Minnow Mountain

Minnow Mountain is an independent animation studio based in Austin, Texas, founded in 2012 by filmmaker and animator Craig Staggs and producer Steph Swope. Its work centers on performance capture rotoscope character animation, combining live-action performances with frame-by-frame artwork for adult and prestige storytelling. The studio produces animation for feature films, episodic television, streaming projects, shorts, music videos and commercial content.

Its approach emphasizes the physical detail and emotional nuance of actors’ performances. Alongside rotoscope production, Minnow Mountain offers traditional hand-drawn 2D character animation and develops original intellectual property. Its development services encompass story development, scriptwriting, character design, style frames, animatics and project pitch packaging, supporting projects from early visual exploration through animation production.

Selected work

Minnow Mountain produced rotoscope animation for Tower (2016), Keith Maitland’s documentary about the 1966 University of Texas tower shooting. The production combined archival audio with actor reenactments, using animation to present the documentary’s accounts and performances.

The studio subsequently served as the primary rotoscope animation studio for Amazon Prime Video’s Undone, whose first two seasons premiered in 2019 and 2022. Its character animation translated the live-action performances of actors including Rosa Salazar and Bob Odenkirk into the series’ animated world.

For Richard Linklater’s Apollo 10 ½: A Space Age Childhood (2022), Minnow Mountain collaborated with Detour Filmproductions and Dutch co-producer Submarine. The Netflix feature used live-action footage as the basis for a hybrid animated depiction of childhood in 1960s Houston.

The studio’s broader portfolio includes animation contributions to Quantum Cowboys, the animated short Dance First, the “It’s Thursday Night” opening for Critical Role Campaign 3, and The Black Angels’ music video Empires Falling. It has also produced animated sequences for the public television programme On Story. These projects span documentary storytelling, scripted drama, independent film, music and short-form entertainment.