BIF > The Mill, London
Just the facts: French trio Jules Janaud (25), Fabrice le Nezet (26) and François Roisin (26) began their collaboration as classmates at computer graphics school Supinfocom, Valenciennes where they graduated top of their class in Digital Film Direction. The Mill grabbed them in '05, with their first major project, a short called Raymond, breaking in September '06.

Everybody Loves Raymond: The trio's wildly inventive Raymond is a photorealistic live-action and 3D peek inside a bizarre laboratory, where an unmotivated swimming instructor is plied like a rubber band until he's fit to fulfill his dream - swimming with whales. "We took a month off to stay in a country house so we could really focus on the story," say the trio, who stress the importance of storytelling in their work. "We liked the idea of this lazy guy being kicked until his dream came true. We also liked the idea that science could fix every problem in our lives."

Future Work: Having animated and helmed a spot for Vodafone ("Cityscape") the trio is working on their upcoming short film Dix, which will again meld live action with 3D. "It will be about the inner fears of a character. We can't say more at the moment. It's a secret..."

The Mill http://www.the-mill.com

Nicolas Lesaffre > Mr. hyde@curious pictures
Just the facts: Age - 31, Hometown - Lille; Education - Supinfocom, Valenciennes; Employ - signed to Mr. Hyde in 2005 (repped by Curious Pictures in the US).

Previous experience: An alumni of the prestigious Supinfocom animation school, his short graduation film "Hernando" landed him a gig at BUF animating Luc Besson's Arthur and the Invisibles feature in '06, going on to freelance for a host of animation companies, most recently Nexus, London where he completed a BBC3 rebrand and an upcoming Coke spot from Smith & Foulkes.

Best work: The richly inventive, beautifully detailed animation in "The Cast", his commercial debut in 2007 for Match.com, shows off his technical virtuosity at creating engaging worlds. "Vinyl's Attack", a black-and-white King Kong-styled short film, shows his breadth and variety, while the simple but sweetly funny "Sneeze" for Halls Naturals shows his talent at believably comic character design.

Super schooling: He cites Supinfocom as teaching him important lessons in streamlining his style: "Most of the time it was the really simple solution that worked better and faster."

Mr. Hyde@Curious Pictures http://www.curiouspictures.com