Best Animation Studios in Shanghai (2026)

Introduction

Shanghai is home to China’s oldest animation studio and to several of the companies behind the country’s most-watched donghua series. The seven studios below cover feature film, streaming series and commissioned 2D, 3D and motion work for brands, and each one has a working Shanghai base in 2026.

The city’s animation scene had a strong two years. Shanghai Animation Film Studio’s Nobody became the highest-grossing 2D animated feature in China in 2025, and in June 2026 Shanghai Film Group opened the Shanghai Animation Space on the studio’s original site in Jing’an. Pearl Studio, the former Oriental DreamWorks, had a producer credit on the summer release All Wishes Come True!, and Bilibili, which is headquartered in Shanghai, carried the third season of Link Click from August 2026.

Studios were chosen for recent output, a verifiable Shanghai studio or office, and the range of work they cover. The list is shorter than others in this series because we only included studios we could confirm, and it runs in no fixed order of merit.

The best animation studios in Shanghai

1. Shanghai Animation Film Studio

State-owned, part of Shanghai Film Group · Jing’an · ani-sh.com

Shanghai Animation Film Studio was formally established in 1957 and has been part of Shanghai Film Group since 2001. Its back catalogue includes Havoc in Heaven, Black Cat Detective and the paper-cut series Calabash Brothers. The 2024 anthology Yao: Chinese Folktales led to the 2025 feature Nobody, which became China’s highest-grossing 2D animated film. A Story About Fire premiered at the Berlinale in 2025, opened in Chinese cinemas in April 2026 and won the AniMovie Award at the Stuttgart International Festival of Animated Film.

The studio also takes on partner work: it made four hand-drawn Zootopia shorts with Disney, each in a different traditional Chinese style, released in China in late 2025. Its original Jing’an site at 618 Wanhangdu Road reopened in June 2026 as the Shanghai Animation Space, which covers original content, IP operations and talent development, along with a smart-hardware partnership with JD Technology.

2. Pearl Studio

Owned by CMC Capital Partners · Xuhui · pearlstudio.com

Pearl Studio began as Oriental DreamWorks, a joint venture with DreamWorks Animation, and took its current name in 2018 when China Media Capital (now CMC Capital Partners) took full ownership. It co-produced Abominable (2019) and Over the Moon (2020), and produced The Monkey King, released by Netflix in 2023.

Its 2026 release was All Wishes Come True!, which opened in mainland China in July with Maoyan and China Film Group among its partners. Pearl also runs Dream Frame, a talent programme for animated features, shorts and crew, launched in 2021. Features listed in development include Anitya, Ultraland and In the Stars.

3. Haoliners Animation League

Owned by Bilibili · Jing’an · haoliners.net

Haoliners (绘梦动画) was founded in Shanghai in 2013 by Li Haoling and is one of the best-known studios in Chinese web animation. Its credits include Fox Spirit Matchmaker, The Daily Life of the Immortal King, Heaven Official’s Blessing and Legend of Exorcism, and it took part in the anthology feature Flavors of Youth (2018), which includes the segment “Love in Shanghai”.

It also assisted Studio LAN on Link Click, whose third season premiered on Bilibili in August 2026. Haoliners has an affiliate studio in Japan, Emon, which suits clients who want Chinese and Japanese production capacity under one roof.

4. Motion Magic

Independent · Shanghai · shmds.com

Motion Magic is a Shanghai CG studio founded in 2000. It describes itself as a digital entertainment content and service provider covering CG animation, creative design and theme content, and it has become one of the steadiest producers of long-running 3D donghua.

Recent series include Martial Universe seasons five and six (2025), The Great Ruler 2 and The Other Side of Deep Space (both winter 2026), and the second season of Divine Love and Spiritual Realm Walker (summer 2026). The volume of episodic output makes it a reference point for teams looking at long-form 3D pipelines in China.

5. Final Frontier

Independent · Shanghai · finalfrontier.tv

Final Frontier is an animation production company launched in Shanghai in 2018 by the team behind the Latin American studio Le Cube. It produces 2D, 3D and mixed-media work for advertising through a roster of studios and directors, and now has offices in Shanghai, Singapore, Los Angeles, New York, Buenos Aires and Madrid. Sister brands cover games (1st Level) and art (Silk Gallery).

Early China work included Nike’s “The Road to HBL” with R/GA Shanghai. Recent projects include Novartis “The Guide”, directed by Andrea Devia-Nuño, and Pepsodent “Smile Bigger”, both from 2026. It is a good fit for agencies that want international animation directors with a producer in the Shanghai time zone.

6. Firelight Motions

Independent · Shanghai · firelightmotions.com

Firelight is a Shanghai production company that combines animation, motion graphics and live action. Founder and creative director Joshua Ng studied film and television at New York University and has directed commercials and short films in Shanghai, New York and Hong Kong since 2013.

