Hearing it directly from the Creative Director of Shoguns Studios, Director Will who narrated his animated journey and what it took to establish Shoguns Studios.
Director Will is a 3D animator with a wealth of experience in the children’s media and entertainment industry. He founded Shoguns Studios after 10 years of working for two of the biggest toy companies in the world, The Lego Group, and Hasbro. Will helps organizations tell stories through a range of digital media, from animation to character creation and development, to toy design and mobile games. His focus areas in the industry have been on Animating, Modeling, and creating high-end CGI animation.
Dating back in 2012, Director Will left The Lego Group as a 3D Generalist to begin his life as a Freelancer. He then landed a job with Hasbro in Stockley Park, London where he got an opportunity to develop some of Hasbro’s most iconic characters for the new Hasbro style guide. Will explains “It was great, Hasbro needed to convert many of their iconic characters into living breathing CGI characters that can be used throughout the brand. The issue prior to this was that many licensors created their own Mr Monopoly so no Mr Monopoly was the same globally. Although there were many renditions beforehand, I had the great opportunity to develop the final version for Cake Mix / the digital arm of Hasbro.”
Following the event, Will also helped develop Scrabble Junior characters , Game of life junior, and other Monopoly junior characters including the Police Officer Edgar Mallory and the guy behind bars on every monopoly board, Jake the Jailbird and others.
Director Will says that his education at both Lego and Hasbro added to his tools where he was then able to found Shoguns Studios. The Studio today is one of the fastest-growing animation studios in the world for the children’s toys and games sector. They specialize in the art of storytelling for bitesize content and have worked with some of the biggest brands including Disney, ITV, Simba Dickie, Benesse Corporation, Learning Resources Ltd, The Loyal Subjects, and WWE to name a few.
As of the last few years, Shoguns Studios has been working with the Japanese company Benesse studios on their legacy brand Shimajiro that has been entertaining the children of Japan since 1993. Shoguns Studios has helped Shimajiro finally break the western market by creating over 150 minutes of animation for the iconic tiger and obtaining over 65 million views on its YouTube channel so far and growing.
“It’s been great as we have been developing really beautiful and unique stories for Shimajiro. It’s been an absolute honor to work with Benesse and we look forward to entertaining the children globally with more unique stories”, says Director Will.