Blue Zoo: Studio and short films

#1 STUDIO AND SHORT FILMS

In this new series of features, 3D World explores the world of animation company Blue Zoo, beginning with a look at the studio’s journey so far

 Members of the Blue Zoo team hard at work on a project pre-pandemic in the London studio

 A still from Blue Zoo’s short film, SinkingFeeling, made using mixed media approaches in Blender

N ow in its 21st year, Blue Zoo has become one of the UK’s leading animation studios. It’s built its name producing joyfully compelling animations, packed with story and character, brought to life with unique and innovative visuals. The studio boasts a colourful portfolio of work spanning long-form children’s TV like the BAFTA-winning Numberblocks, boundary-pushing short-form animation, original IPs, and existing IPs like The AdventuresOfPaddington, and has also worked on adverts for companies such as Disney and Playmobil. Blue Zoo has garnered a host of animation awards for its work and won the BAFTA for Independent Production Company of The Year twice.

Throughout its rise and rise, Blue Zoo has remained committed to building a positive work environment, populated by talented, enthusiastic artists that are proud of what they create. It has also worked tirelessly to improve the UK animation industry, establishing and working closely with various initiatives to ensure a thriving, inclusive future for the whole industry.

This in-depth series on Blue Zoo will explore each aspect of the multifaceted, diverse and forwardthinking animation studio. We’ll look at how the studio develops animated shows and unique visuals, how it animates stories on a budget, the lighting and compositing workflows and, finally, explore realtime technology and the future of animation. But first, 3D World sat down with Blue Zoo’s co-founder Tom Box to find out how the studio got started, how it has worked tirelessly to uphold its values whilst pushing the animation industry forward, and discuss its renowned short film programme.

A still from Blue Zoo’s 2018 short film Christmas WithTheMoonies

WE BUILT A ZOO

Blue Zoo was founded in 2000 by classmates Oli Hyatt, Adam Shaw, Tom Box and Nic Sims whilst they studied at Bournemouth University on the south coast of England. “We were studying 3D animation,” Box tells 3D World. Inspired to create their own animation company, Box’s fellow co-founders sent an email out to gauge the interest of their fellow students. “They picked people they thought had the best mix of skills rather than best mates, and that proved to be very savvy because it created a really balanced dynamic.”

Hyatt, Shaw and Box have remained at the helm of Blue Zoo since these early days. According to Box, the trio set out with “no real ambition other than to make a studio where it’s really enjoyable to work, to make content that we’re proud of and that audiences enjoy watching.” These ambitions have culminated in a focus on child and family-friendly content that’s comedic and educational, primarily across long-form television shows and short-form animations. “We’re moving into bigger projects,” adds Box, “there’s a big demand for 2D and it’s something that we’ve never had the skills to do ourselves, so we hired those skills and started our own 2D animation studio as well.”