Jellyfish Pictures Plans for New Studio

The multi-award-winning animation and VFX studio Jellyfish Pictures is set to expand its presence in Northern England with plans to open a new studio in Sheffield.

The new studio will house the burgeoning animation team, which has more than doubled in size in the past three months. The team working out of Jellyfish Pictures’ Sheffield location will be overseen by Animation Director Kevin Spruce, with a Hollywood animated feature film currently in production.

The Sheffield branch is the result of the company outgrowing its current location, following expansion into the region less than a year ago. Jellyfish Pictures has seen rapid growth in both its Southern and Northern U.K. offices over the course of the past year.

The swift expansion is a testament to the innovative virtual technologies Jellyfish Pictures has been pioneering since 2014 and comes shortly after the company’s announcement, made in December 2019, that it became the world’s largest virtual VFX and animation studio. As with all other Jellyfish Pictures locations, there is no hardware housed onsite in the new Sheffield studio, situated in the city center within the state-of-the-art Wizu Workspace. Operating in a completely PC over IP environment, all technology and pipeline is housed in a centrally based co-location in Hayes.

Phil Dobree, CEO of Jellyfish Pictures, said, “Recognizing Sheffield as an area that held great potential for growth in the VFX and animation industries led to the opening of Jellyfish Sheffield early last year. It’s an incredibly proud moment for me, now, to announce our further expansion in the North of England. For it to come about so drastically and quickly, only confirms the hunger for a larger Creative Industries presence outside of London, of which we are committed to cultivating.”

Dobree continued, “None of this would have been able to happen without Jellyfish Pictures’ continued investment in pushing the boundaries of virtual technologies. The ability to ramp up as needed and easily move to a bigger facility has been of invaluable worth. Casting off the constraints of our on-premise infrastructure has allowed us to not only remain agile and scalable when taking on projects, but also allows us to put talent first. This technology has enabled us to reach new heights, and I can’t wait to see where the next steps take us.”