WeAnimate 2026-02-09 | wam#0073

At this year’s WeAnimate Day, one theme kept resurfacing across talks and conversations: how do we build animation studios that are both creatively ambitious and structurally sustainable? Few speakers articulated this question as clearly—and as personally—as Sunit Parekh, founder and owner of Hydralab.

In his talk and interview, Sunit offered a candid look behind the scenes of running a modern animation studio, where artistic identity, collaboration, and business realities constantly intersect. His core argument is deceptively simple: culture is not a soft value—it is a production tool.

AN ARTIST FIRST, A BUSINESS OWNER BY NECESSITY

Sunit is open about the duality that defines his role.
“I am probably an artist at heart. So I have always been a bit ambivalent about being a businessman, but I’m at that age where I have to accept that I’m also a businessman.”

That tension—between creative instinct and commercial responsibility—is familiar to many studio founders. What makes Sunit’s perspective notable is that he does not attempt to resolve it by choosing one side. Instead, Hydralab is built precisely in the overlap between the two.

This mindset shapes everything from project selection to team structure. Rather than separating creative and business decisions, Sunit describes the studio as a place where those considerations are intertwined, and where creative safety is treated as a prerequisite for high-end results.

CULTURE AS INFRASTRUCTURE

When Sunit speaks about Hydralab’s internal culture, he does so in concrete, operational terms.
“Today I’m going to talk about our culture at the studio, and how we have a space that is about collaboration and fostering innovation and creating a safe environment for people to be creative, and how that’s a benefit for how we make animation and how we make film.”

In practice, this means actively designing workflows and team dynamics that support trust and openness. Hydralab operates with nimble, multidisciplinary teams where responsibility is shared and communication is direct.

Smaller teams, when empowered, can have a disproportionate impact on the final work. Whether the task is high-end VFX, animation for features, or mission-critical software development, Hydralab’s approach allows each contributor to understand how their work fits into the whole.

SCALING WITHOUT LOSING THE BOUTIQUE MINDSET

Growth is a recurring challenge for successful studios. For Sunit, the question is not whether to scale, but how—and how far.
“The whole mentality at the studio, at Hydralab, is to try to bring our boutique mindset to a larger scale.”

This boutique mindset is defined by close collaboration, flattened hierarchies, and a strong sense of shared ownership over projects. Hydralab is already applying this approach on feature films, but Sunit is clear-eyed about the limits of growth.
“I think there’s some limitations to how big we want to get in how short a period, in order to keep that same sensibility.”

Rather than pursuing rapid expansion, Hydralab prioritizes continuity and cohesion. The goal is not to become big for its own sake, but to remain effective, adaptable, and creatively grounded as projects increase in scope.

NORDIC ROOTS, GLOBAL RELEVANCE

Sunit also situates Hydralab’s culture within a broader Nordic context. Limited budgets and small home markets have historically forced Nordic studios to do more with less, but he sees this constraint as a creative advantage.
“The Nordics are impacted by the low budgets that we work with, the small audiences that we have. So I think it comes out of necessity that you have to do more with less.”

This necessity has helped foster a consensus-based approach to decision-making.
“The Nordics have a very consensus based approach to decision making and to working together… without having a real push towards hierarchy.”

In an international industry often defined by scale and specialization, this way of working offers an alternative model—one where agility, trust, and shared authorship become competitive advantages.

MAKING SMALL PROJECTS LOOK BIG

The title of Sunit’s talk, How to Make Small Projects Look Big, is less about visual spectacle and more about process. For him, scale is not measured solely in budgets or headcount, but in clarity of vision and coherence of execution.

By flattening hierarchies, investing in culture, and maintaining a strong creative identity, Hydralab enables small teams to deliver work that carries weight well beyond their size. It is an approach that resonates strongly in a European animation landscape where flexibility and resilience are becoming essential.