Best Animation Studios in Bristol (2026)

Introduction

Bristol has one of the strongest animation scenes in Europe, and the 11 studios below cover most of it: stop-motion features, children’s series for the BBC and streamers, 2D character work for games, and motion design for brands and live broadcasts.

Aardman anchors the city and marked its 50th year in 2026, with a Royal Mint 50p coin and a new Shaun the Sheep feature, The Beast of Mossy Bottom. Around it, the studio map kept shifting. A Productions bought back its majority stake from Cyber Group Studios in November 2025 and is fully independent again. South Africa’s Triggerfish chose Bristol for its UK base in March 2026, and a co-founder of Rumpus Animation launched a new producing studio, Doublecat, in May 2026. The University of the West of England’s Bristol School of Animation keeps a steady supply of graduates coming through.

Every studio here has a working base in Greater Bristol in 2026, checked against its own site or recent trade coverage. They were chosen for recent work, the range of techniques they cover and the strength of their client lists. The list is unranked, since the right studio depends on the format, the budget and the audience.

The best animation studios in Bristol

1. Aardman

Employee-owned · Harbourside · aardman.com

Aardman is the four-times Academy Award-winning studio behind Wallace & Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Chicken Run and Morph. Founders Peter Lord and David Sproxton moved majority ownership to employees in 2018 to keep it independent. Its headquarters is on Gas Ferry Road, with studios at Aztec West. In 2026 it released Trailer 2 for Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom and announced two series at Annecy, Let’s Go Timmy! and The Almost (Untold) Story Of Danger Delilah.

Its short form and commercials team takes brand work alongside the features. Recent examples include campaigns for Thatchers Cider, Nest pensions and Barbour, Wallace & Gromit: Shot on iPhone for Apple, and flood-preparedness films for the Environment Agency, the latest being Missy and Stanley’s Tale in 2026.

2. A Productions

Independent · City Centre · aproductions.co.uk

A Productions has made animation for film and television since 1985, mainly for children. In November 2025 managing director Katherine McQueen and founder Mark Taylor bought back the majority stake held by Cyber Group Studios, returning the studio to full independence, with McQueen becoming sole managing director at the end of that year.

Current work includes My Friend Maisy for Sky Kids with BBC Studios Kids & Family and Trustbridge Entertainment, Monster Makes for CBeebies (2D and 3D animation mixed with live action and puppetry), and The Underglow with Gigglebug. Earlier credits include JoJo & Gran Gran for the BBC. In October 2026 it opened a free course training scene build artists.

3. Wildseed Studios

Independent, with a Mediawan stake · Bristol · wildseedstudios.com

Wildseed develops and produces animated and live-action film and television for children, families and young adults. It invests early in creators’ ideas, funding scripts, show bibles, digital pilots, design and animatics. The European media group Mediawan took a stake in 2023, which gives the studio a route into distribution and co-production.

Its shows have run on Netflix, Sky Kids, Disney, the BBC, ITV and HBO Max, and case studies include Dodo, The Last Bus and Lottie Bearshout. It suits creators and rights holders looking for a development partner more than brands looking for a commercial.

4. Triggerfish

Founded in Cape Town · City Centre · triggerfish.com

Triggerfish opened its UK base in the Royal Talbot Buildings in March 2026, citing Bristol’s animation heritage and talent pool. The office works as a hub for creative development and in-person meetings, while most UK staff work remotely under the studio’s distributed production model. It has also joined the second cycle of the BBC Ignite programme for emerging animation creators.

The studio animated seven of Magic Light Pictures’ BBC One Christmas specials, including Stick Man, Zog and The Snail and the Whale, along with Netflix’s Supa Team 4, Disney’s Kizazi Moto: Generation Fire and the Star Wars: Visions episode Aau’s Song.

5. Sun & Moon Studios

Founded in 2008 · Bristol · sunandmoonstudios.co.uk

Sun & Moon has been based in Bristol since 2008 and makes animation for series, commercials and online content, plus its own games. It also runs courses and develops original IP. In 2018 BBC Studios commissioned it to animate the missing Doctor Who serial The Macra Terror.

Featured work includes Horrible Science, the CBeebies series Kit and Pup, Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget and Life Is Strange. The mix of television and games experience makes it a good fit for projects that cross between the two.

6. WONKY Films

Independent · Hotwells · wonkyfilms.com

WONKY has worked from Bristol since 2006 as an independent character animation and illustration studio, now based on Hotwell Road. Its work is BAFTA-nominated, and its own short films have won festival awards. A sister service, WONKY Illustration, covers live illustration at events.

Clients include the BBC, CBBC, Channel 4, Amnesty International, the RNLI, the British Heart Foundation, Historic England, the British Museum and UNICEF, along with agencies such as AMV and McCann. Projects range from an RNLI TV commercial and a Channel 4 Christmas ident to Supertato for CBBC.

7. Rumpus Animation

2D animation studio · Bristol · rumpusanimation.com

Rumpus makes bold, hand-drawn 2D animation, with a focus on characters and the worlds around them. It works for broadcasters, games publishers and creative agencies, and has partnered with UWE’s Bristol School of Animation.

Featured projects include work for Grounded 2, Multiversus and Lost Skies on the games side, and campaigns for Greenpeace International, ActionAid UK, Jigsaw and Virgin Media. Co-founder Seb Burnett launched a separate producing studio, Doublecat Productions, in May 2026.

8. Hello Charlie

Bristol and London · Paintworks · hellocharlie.com

Hello Charlie is a design and motion studio working across animation, motion graphics, projection mapping, VFX and live action. Its Bristol studio is at the Paintworks, with a second office on Oxford Street in London. Much of its work is for live events and broadcast, where screen graphics have to hold up at scale.

