BAFTA and multi-award-winning VFX and animation studio, Jellyfish Pictures, has announced the expansion of its senior creative team by bringing on board, Kevin Hoppe and Nicolas Hernandez.
Both these senior hires are to bring invaluable experience and knowledge to the company and will be integral in Jellyfish Pictures’ continued growth.
With a career spanning nearly 20 years, award-winning VFX supervisor Hernandez joins Jellyfish Pictures after six years at multi-award-winning London based VFX studio, Milk Visual Effects, of which he was also a co-founder.
Hernandez’s VFX and CG Supervisor credits include feature films 4 Kids And It, Annihilation, Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them, Snow White and the Huntsman, The Divergent Series: Insurgent, VFX Oscar winning; Ex-Machina, High-Rise and 47 Ronin; and for television; Altered Carbon, 24: Live Another Day, and BBC One’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, which earned Hernandez and his team a BAFTA Television Craft Award for Visual Effects and Graphic Design in 2016.
Before co-founding Milk, Hernandez enjoyed an eight-year stint at London VFX powerhouse, The Mill. During this time at The Mill, he led his team on many high-profile television dramas earning him five VES nominations.
In his new role, Hernandez will bring his deep understanding of the entire VFX workflow to every project and encourage the very best out of his team. Said he of joining the company, “I am very excited to have joined Jellyfish Pictures. It is a refreshing prospect to be working in an impressive new studio on diverse and unique projects with an abundance of genuine and collaborative talented artists. I am looking forward to mixing my experience with the company’s exciting future.”
Hoppe joins Jellyfish Pictures from US VFX outfit, Crafty Apes VFX, where he worked as CG Supervisor on season three of Netflix’s award-winning Stranger Things. Before his time at Crafty Apes, Hoppe held senior positions at DNEG and DreamWorks Animation, racking up an impressive list of credits including, Home, Turbo, How to Train Your Dragon and Kung Fu Panda 2.
“The creative and positive energy of Jellyfish Pictures is a rare find. The people are so friendly, the work is brilliant, and the projects are challenging and engaging. I knew right away that Jellyfish was going to be my new home. I take great joy in managing teams and finding the best solution to any challenge, be it creative or in a team, and look forward to integrating these skills into the great talent at Jellyfish,” added Hoppe.
Hoppe will utilise his skills of managing and developing teams, oversee the evolution of Jellyfish Pictures’ feature animation pipeline, ensuring artists can be as efficient and empowered as possible to deliver the highest quality of work.
Commenting on the appointments, Jellyfish Pictures CEO Phil Dobree said, “The past year has seen immense growth for Jellyfish Pictures. The investment in our new facilities and tech has greatly opened opportunities of the types of work we can take on, requiring the very best talent to take the helm. Both Hernandez and Hoppe hold an incredibly high level of experience, bringing inspiration to their teams and the very best expertise to every project they touch. Our talent and the care we take when handling our clients’ work has always been at the heart of Jellyfish Pictures. Both of them embody these values and I am extremely proud for them to join the Jellyfish Pictures family.”