STUDIO BEGINNINGS - THREE WINGS
- Will Murphy
- Jun 12
- 3 min read
How Gopnik Studio Got Started
Gopnik Studio came out of a short film. I made it myself, with my own money, in between jobs. It was called Three Wings. No big plan, just a need to make something that felt personal and creatively satisfying.
It took a while. It was expensive. It nearly broke me. But it got finished, and it landed in a few festivals. More importantly, it showed me that there’s an audience—other artists, studios, producers—who connect with work that’s raw, character-led, and made with care.
That response pushed me to set up Gopnik Studio as a proper thing. A small studio focused on distinctive storytelling, bold style, and practical, efficient production. Not a content farm. Not a collective of dreamers. Just a focused group of people making sharp, specific, high-quality work.
Making Three Wings — And How We Work
Three Wings taught us a lot about what kind of stories we want to tell—and how to actually get them made. We didn’t have a big team or unlimited time, so we had to figure out a way of working that was scrappy but sharp. Here’s what we learned, and how we’ve been building our approach ever since:
Keep the story grounded.Don’t overreach. If the idea’s too big, it collapses under its own weight. We keep our stories focused and rooted in emotional reality—small moments, strange characters, grounded settings. It lets us go deep without trying to do too much.
DJ Smoothback Ultra-rough storyboards. No time wasted on polished boards for internal use. We know the story, we know the tone—we just need a map. Quick thumbnails and blocking is enough to guide the team.
BG design is everything. Backgrounds do just as much storytelling as the characters. For us, they set the emotional tone. In Three Wings, we put a lot of energy into the environments—shabby houses, weird corners, cluttered rooms—because they told you where you were and who these people were, without needing dialogue. We design them early and refine them late. Grit, mood, texture, and layout are all part of how the story lands.
Golden Chicken - High Street Ext. Work with fast, talented animators. We collaborate with cel animators who are both quick and precise, and we direct them closely. Every gesture, every expression is intentional. That back-and-forth is key—we’re not just farming out shots, we’re shaping performances.
Rough Animation by Giulio De Toma Lean into roughness.Our work isn’t clean or floaty. We like noise, flicker, smears, and mistakes. It gives the animation life. We’re not chasing studio-smooth polish—we want it to feel human, dynamic, and a bit unpredictable.
Hybrid pipeline for efficiency.On Three Wings, we did full hand-drawn cleanup. It looked great, but it was time-consuming. For our next film, we’re trying a hybrid workflow—rough cel animation for the base, then cleanup and consistency handled in Moho. That means animators can focus on performance without worrying about keeping things on model, and rigged elements make it easier for multiple people to share characters. It's quicker, cheaper, and still looks hand-made.
This whole system is about getting strong, stylised work made without killing ourselves (or the budget). It’s not about cutting corners—it’s about putting the effort where it counts.
What Kind of Work We Want to Make
Gopnik Studio isn’t about chasing trends or building a house style. We’re drawn to tone-driven stories—often awkward, a bit dark, sometimes funny, sometimes bleak. We like stuff that feels personal and flawed and specific.
Visually, we pull from old Eastern European animation, lo-fi experimental shorts, and graphic novels. But more than references, we’re chasing atmosphere. We want every piece to feel like it came from somewhere real—even when it’s surreal.
Where We’re At Now
We’re a small team, still building. We take on client work to fund the original stuff—developing new IPs, pitching weird little stories, and slowly building a portfolio that reflects what we actually care about. We’re not trying to scale fast or become a big name. We just want to make sharp, distinctive work and collaborate with people who value that. If that sounds like you, let’s talk.
