Since 2021, Picl is proud to be one of the first ever animation companies to be certified as a B Corp™.
B Corps are companies that use the power of business to build a more inclusive and sustainable economy. They meet the highest verified standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
Read our blog post to find out more!
Hello!
We're Picl Animation, a creative animation studio and production company based in Cardiff. Our work covers broadcast, short films, public information films, corporate videos, charity campaigns, music videos, educational films and animation for feature films and live performance.
We have created animation to breathe life into news broadcasts and charity campaigns, to bring new dimensions to live comedy and music shows, to explain complex strategy proposals to government ministers, and to bring exciting new possibilities to documentary film and theatre productions. Clients include S4C, Audible, Public Health Wales, Transport for Wales, The Grierson Trust, UK Youth, WEN Wales, Wales Millennium Centre, Twt Productions, Boom Cymru and Royal College of Nursing Wales.
A key part of our mission is to create animation with a purpose. We are proud to be one of the first animation companies to be certified as a B Corp™, which means we are verified as a business that meets the highest standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.
We are dedicated to helping fight the climate crisis, and we are proud that all of our work is climate positive. Read our Climate Emergency Action Plan to find out more.
From charity fundraising videos and public information films to animated preschool series teaching Welsh nursery rhymes to under-5s, we love to create animation that is socially and environmentally responsible. If you are a charity or not-for-profit organisation, talk to us about our not-for-profit rates.
Animation is one of the most powerful storytelling tools. It can be beautiful, accessible, and is one of the best ways to make your story and message cut through and reach the people who need to hear it.
For us, creativity is a relationship. We want to fall in love with your story. With an extremely adaptable pipeline and a trusted network of talented collaborators, we have the capability to produce projects in traditional and digital 2D, CG and mixed media animation, to bring dreams out of notebooks and on to the screen – whatever the size of the project, whatever the style.
Get in touch
We work with charities, NGOs, not-for-profit organisations and brands to create beautiful, memorable and original animation to serve their aims tell their stories.
We also love to collaborate with production companies across film, TV and theatre, to bring their animated ideas to life, and use animation to bring new dimensions to their work in documentary, video and live performance.
Lauren Orme
Creative Director
Picl is run by Lauren Orme, an award-winning animator and director with a passion for distinctive stories and 11 years experience working in animation. Lauren co-founded Picl in 2018. She has a degree in animation from the University of Wales, Newport. Her animated short films have been screened at over 100 festivals around the world, and her most recent short film Creepy Pasta Salad was shortlisted for a BAFTA and nominated for a BAFTA Cymru in 2020.
As well as running Picl, Lauren founded the biennial Cardiff Animation Festival and bimonthly Cardiff Animation Nights, sharing her love of animation with audiences in Cardiff since 2014. She has been a jury member for BAFTA, the British Animation Awards, Leeds International Film Festival and Manchester Animation Festival, and is a founding member of the Alliance of British Animation Exhibitors (ABAE). Lauren is passionate about environmental sustainability, and has led R&D projects to help the animation industry reach net zero.
STEPHEN THOMAS
Freelance Director, Producer & Animator
Stephen has been working in animation since 2011. He works in 2D and 3D keyframe animation with Moho, Blender and After Effects in his tool belt. Stephen studied Documentary Film at University where he learnt the importance of telling a good story.
Stephen loves building watertight pipelines and clever rigs almost as much as he loves bringing animated characters to life. When he's not leading on projects you can find Stephen learning new software or testing himself with daily animation challenges. Stephen loves Don Hertzfeldt, vegan food and computer games Lauren hasn't heard of.
CONNOR JONES
Animator
Connor is a 2D and 3D animator. He works across Moho, After Effects, Aseprite and Maya, and has a degree in animation from Cardiff Metropolitan University.
Since Connor started working with Picl in early 2019, he's worked his animation magic on a wide range of projects from short films to features, charity campaigns to preschool series for broadcast.
Connor's personal work ranges from 3D dystopian horror to 2D pixel art. Connor's favourite animator is creator of Tank Girl and Gorillaz animator Jamie Hewlett. He enjoys playing as many video games as he can get his hands on, and hanging out with his cat Marmaduke.
BETHAN PRICE
Freelance Animator
Bethan is a 2D and stop motion animator who works in Moho, TVPaint, CelAction and Dragonframe. She has a degree in animation from Cardiff Met.
Bethan is one of our trusted pool of freelancers and has worked as an animator on multiple broadcast series with Picl since 2019.
As well as animation, Bethan is a fan of Animal Crossing and bubble tea.
OTTO TAYLOR-RICKARD
Freelance Artist + Animator
Otto is a 2D animator and artist; he studied Animation Production at the Arts University Bournemouth. Otto has worked with Picl as one of our trusted pool of freelancers since 2019, creating artwork and hand-drawn animation for a range of productions from feature films to preschool series for broadcast, short films to charity campaign videos. He is currently co-directing his first animated short film project for Picl.
Otto's has a passion for storytelling and plein-air painting, and is a fan of the fantasy world-building of Genndy Tartakovsky, Dice Tsutsumi and Jin Kim. When he's not making art Otto loves drumming, and is looking forward to being reunited with his drum kit which isn't currently with him in Cardiff.
TESTIMONIALS
SO HOW DOES IT WORK?
Thinking about working with us and not sure what to expect? Here's our process...
BRIEF
Whether you have a locked down brief or just a grain of a great idea, we can work with you to bring it to life. We’ll meet with you (face to face or on video call) to understand your aims, your project’s purpose and where and who it’s
for, and bounce ideas around
together.
DESIGN
We’ll work with you to design the
perfect look for your project. If you’ve seen something you like, share it with us for inspiration. Our versatile artists
will create style frames to show
how your finished project will
look.
ANIMATIC
When we’ve got the storyboard
just right, we’ll stitch the still frames
together into an animatic, to nail
down the timing, tone and pace
of your project.
BUILD & RIG
Whether it’s characters, props
and backgrounds or abstract lines
and shapes, we’ll hand-craft all the
assets for your animation from
scratch and rig them up
ready to be animated.
COMPOSITING
We’ll bring all the elements of the
picture together and add final
touches, textures, shadows,
sparkles, shine and polish.
DELIVERY
And that’s a wrap! We’ll deliver your project when you need it, in whichever formats and to whatever specifications you need.
SCRIPT
We can work with your script or collaborate with you to create one. We’ll help you to tell your story in an engaging way to get your message across.
STORYBOARD
We’ll figure out the best way to convey your message visually, and draw your script up into a storyboard so we can visualise the whole project together. It’s quick and easy for us to make changes at this stage.
SOUND
We can work with sound you’ve already chosen, or provide bespoke music, multilingual voiceover and/or full sound design to make your project sound just right.
ANIMATION
This is our favourite part of the process - where we work our magic and get things moving. There’s nothing quite like seeing your project come to life!
POST-PRODUCTION
Whether you need your project to look and sound perfect online, on TV, in a cinema, a theatre or a live music venue, we can provide sound mix and grade to make sure everything’s working together in perfect harmony.