What Makes a Great Animation Studio? Lessons from a Decade of Building Cub
What Makes a Great Animation Studio?
There are a lot of animation studios. Seriously, a lot. So what separates the ones that last, grow and consistently attract the work they actually want to make? After more than a decade running Cub Studio - working with the Premier League, NFL, UEFA, ESPN, FIA, World Rugby and a cast of comedians, brands and broadcasters we genuinely love - we have a few thoughts. Some of them might surprise you.
The work you make for yourself is your best sales pitch
Here's something the industry doesn't talk about enough: the most effective marketing an animation studio can do is make brilliant work on its own terms. Not spec work, not pitch decks - actual finished, polished, opinionated creative work that shows the world exactly what you're capable of and what you want to do more of.
At Cub, we've always believed this. Every passion project we've made has been a deliberate act of creative ambition - and almost every one has opened a door we couldn't have knocked on any other way.
A Guide to American Football
The clearest example? Our animated ‘Guide to American Football for Liberals, Ladies and Limeys…’ which we made entirely off our own bat, went viral with over 1.8 million YouTube views, and ended up airing on Channel 4 before the Super Bowl. The NFL got in touch shortly afterwards. They loved the energy but asked us, politely, not to air it on TV again. Then they asked us to make them an official on-brand version instead. That relationship has now lasted over twelve years. And kudos to the NFL.
Clients tend to want something close to what they've already seen. So show them what you want to make.
Passion projects are a product roadmap in disguise
Des Tandankles social influencer
The American Football guide wasn't a one-off. Our Trump Facts comedy shorts - sharp, character-driven political animation - caught the attention of BT Sport, who ended up using our Trump character as the face of their FA Cup TV promos. Our Des Tandankles social influencer character, created entirely for fun, became the face of AE Scripts Cyber Extravaganza. A joystick and slider rigging technique we developed and showcased in our own content got us noticed and we were commissioned to create the Nancy Cartwright MasterClass - a job during lockdown - the kind of brief most studios (and us) could only dream of.
None of these were planned. All of them were the direct result of making work we cared about and putting it in front of people. Working on what we love helps us love our client’s work just as much. It’s a win win situation.
Right now, as we always are, we're actively developing new passion projects and exploring new techniques - purely because we love the process and believe that creative curiosity is what keeps a studio sharp. If history is anything to go by, at least one of them will lead somewhere unexpected. We’re over here FIFA! ;-)
It's the Field of Dreams approach to studio building. Build it and they will come. In our experience, they really do.
Great animation isn't just what you see - it's how it moves
This is where we get a bit nerdy. Bear with us.
There's a significant difference between animation and great animation, and it almost always comes down to motion - specifically, the quality, personality and timing of how things move. Anyone can make something move from A to B. What separates studios is what happens in between and easing - always remember easing.
Take something as simple as a bouncing ball. Most people assume it just goes up and down. But good animators understand that at the top of its arc, the ball slows slightly - there's a small, almost imperceptible hold before gravity takes over again. That moment of suspended physics is what makes it feel real. Remove it and the whole thing feels mechanical, lifeless.
The same principle applies everywhere. The easing of motion - how it accelerates into a move and decelerates out of it - gives animation its personality. A character who moves with snappy, punchy easing feels completely different to one whose movements are smooth and considered, even if the actions are identical. Camera moves matter. Secondary movements matter - the way a coat shifts when someone turns, the slight lag in a character's hair, the wobble of a logo after it lands. These details are almost invisible when they're done well and glaring when they're not.
It's not unlike comedy. Comedy is all about timing - the beat before the punchline, the pause that makes the audience lean in. Sport is the same - the moment of stillness before a penalty is taken, the split second between a pass and a striker's movement. Great animation has rhythm, timing and physics at an instinctive level. It's what we obsess about over at Cub, on every project, regardless of budget or brief.
Building the right team - and keeping them
A great animation studio is only as good as the people making the work. Building the right team is one of the most important and underappreciated parts of running a studio - and it's something that evolves considerably over time.
In the early days of Cub, like most studios, we worked with a wider pool of collaborators. Over time, as the studio's style and sensibility became more defined, we became increasingly deliberate about who we work with. The result is a tight, experienced core team who understand the Cub way of doing things instinctively - the level of craft we expect, the attention to detail we demand, the personality we bring to everything we make.
This matters more than it might seem. Studios that constantly cycle through freelancers - assembling a different team for every project - inevitably produce inconsistent work. The style shifts, the quality varies, the client never quite knows what they're going to get. At Cub, when you work with us, you get us. The same team, the same standards, the same creative sensibility on every project. That consistency is what builds trust, and trust is what builds long-term relationships.
We've worked with UEFA for nearly a decade. ZipCar for over six years - designing all their Metropolis characters and producing their social ad campaigns and Lottie animations. The NFL for over twelve years. These aren't just client relationships, they're creative partnerships built on the kind of trust that only comes from consistently delivering work that exceeds expectations.
The work you can't always show
Here's something that might surprise you. Some of our most technically ambitious and creatively exciting work will never appear in our portfolio. A significant proportion of what Cub produces is covered by NDAs - for clients including Meta, Apple, Formula 1 and many more - who prefer to keep their productions confidential. It's a PR quirk of working at the highest level of the industry that the more prestigious the client, the less likely you are to be able to shout about working with them.
We mention this not to name-drop - though we did - but because it speaks to something important about how a great animation studio operates. The work that earns you the biggest commissions is often built on a foundation of trust, discretion and a track record that speaks for itself without needing to be broadcast. Reputation in this industry travels quietly but powerfully and over almost 15 years our partners move from company to company but take us with them.
Craft is non-negotiable - but so is personality
A great animation studio isn't just technically accomplished. There are plenty of technically accomplished studios. What separates the ones that build lasting reputations is a genuine point of view - a recognisable sensibility that runs through everything they make, whether it's a nine-part series for the FIA or a thirty-second comedy short for a comedian with 50,000 followers.
At Cub, that sensibility is hard to reduce to a single word. Characterful, maybe. Witty without being frivolous. Bold without being loud. We take the work seriously. We don't always take ourselves seriously. We think those two things are entirely compatible - and in our experience, clients think so too.
Great creative is where it all starts - and ends
Ultimately, everything we've talked about - the passion projects, the team, the craft, the long-term relationships - comes back to one thing. Great creative work.
Cub animation studio was built on creative. It lasting because clients trust us. Ou reputation grows because the work we create earns that reputation, project after project, year after year. The NDA clients, the twelve-year relationships, the viral passion projects - none of it happens without a relentless commitment to making the work as good as it can possibly be, every single time.
We've never missed a deadline. And we never will.
We partner with our clients and ensure we always over deliver for them. You never know where they’ll pop up in the future or who they’re friends.
If you're looking for an animation studio that brings genuine craft, personality and a track record you can trust - we'd love to hear from you. Take a look at our work or get in touch