Craig Staggs draws on his background in art, theater, and film to ensure Minnow Mountain’s creative success. Renowned as an acclaimed independent producer and visual artist, Craig is the visionary behind Minnow Mountain’s celebrated rotoscope approach, emphasizing storytelling, character development, and exceptional acting.
Minnow Mountain, LLC is an animation studio specializing in performance capture rotoscope character animation. Founded in 2012 by industry veterans Craig Staggs and Steph Swope, we are located in Austin, Texas.
With a strong focus on delivering exceptional animation services, we oMer a range of creative solutions for television and film producers that includes development and production of feature films, series, shorts, music videos, and project pitches. As Emmy-winning animators Minnow Mountain is proud to attract partnerships with the most prestigious producers in the adult animation industry.
We’ve produced a feature film for PBS, a feature film for Netflix, and made two seasons of television for Amazon Prime. We make short form animation like the opening sequence for Critical Role, or the Black Angels music video Empires Falling. We also produce the online course How To Rotoscope with Craig Staggs.
In 2024 we are expanding the company in two exciting ways: Developing Minnow Mountain original films (to be written and directed by studio co-founder Craig Staggs) and oMering 2D cartoon style character animation production services.
Some of our notable co-productions include the Emmy Award-winning Tower for PBS, the groundbreaking series Undone for Amazon Prime, and the visually stunning Apollo 10 1/2:A Space Age Childhood for Netflix. And we were proud to contribute to 2023’s underground hit Quantum Cowboys.
Austin-based studio co-founders Steph Swope and Craig Staggs offer a frank, humorous look at what it takes to run a thriving indie rotoscope-based animation studio in today’s tough climate, and share insider stories about some of their acclaimed projects, which include the award-winning Amazon Prime series "Undone," Richard Linklatter’s 2022 movie "Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood," "Tower" and "Quantum Cowboys."