Company/Role Research

Jellyfish Pictures is a studio based in London and Sheffield. It was established in 2001. It was initially a team of 3 artists and 1 producer. In 2017 they expanded their studio by creating Jellyfish Originals. They produced several original shows like Ivy and the Inklings and Hughman. In 2020 they opened up their new studio in Sheffield which is overseen by animation director Kevin Spruce.

Jellyfish works on live-action and animation. The Noho studio handles live-action films, these include 'Star Wars Rouge One', and 'Black Mirror'. The Brixton studio specialises in animation, mostly children's TV. They have worked on 'Dennis and Gnasher' and 'Blitz n' Bob' for the BBC. Since the studio was founded they have been focusing on character-driven animation. They started out with short works like 'The Milky Bar Kid'. Since 2014 they have expanded to working on TV Series like Dennis and Gnasher. The head of Jellyfish Originals is Natalie Llewellyn. Their target audience is mainly 3 to 12-year-old children.

Ever since the pandemic, the studio had expanded all around the world. They have a team of 300 people from all over the world working remotely from home before lockdown was enforced. Remote working artists use Teradici’s remote visualisation to access their content. Artists outside of the UK use Azure to set up hubs all over the world, this way it connects back to Jellyfish Pictures ties data centre in the UK. They have adapted to using Microsoft Teams for feedback. The studio mostly uses Maya and a bit of Mudbox, MARI and Zbrush. They have recently started using Shotgun's Pipeline Toolkit as a part of their workflow. Jellyfish Pictures 2D Lead Matt Plummer helped set up the use of the Pipeline Toolkit.

Job Requirements

Description

*Working closely with the Animation Supervisor/Director.

*Animation characters

*Making sure the animation is delivered on time

*Animation needs to be to the agreed quality standards

*Animation needs to be aligned with the client's brief

Responsibilities

*Providing the best possible character animation

*Communicate with the Lead Animator and the Director to make sure feedback is correctly carried out

*Communicating with the team of animators to make sure tasks are completed on time

*Adapting to the correct style of animation

*Understanding and focusing on the performance, style, quality, continuity, technical, scheduling, and budgetary requirements of the production

Requirements

*Extensive knowledge of Maya

*Knowlege of timing, posing, acting and storytelling techniques

*Strong understanding of body mechanics, anatomy, perspective and composition

*Experience working on features of episodic production

*Organisation and attention to detail

*Ability to deliver on schedule, working calmly and efficiently under pressure

*Finding ways to improve

*Willingness to take direction and receive constructive feedback

Employees

Phil Dobree - Chief Executive Officer

Matthew Bristowe - Managing Director

Natalie Llewellyn - Managing Director, Jellyfish Originals

Luke Dodd - Director of VFX and Animation

Luca Mazzoleni - Head of Animation

I like Jellyfish Pictures because they have TV animation. I would like to work either in feature or TV shows. They work on character animation and this is what I would like to specialize in. Looking at their job requirements I feel like I can answer to most of them. I like that their team consists of people who work remotely outside of the UK. Because even if I were to live abroad I can still work with them. They have connections with bigger companies like DreamWorks and Disney and this can open up more connections internationally which can lead to more job opportunities in the future.

Locksmith was founded in 2014 by Sarah Smith and Julie Lockhart. They are based in London, England. It is the only high-end computer animation studio in the UK which produces computer-animated family films. In 2019 they formed a multi-year production deal with Warner Bros. This distributed Locksmith films under the Warner Animation Group label. The first film they released was Ron's Gone Wrong, released in 2021. Their films are made for kids and adults of all ages.

DNEG was the sole digital production partner for Ron's Gone Wrong. One of the biggest challenges was to adapt the DNEG VFX pipeline to create a new feature animation pipeline. To help with crowd animation they switched to a Universal Scene Description (USD) platform. This helped to establish a wilder range of characters. VFX is shot-based so they needed to align the pipeline for sequence-based workflows. To use environment builds, effects, and lighting setups they adopted Katana and Renderman. The RenderMan is a plug-in for Katana. It generates images from a Katana scene and it gives access to tools for building 3D elements. They have more flexibility to create multiple shots easily. Ron's Gone Wrong was the first production for Locksmith and DNEG. Because of these both studious needed to build their teams and develop their own tools and process.

Job Requierments

Description

*Working closely with the Animation Director, Animation Supervisors and the team

*Character animation skills and knowledge of 3D animation principles

*Being able to collaborate and to take direction

*Ability to anticipate, communicate, troubleshoot

Requirements

*Knowledge of Maya

*Experience with animation department

*Understanding of anatomy, perspective and composition

*Knowledge of timing, posing, acting and storytelling techniques

*Well-versed in principles of animation

*Working in a team

*Highly motivated

*Adaptable

*Communication skills and taking direction

Employees

Julie Lockhart - Co-Founder/President of Production

Sarah Smith - Co-Founder

Natalie Fischer - CEO

Mary Coleman - Chief Creative Officer

Britt Gardiner - CFO

Daphne Mather- Operations and Culture Manager

Doug Ikeler - CTO/SVP Digital Production

Elisabeth Murdoch - Founder

Donall Crehan - CBO Chief Business Officer

Since I want to work as a feature animator Locksmith seems like its appropriate for me. I like their age demographic and their movies seem to fit the style I want to work in.