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Last year, we interviewed Stim Studio about their work on The Amazing Maurice, adapted from Terry Pratchett. Since then, the studio has continued its development and recently announced new branches in Angoulême (in the SouthWest of France) and Liège, Belgium. We wanted to know more, so we asked them for details on this strategic choice, their current projects, and their vision of the animation market.
3DVF: Hello, Stim! You’ve officially opened new studios: historically based in Lyon, France, and then in Canada, Stim now has a branch in Liège, Belgium, and another in Angoulême, France. What were the considerations that led you to choose these locations? Why opt for new branches rather than expanding in Lyon? Did the tax credit systems, often significant in international co-productions, play a role?
Stim: Hello, that’s a great question. At Stim, our goal has always been to create a sustainable company capable of handling the production of series and feature films. Over the past few years, as the industry has evolved, we felt the need to expand into other countries to be more agile and meet our clients’ needs through multi-site operations. We were exploring which country to choose, and naturally, Belgium came into play.
First, they offer an attractive tax credit system. They’re a major player in many co-productions, speak French (in the Walloon region), and are neighbors with France, allowing for frequent exchanges.
All these factors made Belgium the best compromise for opening a second major branch.
As for Angoulême, its appeal lies in the region itself—not necessarily because of regional tax credits, but because of the rich talent pool of artists and studios, which made sense to us. Moreover, the director of Girl in the Clouds lives in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region where Angoulême is located, adding another factor to the decision.
We did discuss centralizing everything in Lyon, but to evolve with the industry and meet the needs we’ve identified, we decided to grow multiple studios under the Stim name.
STIM LYON remains the main branch, and we are developing it equally (with about 30 new artists by the end of 2024).
3DVF: You mentioned earlier that Stim is working on Girl in the Clouds. Can you tell us about this project? What is your involvement, and which studios are working on it?
All three studios—Angoulême, Lyon, and Liège—are involved in this project. It’s a feature film produced by Brio Films and Scope Pictures.
Girl in the Clouds is an animated film that tells the story of Providence, an 11-year-old girl who loves the fantasy series Earth Sentinels. She receives a magical feather that brings to life whatever she writes. Accompanied by her guinea pig, Airbag, she embarks on an adventure to correct environmental injustices and confront the mysterious author of the book.
For this feature, we’ll be handling the majority of the production. Except for some animation and layout done by another French studio (Supamonks), everything else will be done in-house. The division is always organic depending on the production, but asset creation, lighting, pipeline, and supervision should be handled here in Lyon, while CFX will be done in Angoulême, and FX, environment modeling/lookdev, layout, animation, and compositing will be done in Belgium.
3DVF: What do you foresee for each of Stim’s sites? For instance, will the Belgian branch target specific markets? And what is the staffing capacity at each site?
We’ve chosen to invest in our studios and find locations that allow us to plan for the long term. The goal was not to create temporary offices that would close after a project (which happens too often). Liège, in particular, is a major focus since it’s a challenge to establish ourselves in a new country. We want, just like in Lyon, to create a real community around the studio—welcoming premises (Pôle Image), a dynamic city, and affordable living costs (which echoes our choice of Lyon over Paris, for example). The aim of this studio is to foster co-productions but also to develop Belgian and Walloon projects. There is a substantial production pool in Belgium, both in animation and VFX, and we want to meet this growing demand with the Liège studio. We aim to become a major player in Belgium, akin to nWave or MPC Liège.
As for staffing, between Lyon and Angoulême, we should be able to accommodate around 80-90 artists for now, and in Liège, about 50 quite easily. Our goal is to grow while staying mindful of the industry, avoiding the pitfalls of having excessively high fixed costs. Agility remains our key word, regardless of the location.
3DVF: The animation sector has been in crisis for many months, with artists, whether experienced or fresh out of school, finding it harder to secure positions. What’s your take on the current market? How is Stim navigating this crisis?
The market is really volatile at the moment, and it’s certainly not as strong as it was during the previous decade. Like all companies in the industry, we’ve had to find solutions to navigate through this crisis. However, at Stim, we’ve been fortunate to maintain our staff. We’ve always been careful to keep our fixed costs reasonable (despite having many permanent contracts), so we were prepared for such a situation. We’re not fortune tellers, but there were signs that the peak/bubble would eventually burst. That’s how we see it internally.
To address this, Stim positions itself in a market, both for series and features, with relatively low budgets. We can produce at a reasonable cost thanks to our talented artists, flexible pipeline, and agile company structure. We’ve worked on feature films with budgets in the tens of millions and brought that experience and expertise to more modest (and realistic) projects in today’s context. We believe it’s this versatility that allows us to position ourselves as a genuine player in the industry, both in France and internationally.
It’s in this context that we succeeded in offering Brio and Scope the development and production of their feature film, while supporting them from A to Z in managing production expenses. Our goal is to work alongside the producer(s) and explore practical solutions to stay within budget while maintaining the desired quality. The fact that the three managers are also graphic artists allows us to form a true partnership with our clients. They don’t see us as financiers just looking to push projects through, but as long-term partners. The production of a film is essentially a two-year collaboration between producers, directors, and creators, and that’s exactly the context in which Stim positions itself.
3DVF: Another major question is, of course, generative AI, which raises concerns, excitement, ethical, and legal questions. What’s your stance on this topic?
To be honest, we don’t really use AI at Stim at the moment. We receive many AI-generated “concepts” from our clients, but we haven’t integrated AI into our major processes yet. However, in keeping with our commitment to agility and flexibility, we stay alert to what’s happening. If a tool seems important and aligns with Stim’s values, we’ll use it. We continuously conduct tech monitoring and RD, led by Benoit, our CTO.
Some of our artists use AI to help with bits of code, for instance, but it’s sporadic and hasn’t been rolled out at the company level yet. We’re proceeding cautiously with these subjects. Keeping artists at the heart of Stim is essential to us, so ethical and legal questions are our priority for now. That said, we have noticed some efficiency gains, especially in our advertising division, where clients use generative AI heavily to convey their ideas. This greatly speeds up communication, as a picture is worth a thousand words, though it does raise concerns about the impact on concept artists’ roles.
3DVF: Can you share any other ongoing projects besides Girl in the Clouds?
In terms of major projects, we’re still working on Karters with Mediawan / Method Animation. The work on lighting and compositing is beginning. It’s super exciting to see this 52×11 series come to life, and we’re very proud of it.
At the same time, we’re working on a lot of smaller projects, whether it’s advertising or subcontracts for feature films/series on more specific departments.
We’re also developing series with production companies who ask us to help with trailers.
Finally, we’re waiting on some big projects that we hope will be greenlit soon. For now, everything is under NDA, but we’ll talk about them on our social media when we can!
3DVF: One last question. How do you see Stim’s future in a few years? Should we expect new branches, for example?
Bright? At least, that’s what we hope for and are working toward! As mentioned earlier, we really want to position ourselves as major players in series and feature film production, supporting our clients from development—helping them create visual files for funding—to project delivery. We’ll continue to focus on that, stabilizing our branches and making each of them (especially between countries) independent while maintaining strong ties. We want our Belgian branch to benefit from what we do in Lyon and vice versa. We want our artists to feel at home at Stim, whether they’re in Belgium, Angoulême, or elsewhere.
For now, we don’t have any new branches in the works, but we’re not opposed to the idea of opening more if it makes sense. We’ve always thought about expanding in Canada (possibly Ontario), but for now, nothing concrete. No need to put the cart before the horse! (laughs)
3DVF: Thank you, Stim, for your answers! We’ll keep an eye on the studio’s developments in the coming months and years.
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