Fromm Studio's animated world of whimsy

British 3D studio Fromm, repped by Partizan, was born from founders Vince Ibay and Jessica Miller's shared passion for mythology, fairy tales, and their signature porcelain-like figures.

Blending the charm of the past with the technology of the present the duo have crafted a characterful style that offers a vibrant escape from reality, with a colourful portfolio of magical music videos and ad campaigns to whimsical illustrations for billboards, magazines, and social media. We caught up with them to discover how they infuse every commercial project with wit, whimsy, and a hint of mischief. 

What were your individual paths into the industry, and how did you end up working together as Fromm Studio? 

Vince: We met at uni, I did Fine Art, and Jess was doing graphic design. I think it was during lockdown that we first started working together because we were both learning how to work with the 3D software Blender at that time. 

Jess: Our first project together was a music video, and after that we started posting a lot of our 3D experiments on Instagram. Our work started getting noticed, we got a few freelance jobs, and it just continued from there. 

A lot of our figures are inspired by historical celebrities of folk stories. We’ve also always been interested in stately homes, antique fairs, and English Heritage sites. 

Where does your inspiration come from? 

V: We’ve always had an interest in Staffordshire figures - we collected them before we started creating 3D works. During lockdown, we couldn't really use 3D software properly, so we found this hack of 3D scanning. You just scan the object and it goes into 3D, and a lot of the things we scanned was our ceramic collection. We would match our heads onto the figures, and I guess that is where the style came from. 

J: A lot of our figures are inspired by historical celebrities of folk stories. We’ve also always been interested in stately homes, antique fairs, and English Heritage sites. 

Above: Fromm's 3D illustration for Business Insider. 

Your style is so wonderfully strange, do the brands you work with want to lean into the weirdness, and do they give you a lot of creative freedom? 

V: I think most of the time they know what they are signing up for! We just cater towards their audience, but we always want to make the old feel a bit more modern. The brand’s we’ve worked for have all given us a lot of freedom, and just because we have this vintage inspired style, the work doesn’t have to be for a heritage brand specifically! 

To complete the circle, we take from the physical into the digital, and then back into physical again. 

When did your visual style start to take shape? Was there a particular project where you realised you wanted to run with it? 

J: I think that was probably our first solo show, Faerdom. That was really when we got into our style. 

V: At the start, it was already quite stylistic, a lot of people said it reminded them of porcelain figures, which makes sense because it literally came from our porcelain collection. Our solo show, Faerdom, was our first big chance to focus on what we wanted to do with the studio, and I think we improved the most during that project. 

Above: Still image from Fromm's first mixed-media solo show, Faerdom. 

Can you tell us a bit more about your solo show Faerdom? 

V: It was our first solo show in London! We used our usual animation styles and leaned into English folklore and medieval styles. We’ve always liked having that handmade touch to our models, and we wanted to move into physical pieces as well, to complete the circle, we take from the physical into the digital, and then back into physical again. 

Now we’ve got better at 3D, we don't need to scan everything! But we try to keep that lo-fi nature in the work because it’s part of its character. 

J: There were big screens with our 3D animations, people compared them to stained glass windows or tapestries. The show felt a bit like an antique shop or museum, with ceramics alongside the moving image pieces. 

Where does the name Fromm come from? 

J: We just used it as a sign off originally, like "from Jess" or "from Vince". Then we added the extra M because there are two of us, and we have just run with it ever since. I wish it was a more interesting story! 

Above: A selection of images from Fromm's window seasonal displays for Selfridges. 

How has your creative process developed since you first started animating? 

V: In the beginning, we really didn’t know how to animate, so we used a lot of motion libraries. Adobe has a free motion library called Mixamo, that’s what we used at the start. But then we needed more custom movement, so we started using AI motion capture, where you video whatever movement you want, and it tries to put it onto your character. Over time we’ve improved our technical skills, so now we can sculpt and hand animate.  

J: Now we’ve got better at 3D, we don't need to scan everything! But we try to keep that lo-fi nature in the work because it’s part of its character. Especially with motion capture, it comes out so messy, but we kind of like it. If the arm intersects or something like that, we like the wonkiness. 

 Especially with motion capture, it comes out so messy, but we kind of like it. If the arm intersects or something like that, we like the wonkiness. 

What are some of your favourite commercial projects? 

V: The most recent one is Selfridges. That was a fun one. We love it when our digital animation are put into a real life situation, almost like big sculptures. Having our work shown across different mediums was great. That was also our first time designing windows, so seeing it at that scale for the first time was exciting. 

J: Another one we liked was with Sea Shepherd, who are a non profit charity. It wasn’t our usual style, it was very heavy metal, but it was fun. We made a music video, and they then used it on magazines, T shirts, everything. There was also an animated vinyl, so when the record played, our animation played too. We like projects like that, where the work goes beyond the screen.