Hive Studios
- Open roles
- 0
- Founded
- 2005
- Employees
- 1-10
- Offices
- 1
About Hive Studios
Hive Studios is an independent visual effects, animation and creative studio based in Portland, Oregon. Founded in 2005, it originally operated publicly as Hive-FX and built its reputation through creature effects, character animation and commercial image creation. Its work spans entertainment, advertising, retail merchandising and architectural visualization, combining digital production with design services for brands and physical spaces.
Television and commercial production
The studio served as the principal creature effects shop for all six seasons of NBC’s Grimm, which ran from 2011 to 2017. Its contributions included the series’ signature “wesen” transformations, turning human performers into mythical creatures through digital facial morphs, modeling, hair dynamics and animation. This sustained episodic work formed a substantial part of the studio’s production history.
Other television and film work includes Surviving America, A Walk in My Shoes, The Umbrella Academy, The Man in the High Castle, Wendy and Lucy and Chihuanhas. For A Walk in My Shoes, the studio supplied more than 40 visual effects sequences. Alongside entertainment production, Hive has created commercial effects, character animation and photorealistic computer-generated imagery for brands including Nike, Google, Apple, YETI and Columbia Sportswear.
Visualization and retail design
After Grimm concluded, the company broadened its commercial offering under the Hive Studios name. Its expanded focus includes architectural and interior visualization, digital product imagery, space planning and retail merchandising directives. These services support the presentation of products, interiors and commercial environments through still renderings and spatial fly-throughs.
The studio’s capabilities extend from 3D modeling, rigging and surfacing to motion graphics, live-action integration, commercial post-production and color grading. It also provides design consultation, print production guidance and creative project management. This combination connects its visual effects background with practical visualization and design work for advertising, apparel, footwear, outdoor products and commercial spaces.
More about Hive Studios
Leadership and team
- Co-founder and co-owner Gretchen Miller is Executive Producer.
- Co-founder and co-owner Jim Clark is President and Executive Creative Director. He also works professionally as Clark James.
- Molly Saguto is Creative Director; Shelby Mullin is Production Director; Joyce Fan is a Senior Artist, 3D Artist and Illustrator.
Production methods
For the weekly production demands of Grimm, Hive developed a pipeline combining ZBrush, Maya and Cinema 4D. It commissioned custom point-cache plugins from German developer at2 GmbH to transfer deformed meshes between applications and support rendering of creature hair, displacement and textures.
Operating model
The studio maintains a small core creative and management team and scales production with project freelancers. During peak television production, its artist team historically expanded to more than 20–30 people.
Founders’ earlier experience
Before establishing the studio, Clark worked on creature animation and rotoscoping for productions including Hellboy and An American Werewolf in Paris. Miller’s earlier production experience included work alongside Robert Zemeckis and co-creating animated programming for Cartoon Network.
Notable credits
7 creditsOffices
Where Hive Studios is based
- Portland, Oregon, United States
Portland office
HeadquartersAbout this office
Company headquarters and creative studio in Portland’s Central Eastside Industrial District. The report identifies 79 SE Taylor St., Suite 100 as a historical address without establishing it as the current street address.
Open roles
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