Dwarf Animation Studio has announced a partnership with france.tv studio, a wholly owned subsidiary of the French national public television broadcaster, France Televisions, which will become a majority owner and provide the animation facility with more robust operational infrastructure, while accelerating france.tv studio’s long-term goal of building a creative hub in the South of France.
Dwarf Animation Studio is best known for Netflix series My Dad the Bounty Hunter and Trash Truck, executive produced by Oscar winner Glen Keane, as well as Monsters at Work for Disney+, among others. The studio fosters a creative culture that is inspired by technology, exemplified by the new shorts that Dwarf Animation Studio is producing using Epic Games’ real-time solution, Unreal Engine.
“I’m incredibly delighted to join forces with the amazing team at france.tv studio to welcome the creative community to the South of France. Having such an opportunity to grow and develop Dwarf Animation Studio as well as build a creative hub together is a truly gratifying and eye-opening experience,” said Olivier Pinol, Dwarf Animation Studio Founder & Chief Creative Officer.
Arnaud Lesaunier, Chairman of france.tv studio, commented, “We are proud of this partnership with Dwarf which is a great opportunity. Dwarf’s industry expertise fits perfectly well into our creative ecosystem and activities, allowing notably for technological synergies to grow within our studio.”
france.tv studio CEO Laurence Schwob added, “This partnership with Dwarf Animation Studio, who is pushing the envelope in real-time animation, comes at an exciting time as france.tv studio was recently awarded an endowment by the French Ministry of Culture as part of the ‘France 2030’ initiative, which aims to develop advanced technology in France associated with production innovation of new forms of entertainment.”
Founded in 2010 and located in Montpellier, the team at Dwarf Animation Studio boasts a wide range of experience in the disciplines of asset building, animation, lighting, compositing and rendering. The studio draws creatives from around the globe and aligns with innovative and future-forward technologies.
Pinol, a veteran of DreamWorks Animation and Weta Digital (now Wētā FX) added, “Our ambition is to help shape the next phase of the animation production pipeline by adding greater flexibility through a quicker iterative process. We’ve initiated a Discord Server dedicated to real-time animation and VFX to help build community and share knowledge with other studios around the world.”
Future plans for Dwarf Animation Studio include building out front-end pre-production offerings such as visual development, storyboarding and editorial, strategically aligning with best-in-class creators to collaborate on realizing their vision, and leveraging the creative and technical facilities owned by france.tv studio to become an all-in-one production solution.
dwarfanimation.com | france.tv
