An innovative end-to-end AI platform for automated Hollywood-grade rotoscoping and VFX workflow optimisation, reducing costs and timelines by 70%.

Sheep, a UK-based visual effects (VFX) SME, is led by a project team of Gary Palmer (CEO/project manager), Jake Laver (CTO/back-end developer), Richard Murray (COO/commercial lead) and Ryan Layne (head of AI).

The VFX industry is expanding rapidly, with an annual growth rate of 11.4%. Despite this, it faces significant challenges due to manual processes such as rotoscoping, which requires eight hours to process just one second of footage. This laborious task costs the industry £80 per second, amounting to £800M annually for 10M seconds of content.

Such inefficiencies delay the release of VFX-intensive films and TV shows by up to six months, impacting their relevance and profitability. In the short term, these issues stifle creative potential, while in the long term, they threaten the industry's survival. VFX artists, burdened by monotonous work, risk burnout and may leave the field, and VFX companies face financial instability, especially during industry strikes.

Sheep is developing Spotlight, an end-to-end AI platform for automated Hollywood-grade rotoscoping and VFX workflow optimisation with powerful iterative control. This innovative platform offers a 70% reduction in costs and timelines, saving £63K, on average, per film. London VFX houses will benefit from this innovation, as they can improve their tight profit margins of 2-3%.

Spotlight will enable clients to take on 50% more projects, safeguarding 3.5K UK VFX jobs in the long term. The platform lowers the entry barriers for high-quality VFX, enabling individuals from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to create captivating visual stories. This shift is expected to foster the creation of more diverse content.