Jellyfish Pictures Heads North with New Virtual Studio

VFX Online June 1, 2019, 2:42 pm 1k Views

Jellyfish Pictures Heads North with New Virtual Studio

After 17 years of being a London-only VFX house, Jellyfish Pictures has expanded its horizons and opened a fifth studio, very much North of the Capital… in Sheffield.

The new studio, which will be predominantly animation, is kicking off with a small group of animators working on our original animation projects, with a view to expand its team and set up with a large feature animation project by the end of the year.

Heading up the studio is our newest recruit, ex Framestore Head of Animation Kevin Spruce. Taking on the role of Animation Director, Kevin brings over 30 years’ experience to the team, and a few notable projects under his belt; including Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Legend of Tarzan and Guardians of the Galaxy.

An advocate for a healthier work/life balance, Kevin decided to re-locate to Sheffield to spend more time with his family after a fast-paced 30-year career in Soho and is an important reason behind Jellyfish Pictures’ decision to open a studio outside of London.

“Technology is enabling us to expand our horizon across the UK and beyond, as well as offer talent an out of living in the big city” – Phil Dobree

And all of this has been made possible thanks to the pioneering technology implemented; enabling remote collaboration and support for flexible working practices.

Using the same technology behind our cutting-edge Oval Studios, the new Northern base, is entirely virtual; operating in a completely PC over IP environment. With all technology and pipeline housed in a centrally based co-location, the studio is able to virtualise its distributed workstations through Teradici’s remote visualisation solution; allowing for total flexibility and scalability.

“It’s a vision of how creative companies can grow in new ways and access talent pools further afield” – Kevin Spruce

The Sheffield site sits on the same logical LAN as the other four studios, providing access to the company’s PixStor Software Defined Storage (SDS) from Pixit Media, enabling remote collaboration and support for flexible working practices.

And security is still King! The new studio will follow in the footsteps of the rest of the Jellyfish Pictures’ sites, becoming TPN (Trusted Partner Network) accredited, utilising PixStor’s multi-tenancy container services for audit-compliant secure data separation and isolation.

Welcome Kevin.. and Sheffield… to our Jellyfish family!

About Jellyfish Pictures

Jellyfish started as a two-man band back in 2001 and since then we have grown into one of the most respected visual effects and animation studios in the world. We are now a multi award-winning animation production company employing approximately 200 members of staff across three London studios and are as dedicated as ever to creating stunning moving pictures.

Whether we’re working on feature films like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, or animated series like Dennis and Gnasher: Unleashed, Jellyfish offer an unrivalled service that blends creativity, craft and capacity.