Gaming, Ancil...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: At the Front Bench With Producer Frank DiGraci and Director ...
21/10/2025
NBA on NBC/Peacock: NBC Sports, NEP Build Ultra-Flexible Production Plan That Se...
21/10/2025
Indigenous storytelling has been at the heart of the work of the Sundance Instit...
21/10/2025
Top L-R: Mysterious Skin, American Dream Second Row L-R: Little Miss Sunshine, D...
21/10/2025
Last week, Spotify and Columbia Records transformed Pier 4 at the Brooklyn Army ...
21/10/2025
SBS Learn's Dharug Ngurra resource empowers classrooms to meaningfully celeb...
21/10/2025
As global operators simplify and evolve their digital platforms, NPS improvement...
21/10/2025
Critical Design Review completion is a key milestone on the path toward Wideband Global Satellite Communications certification for the network in 2026, opening ...
21/10/2025
New Australian undersea training range to implement and improve warfighting tactics, proficiency and safety; enable joint/allied training that contributes to pr...
21/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
21/10/2025
September, the beginning of autumn, brought an expected revival to the TV market, largely due to the new fall TV schedules. The time spent in front of the TV sc...
21/10/2025
Broadcast Booms with 20% Uptick vs. August, Achieving Largest Monthly
Increase ...
21/10/2025
During September, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico settled at 24.5%, a marginal shift of -0.5 share points from the previous month.
Disclaimer: YU...
21/10/2025
RENNES, France BBright and GlobalM have conducted a technical trial validating Ultra HD interoperability across the entire contribution chain in the cloud, achi...
21/10/2025
Kokusai Denki Electric America will mark the U.S. debut of a new 4K camera at the 2025 NAB New York, Oct. 22-23. Now available, the Z-HD6500-S1 UHD/HD productio...
21/10/2025
Triveni Digital, a trusted leader in ATSC 1.0 and 3.0 service delivery, data broadcasting, and quality assurance solutions, will showcase its entire NEXTGEN TV ...
21/10/2025
Radio Azzurra FM, longest-running radio station in the province of Novara, northwest Italy, has invested in an DHD SX2 audio routing and mixing console for inte...
21/10/2025
Globecast, the leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, has announced the appointment of G Morgan as Executive Vice President of...
Framestore creates photorealistic bee for Man Vs Bee starring Rowan Atkinson 
