Space
Temporary or long-term studio space fitted to VFX spec: blackout, acoustic treatment, calibrated review rooms and controlled access.
10–250 seats · review theatre · secure entry
VFX facilities, built to order
A full VFX studio. Up and running in thirty days.
Popup VFX builds complete visual effects facilities fast: studio space, crew, infrastructure and render, for a single show or for the long term. Sites in and around London, and anywhere in the UK on request. One brief, one contract, one team accountable for all of it.
- Brief to shots moving
- 30 days
- Seats per facility
- 10–250
- Term
- Popup or stay
- Locations
- London + UK
The traditional route
A greenlit show doesn't wait for a lease.
Building a VFX facility the usual way means a lease negotiation, a fit-out, a hardware procurement cycle, a hiring campaign and a security assessment, one after another. That's months before a single shot moves. We run all of it in parallel, with space, kit and people we already have lined up.
Typical build
23weeks to first shot
Find & lease spaceWk 0–10
Hire & onboard crewWk 8–20
Design & fit-outWk 10–18
Hardware & renderWk 12–20
Security sign-offWk 20–23
First shotsWk 23
Popup VFX
30days to first shot
Space securedDay 0–5
Crew booked & inductedDay 3–28
Fit-out, power & networkDay 5–14
Hardware & renderDay 12–26
Security sign-offDay 26–30
First shotsDay 30
Indicative timelines for a 60-seat facility. Both drawn to the same scale.
The build
Watch a facility go up.
An example 64-seat build, from empty shell to shots moving. Scroll to move through the thirty days.
Brief
You tell us seats, disciplines, location, dates and security tier. This one: 64 seats of comp, FX and lighting in central London for nine months.
- Day 00Brief
- Day 05Space & spec
- Day 14Power & network
- Day 20Machine room
- Day 26Workstations
- Day 30Shots moving
- Network
- 0%
- Racks
- 0/12
- Seats
- 0/64
- Crew
- 0/64
What we build
Everything a facility needs. One team accountable.
Take the whole facility or just the part you're missing. Each piece is ready to deploy, and they're designed to work together from day one.
Crew
Compositors, FX, lighting, matchmove, roto and paint, pipeline TDs, coordinators and producers: vetted, booked and inducted.
Artists · supervisors · production · pipeline
Infrastructure
Workstations, networking, high-performance shared storage, power and cooling: installed, imaged and burned in before the crew arrive.
25GbE to desk · tiered NVMe storage · UPS
Render
On-site render nodes sized to your shot count, with burst capacity in the cloud for when the deadline bites.
On-prem nodes · cloud burst · queue management
Pipeline
Software licensing, asset management, and review and approval tools, configured to your studio's naming and conventions.
Nuke · Houdini · Maya · review & approval
Operations
On-site IT, facility management and content security for the life of the show, then a clean wind-down or a full handover.
On-site IT · facility management · wind-down
Popup or stay
Popup
For the length of a show.
A complete facility for a single show or season. Everything supplied, everything removed at wrap, and nothing left on your books.
- Terms from three months
- Seats scale up and down with the schedule
- Space, kit and crew on one contract
- Full strip-out and data wipe at wrap
Stay
For a studio that's here to stay.
A long-term facility that becomes your studio. We build it, then run it for you or hand it over with the keys.
- Built for multi-year occupancy
- Add seats in phases as the slate grows
- Fully managed service, or a clean handover
- Keys, kit and crew can transfer to you
Locations
In and around London. Anywhere in the UK on request.
We have a choice of sites across London and the surrounding area, so your facility can sit close to your team, your client or your stages. Need it somewhere else? Tell us where, and we'll find and fit a site anywhere in the UK.
Central London
Close to clients, reviews and the post houses of Soho.
Greater London
Bigger floor plates, still an easy commute for London crew.
Around London
Near the studios and stages just outside the M25.
Rest of the UK
On request, wherever the production is: near a stage, a studio or your team.
Content security
Secure from the first cable.
Security is designed in from the floor plan up, not bolted on after the kit arrives. Your vendor assessment becomes a formality, not a delay.
-
Controlled access
Badge-controlled secure entry, CCTV and visitor logging from the day the doors go on.
-
Segregated networks
Production isolated from the internet, with managed, logged transfer in and out of the facility.
-
Locked-down workstations
Imaged builds, no removable media, centrally managed accounts and audited storage.
-
Audit-ready documentation
Policies, network diagrams and asset registers prepared for studio and TPN assessments.
Get involved
Build it, supply it, or join it.
Popup VFX works with three kinds of people: productions that need a facility fast, owners with space or kit sitting idle, and the crew who make it all run. Pick the one that's you.
- We call youWithin one working day of your brief.
- Facility plan & costingRooms, seats, equipment, render and crew, sized to the show.
- Site visit & sign-offWalk the space, agree the spec and the dates.
- Build startsDay 00. Shots moving on day 30.
- We review your offerThe space, kit or capacity, and when it's free.
- We take a lookPower, cooling, access, security and condition.
- Agree termsAvailability, rates and how handover works.
- Matched to buildsWe come back to you when a brief fits what you have.
- We review your profileDisciplines, experience and your reel.
- A short callAvailability, rates and where you can work.
- You join the rosterVetted and ready for the next build.
- Booked on a buildInducted on site before shots start moving.
Brief received
Thanks, there. That's what we need.
We'll call within one working day to talk it through, then send a first facility plan.