My friend and colleague Mike Milne, who has died of lung cancer aged 76, left an indelible mark on the UK’s visual effects and animation industry.
Depending on when and where you met him, Mike was an artist, a beachcomber, an educator, a graphic designer, a park ranger on a remote island or a creative powerhouse. His work on the BBC’s Walking With Dinosaurs brought Hollywood visual effects to living-rooms around the world.
Born in Hartfield, East Sussex, Mike was the son of Barbara (nee Chidley), the secretary of the Anglo-Italian Society for the Protection of Animals (AISPA), and Antony, a diplomat who was posted to the British Embassy in Rome. Mike boarded at Ashfold prep school in Buckinghamshire, then Westminster school, but never attended university. He was nevertheless a fierce advocate for education, and never shy about letting universities know where their courses fell short of industry needs. In later life he received an honorary doctorate of arts from Bournemouth University (2002).
Mike worked as a graphic designer throughout the 1970s, with his first job at the engineering firm Smiths Industries. It was while watching a colleague use an early personal computer – an Exidy Sorcerer – that his interest in computing was sparked. This fascination saw him tumble down a typically Milne-esque rabbit-hole that included research, practical trial and error and, in 1981, a night-school programing class at Middlesex Polytechnic (now Middlesex University).
From there he entered Soho’s burgeoning post-production industry, using graphics systems that today seem prehistoric. Nevertheless, he recognised their potential and by the mid-80s had won a design industry award for his work on the Spitting Image opening titles.
In 1992 he joined Framestore – now an Oscar, Emmy and Bafta-winning visual effects studio – working on pop promos, title credits and advertisements. At that time, the company created two-dimensional graphics – it was Mike who set up the animation team and led the way in three-dimensional graphics. He was an inspirational leader whose intelligence and tenacity found solutions even when challenges seemed insurmountable.
It was this force of will that helped bring Walking With Dinosaurs to life in 1999: a landmark series heralding a previously unseen sense of spectacle for natural history programming. His work on this show and others, including the US-British miniseries Gulliver’s Travels and the BBC’s Merlin, secured Emmy, Bafta, Peabody and RTS awards. Several Walking With … sequels followed, as did a range of film and TV projects such as the hugely successful science-fiction series Primeval (2007-11).
A true autodidact, Mike was resourceful, intelligent and creative. Casual conversation could elicit information about dinosaur anatomy, natural history or quantum physics – a breadcrumb trail of knowledge that was never imparted ostentatiously but with passion, excitement and intelligence.
In 2008, he received the Royal Television Society’s lifetime achievement award for contributions to the industry.
He is survived by his wife, Zoe (nee Simone), an events manager whom he married in 2017, and by his sister, Sue.
• This article was amended on 23 July 2024 because Mike Milne was 76, not 78 as an earlier version said.