Recent projects include the campaign identity for the 2026 Grammy Awards, set design content for the 98th Academy Awards, the fourth year of the Joy Awards identity and series-wide VFX and branding for Nightmares of Nature. Clients include the BBC, BBC Studios Natural History Unit, Silverback Films, Netflix, Formula 1, LEGO and MTV.

9. Spark Animation

Explainer and motion studio · City Centre · sparkanimation.agency

Spark Animation works from Colston Avenue and makes 2D and 3D animation, CGI, explainer videos and motion graphics, with AI-assisted video now on its service list. It serves a broad commercial base, from software and financial services to healthcare, engineering and government.

Case studies include work for ExxonMobil and the Esso app, the National Trust, the Home Office and Gloucestershire Fostering. Its client logos also take in Great Western Railway, the NHS, Walkers and Estée Lauder. It suits teams that need clear explanatory animation on a defined budget.

10. Vivid Studio

Independent · Bristol · vivid-studio.co.uk

Vivid is an independent motion design company founded in Bristol by David Haslop in 2020. It covers 2D and 3D animation along with scripting, storyboarding, editing, post-production and visual effects, for TV, online, social and live events.

Clients include Mastercard, AXA, Flutter and the United Rugby Championship, and a good share of its portfolio is sports and product graphics. It is a small team, which tends to mean direct access to the people doing the work.

11. Black Laboratory

Founded in 2008 · Bristol · blacklaboratory.com

Black Laboratory has created animated characters and visual effects for film, television and digital productions from Bristol since 2008. In 2026 it is developing Puppix, a system that captures physical puppet performances and turns them into digital characters in real time.

Puppix received a £24,000 Business Innovation Fund grant through the West of England Combined Authority’s Growth Hub, and an Epic MegaGrant is supporting a pilot built in Unreal Engine. It is worth a conversation for productions that want puppetry performance with digital flexibility.

What to look for in a Bristol animation studio

Start with technique, since Bristol studios specialise more than most. Stop-motion and model work sit with Aardman, children’s series with A Productions, Sun & Moon and Triggerfish, hand-drawn 2D with Rumpus and WONKY, and motion design with Hello Charlie, Spark and Vivid. A studio that excels at a 52-episode preschool series may not be set up for a 30-second launch spot, and the reverse holds too.

Ask how the work is made and by whom. Several Bristol studios run hybrid teams, with a core staff in the city and freelancers or partner studios elsewhere (A Productions, for example, worked with London’s Karrot on My Friend Maisy). That is normal in animation, but you should know who is animating your project and where.

Be clear about rights early. Series studios such as Wildseed and A Productions often co-own IP or co-produce, while commercial and motion studios usually hand over the finished film and keep the working files unless a buy-out is agreed. Agree what you will own, including project files and character rigs, before production starts.

Then look at how reviews run. Animation goes through script, storyboard, animatic, layout, animation and comp, and each stage creates large files and rounds of notes. Studios with a single place for the latest versions, and a clear way to collect frame-specific feedback, tend to keep schedules on track.

How Fabric helps animation teams

Fabric gives an animation studio one workspace for its files, client feedback and production knowledge, with AI search across all of it. Fabric for motion design teams shows the setup most studios use: a space per production or client, holding scripts, boards, animatics, renders and call notes together.

Renders, image sequences and project files sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space, and heavy files open without a full download. There is more on this in your rendering files need a home. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed recordings, colour search finds frames and assets by shade, and similar search surfaces related designs or style frames from a single selected image.

Early development fits on a canvas: an infinite whiteboard for moodboards and storyboards that embeds Figma, YouTube and Vimeo. A kanban board turns any folder into a pipeline whose cards are the files themselves, so shots can move from layout to final.

For reviews, share an animatic or cut with the client as a commenter; shared links work without sign-up. With annotations, commenters leave timestamped comments on video and audio, draw on a video frame and attach a comment to the drawing, and draw on style frames and stills in the same way. The team marks each comment completed as it is addressed, so a round of notes works like a checklist. Finished films can be published as a web page, view-only, with password protection where needed.

Password protection is included on Pro and Team plans. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best animation studio in Bristol?

It depends on the project. Aardman is the best-known name and the choice for stop-motion and character-led brand work. For children’s series, A Productions, Sun & Moon and Triggerfish all have recent broadcast credits, and for motion design Hello Charlie works on major awards broadcasts.

Does Aardman make commercials?

Yes. Aardman’s short form and commercials team works with brands worldwide. Recent work includes campaigns for Thatchers Cider, Barbour and Nest, Wallace & Gromit: Shot on iPhone for Apple, and public information films for the Environment Agency.

Who owns A Productions?

Managing director Katherine McQueen and founder Mark Taylor own the studio outright. They bought back the majority stake from Cyber Group Studios in November 2025.

Which Bristol studios do 2D animation?

Rumpus Animation and WONKY Films both focus on 2D character animation, Sun & Moon works in 2D and 3D for series and games, and Spark Animation and Vivid Studio produce 2D and 3D motion work for brands.

Can a Bristol animation studio also handle live-action filming?

Some can. Hello Charlie, Vivid and A Productions all combine animation with live action, and Monster Makes mixes the two. For larger shoots, many teams pair an animation studio with a dedicated production company; see the best video production companies in Bristol.

Related lists

Animation studios in other cities: London · Manchester · New York · Los Angeles · Toronto

More in Bristol: Creative agencies · Video production · Content studios · Design agencies · Branding agencies · Advertising agencies

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for creative teams · Fabric for motion design teams · Review and approval