Its work leans towards corporate, B2B and product-launch content, including explainer animation, with case studies for Dun & Bradstreet and Cooler Master. It also lists earlier joint productions for Alexander Wang and Bottega Veneta, and it produces across Greater China and Southeast Asia from its Shanghai base.

7. AOKIstudio

Independent, Tokyo-headquartered · Minhang · aokistudio.com

AOKIstudio is a 3D animation studio founded in 1998, with offices in Tokyo, Paris and Shanghai. The Shanghai office is on Qixin Road in Minhang. The studio handles full productions from concept to final film, and also takes on single stages such as character design, 3D sets, animation or effects.

Past work includes animated TV advertising for Dydo through Hakuhodo, animated shorts for the French broadcaster TF1, a music video for Warner Music Japan and architectural visualisation for Takenaka Corporation. It suits clients who want a Japanese-French studio sensibility with production support in Shanghai.

What to look for in a Shanghai animation studio

Start by matching the studio to the format. Shanghai’s feature studios, such as Shanghai Animation Film Studio and Pearl Studio, work on multi-year schedules and co-production deals. Series studios like Haoliners and Motion Magic are built for steady episodic output on platforms such as Bilibili and Tencent Video. Commercial studios handle shorter turnarounds for brand films, product launches and social content.

Ask who makes the work and where. Some companies on this list animate in-house; others produce through a roster of directors and partner studios, sometimes in other cities or countries. Both models work well, but the answer affects schedules, time zones and who you should expect in review sessions.

Check rights and platform needs early. Donghua and brand animation in China is often built for Bilibili, Douyin, WeChat and Xiaohongshu, each with its own aspect ratios and length limits, and IP ownership terms vary widely between studios. Agree on deliverables, versions and who owns character designs before production starts.

Then look at how review rounds run. Animation moves through animatics, layout, animation and comp, and each stage creates large files and many small notes. Studios with one place for the latest renders and a clear way to record and close feedback by frame are easier to work with, especially when the client, agency and studio sit in different cities.

How Fabric helps animation teams

Fabric gives animation studios one workspace for production files, client feedback and team knowledge, with AI search across all of it. For studios that run several commercial jobs or a long series at once, Fabric for motion design teams keeps boards, animatics, renders and call notes together for each project.

Render outputs and heavy project files sit in Fabric’s cloud drive, which streams files on demand so they take no local disk space, and shared team folders always hold the latest versions. There is more on this in why your rendering files need a home. Search works by meaning across documents, images and transcribed audio and video, and colour search finds frames and style frames by shade. Similar search surfaces past work with a related composition or palette when an art director asks for a reference.

Media review is live in annotations. Share an animatic or cut with the client as a commenter (shared links work without sign-up), and they can leave timestamped comments on video and audio, draw on a video frame to point at a pose or timing issue, or draw on a still and attach a note. The team marks each comment completed as it is fixed, so a review round works like a checklist. Published links are view-only, so feedback rounds go through shared links.

Early development fits the canvas, an infinite whiteboard for storyboards and moodboards that can embed YouTube, Vimeo and Figma. A Kanban board turns any folder into a pipeline whose cards are the files themselves, which works for tracking shots from layout to final.

On Team plans, self-writing docs maintain a page for each client from meetings, Slack and the workspace, covering decisions, deliverables and open items, so a producer joining mid-series can catch up without asking around.

Self-writing docs are included on Team plans, which start at $125 a month. See plans for teams.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best animation studio in Shanghai?

It depends on the format. For feature film, Shanghai Animation Film Studio had the most recognised recent output, with Nobody and A Story About Fire. For long-running series, Haoliners and Motion Magic have the deepest catalogues. For brand work, Final Frontier, Firelight Motions and AOKIstudio take commissions.

Is Shanghai Animation Film Studio still making films?

Yes. A Story About Fire opened in Chinese cinemas in April 2026, and in June 2026 the studio’s original Jing’an site reopened as the Shanghai Animation Space, run with its parent, Shanghai Film Group.

What happened to Oriental DreamWorks?

It became Pearl Studio in 2018, when China Media Capital took full ownership from DreamWorks Animation. Pearl is based in Xuhui and was a producer on All Wishes Come True!, released in China in July 2026.

Can Shanghai studios produce animation for international brands?

Yes. Final Frontier produces commercial animation through an international roster of directors with a Shanghai producer, and AOKIstudio works from Tokyo, Paris and Shanghai. For live-action and hybrid shoots in the city, see the best video production companies in Shanghai.

How long does a commercial animation project take?

A short brand film usually runs from several weeks to a few months, depending on style, length and the number of review rounds. 3D character work and long series take longer, so agree on milestones (script, animatic, animation, final) and review dates at the start.

Related lists

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

More in Shanghai: Creative agencies · Video production · Content studios · Design agencies · Advertising agencies · Social media agencies

Run your studio on Fabric: Fabric for creative teams · Review and approval · Best video review software for creative teams