Old time friends started the company

After the golden era of the seventies, animation industry in Finland was suffering. There were no domestic studios to meet the requirements of demanding customers. All major projects went abroad.

When Anima was founded in 2000, its first mission was to break the prejudices against a Finnish animation studio. Anima needed to establish the reputation of a professional, high-end animation studio. In this it succeeded well.

Jani 'Kurre' Kuronen and Laura Neuvonen were working together at an animation agency in Helsinki. Antti Haikala and Olli Rajala were awarded with two Maya 3D software licenses at the Young Digital Creation Festival. Simo Savolainen was finishing his studies at the University of Jyväskylä.

Through a series of events these innovative people were brought together to found Anima in Helsinki. Antti, Kurre, Laura and Olli had all graduated from Tampere Polytechnic. Simo had, through hobby and education, gained extensive experience in game and graphics software engineering.

No strangers to the old school 'demoscene' - a computer and multimedia geeks' subculture - Kurre and Olli were also seasoned in computer generated imagery. The mixture of technical skills and animation talent has been the cornerstone of Anima's success right from the outset.