Mainframe at 30

Canada’s pioneering CG animation studio is ready for the future with a healthy slate of innovative shows for young viewers.

If you are a fan of CG animation, you probably know that ReBoot was one of the first CG-animated TV series ever made. The show ran from 1994 to 2001 and was produced by the Vancouver-based studio Mainframe Entertainment, which was founded 30 years ago by Christopher Brough, Ian Pearson, Phil Mitchell, Gavin Blair and John Grace. Mainframe quickly established itself as a leading producer of CG-animated content. Another big milestone was the production of Spider-Man: The New Animated Series for MTV, the first large-scale, toon-shaded CG series.

Through the years, the studio grew and evolved, was sold to Rainmaker, changed its name to Rainmaker Animation in 2007 and produced its first theatrical feature, Escape from Planet Earth, in 2013. In 2020, the studio, which is now owned by WOW! Unlimited Media, reverted to its old name and became Mainframe Studios.

Over the past few years, Mainframe has been co-producing a wide-range of animated series such as Madagascar: A Little Wild and Team Zenko Go (DreamWorks Animation TV), The Guava Juice Show (Studio71/YouTube), Barbie: Big City, Big Dreams and Barbie: It Takes Two (Mattel TV/Netflix). As Mainframe celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, we thought it would be a great time to catch up with its president and CCO Michael Hefferon to learn more about the studio’s plans for 2023 and beyond:

Animation Magazine: First of all, congratulations on the big anniversary of Mainframe. Can you tell us a bit about your history with the studio?

Michael Hefferon: I’ve been with the studio for over 10 years now. As you know, the bulk of the studio is in Vancouver. We also branched out in Ontario and Toronto about two years ago, and we have had a strong team out in Nova Scotia as well. We have our global studio pipeline partnership with Infinite Frameworks in Singapore and Indonesia. When I started with the company, it was still Rainmaker. Back then, we weren’t doing TV animation. We changed that in 2013 when we made Bob the Builder with HIT. Fast forward to 2022, and we’ve had over 16 projects in production, with a studio of over 750 people, and all of it has been TV animation. So, this decade been a tremendous growth period for us.

What are some of the big priorities for the studio right now?

Game engine is a big focus for us. Coming out of the pandemic and having a 13-year-old son, I have seen how online platforms became an aspect of social connectivity for kids. In fact, Greg Little, who is our SVP of Content in Los Angeles, his son and my son became online friends. They have never meet in person, but they spend the day together interacting in gaming. We see the power of that connectivity. We recently announced our partnership with Nick Eh 30 for the new series Endurathon, which is produced in Unreal Engine 5. We’re looking at how we take someone like Nick Eh

30, who is one of the top Fortnite celebrities and is tremendously approachable and is admired by kids, and bring him to linear storytelling.

Certainly, the growth in our partnerships that we’ve had: We’ve been working with Mattel for 23 years: We’ve done 60-plus projects together over the years. We announced our partnership with Spin Master, we’re producing Unicorn Academy for Netflix, along with our partnership with Silvergate — now Sony Kids — on all the Octonauts content, most recently on Octonauts: Above & Beyond Those are all exciting for us! At the end of the day, it’s about producing great content that resonates with kid audiences. I’d like to think that we were able to put a lot of more smiles on kids’ faces during a tough period that everyone was going through during the pandemic.

How would you define a perfect Mainframe project?

You know, I think sometimes it’s what we like versus what we think our buyers and partners are going to like. One strength Mainframe has had over all the years is that we’re agnostic to having a style. Our diversity in the type of content and the different looks they have is what makes us interesting to our partners. For example, Guava Juice is our first 2D animated series where we utilize technology as a brush tool that an artist would use to create something. We have the younger preschool space (three to five, as well as a four to seven bridge preschool), which is led by Tanya Green. Certainly, kids are watching older these days — what used to be a show for three-year olds is now watched by younger kids. Greg Little is our senior VP of content, and he looks for shows targeting eight-year olds and up. We’re always looking for strong comedies. As you know, funny is money. Beyond that, we’re always looking to partner more with great creative talents to help realize their vision. We’re not a committee when we develop, and we really look for a strong creative point of view. We really look to support in executing that vision for that show.

Can you tell us about some of the new shows we can expect to see from the studio in the near future?

The newest one that’s coming is Unicorn Academy (Spin Master and Netflix, based on the book series by Julie Sykes). We will have more Barbie content coming out, and we have a number of shows with YouTube Kids. We’re producing Coyote & The WildAways with Coyote Peterson (whose Brave Wilderness YouTube channel has over 20 million subscribers). We’re also in partnership with GoldieBlox for YouTube as well, for a phenomenal property called The EggVenturers, which has tremendous viewer engagement.

Since Mainframe was one of the pioneers in CG technology in TV animation, what is your take on the growth of AI and its impact on the industry?

Of course it’s a controversial topic, but I think AI can be a great tool to assist animators. When we did ReBoot: The Guardian Code (live-action/CG hybrid) back in 2017, all the little Binome characters that you would see in some of the shots were all created by AI. They moved independently. We hero animated some of them. Back then, we used it just as a tool. It continues to be a great tool to assist in these types of shows. We do not see AI as replacing talent. We see it as another way to enhance our shows and be a tool set to assist our talent.

What would you say is the secret to running a successful animation studio?

I like to say that our company is a start-up with a track record. We continue to look at things in a fresh way, evolve and pivot when we need to pivot, and not get caught in legacy. It’s like when you come out of school, and you have this bright-eyed approach and believe that anything is possible. Just because we did something a certain way on a particular show doesn’t mean that’s the way we need to do it on the next one. Another key thing for us is that we’re talent focused. Our hardware and software help us achieve our successes, but it’s the talent —the people — who help us create and produce the shows. We always put talent as a premium. Mainframe is about our people, and that’s what we like to celebrate and what excites us about the future. ◆

For more info, visit www.mainframe.ca.