Studio Geppetto is a French creative studio specializing in animation and motion design for narrative projects in virtual reality—but that’s not all. We talk to the studio’s founder, Amaury Campion, who is attending Venice Immersive this year with two projects: EDDIE AND I by Maya Shekel (as co-producer) and LESS THAN 5 GR. OF SAFFRON by Négar Motevalymeidanshah (as animation provider).
Cover: EDDIE AND I
Studio Geppetto also released JACK & FLO in late 2024, a VR animated film that won Best Narrative Experience in VR at the 2025 Guanajuato International Film Festival this summer.
Studio Geppetto, specializing in VR animation
Amaury Campion – I trained as a telecommunications engineer, but as soon as I graduated, I became a freelance motion designer. This allowed me to work with my former classmates, among others, and I quickly built up a professional network. I knew how to make videos, and they needed them! I came across the immersive format at the same time, through a discussion with a friend, Clément Cerles, who was working on sound spatialization for 360 videos. I made a short film to help them test certain features, and that’s SNOWBALL, which is now available for free on YouTube. We had to find a way to add spatialized sound, which the YouTube player didn’t necessarily support at the time.
A. C. – It was SNOWBALL that made me want to go further and try real time. I had just seen ALLUMETTE by Penrose Studios, and I was blown away by the result—even though it was too long for me. For immersive content, I wondered if we could link the progress of the action to the viewer’s behavior. If the action could freeze if the viewer wasn’t looking directly at it, in a way. It was with this in mind that I imagined JACK & FLO in 2018 with Clément, with passive interactivity loops. The film “waits” for the viewer, advancing at their pace without losing the characters. We received initial funding and created a PCVR prototype using AnimVR to really paint assets and animate them. Quill didn’t allow that at the time.
In the meantime, Antoine Cayrol and Arnaud Colinart (Atlas V) asked me to join them on GOODBYE MR. OCTOPUS on Quill. We released the project fairly quickly, and in 2022 I returned to JACK & FLO, producing a new prototype on Quill for Quest. We received production assistance from the CNC, and with additional personal funding, we released it at the end of 2024 at Immersive Tech Week.
A studio open to international co-production
Studio Geppetto was born out of a desire to work on all types of projects, not just my own. The studio brings together different talents and can act as a producer, co-producer, or simple service provider for VR animation. In addition, we also continue to work in motion design. Alongside all this, I have received proposals to support projects that required expertise in Quill—a software program that is widely appreciated, but whose limitations must be mastered. LESS THAN 5 GR. OF SAFFRON (produced by TEN2TEN in France), for example, in addition to the VR film, we had to deliver an .apk of the project to make it available for distribution outside the Meta store, which Quill does not do.
I try to push visual poetry; to make it visually comforting. And always with a slightly artisanal feel, despite the use of digital tools and 3D production. At Studio Geppetto, we try to always preserve a very traditional aspect of animation, from hand-drawn paper to brush strokes…
For EDDIE & I, I met Maya Shekel at NewImages 2023 and was captivated by the project and the idea of using sign language. It’s crazy to think that we have hand tracking and yet this idea isn’t used more often! I showed them the second prototype of JACK & FLO, which convinced them of the quality we could offer—and our ability to bring an aesthetic that matched the highly illustrated project. Studio Geppetto is a co-producer on EDDIE & I.
We are also supporting ROUSSEL’S MUSIC BOX by Niccolò Manzolini and Lucia Malerba, which is currently in development. Here too, we are co-producers and have already secured funding in France. The original music is being composed by Pierre Bastien.
Animation, significant potential for immersive experiences
We have developed a process similar to stop motion, but in VR. We create each asset, and then we can move it around as we wish. Obviously, this gives us more freedom than traditional stop motion, since we can also go back. We feel like we’re moving the characters and skeletons, zooming in and out infinitely, improving the details… When we used to animate on Maya, it was difficult to grasp 3D. Now I sometimes animate directly in VR, which allows me to better position my scene in a very short time. And using Blender as well.
The VR medium still has limitations due to the headsets and what can be offered to the viewer. Nevertheless, animation offers infinite creative possibilities; anything can be achieved visually. We then strive to offer a graphic and narrative solution that is suited to the material, and to bring together each component of the project so that it can be distributed (without being too heavy, etc.). By adopting an approach that is not photorealistic, we are able to explore styles and environments that facilitate immersion in the story.
The latest trends in VR animation are moving towards more assertive, sometimes more minimalist approaches, which can also lead to savings in terms of resources. We can focus on the details to be added to the story elements, what needs to move… This is particularly the case in LESS THAN 5 GR. OF SAFFRON, where Negar, the director, wanted to push the visual aspect and staging of the kitchen scenes that evoke the heroine’s traumas.
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