Last Updated: 27 February 2025
Electric Sheep, a UK-based AI technology startup, has secured a $630,000 Innovate UK Smart Grant to accelerate the development of Spotlight V3, its next-generation AI-powered rotoscoping tool. This highly competitive grant, awarded to just 2% of applicants, recognizes the company’s innovation in visual effects (VFX) technology.
The funding will enable Electric Sheep to build upon its existing AI solutions, ensuring a faster and more precise approach to rotoscoping, a time-consuming but essential process in film and TV production. The company plans to launch Spotlight V3 in early 2025, introducing new efficiencies to post-production workflows.
The visual effects industry faces increasing pressure to deliver high-quality content on tighter budgets and timelines. Rotoscoping—the process of manually tracing objects frame by frame for compositing—is particularly labor-intensive, often taking hours to complete just a few seconds of footage.
Electric Sheep’s Spotlight V2 has already automated rotoscoping at a speed 24 times faster than traditional methods, cutting down processing time from eight hours per second of footage to just 15 minutes. This advancement allows studios to allocate more resources to creative storytelling rather than manual editing.
“If the shots have too much rotoscoping, it often doesn't make economical sense for us to complete them. Electric Sheep’s solution offers an economical and time-efficient way of preparing shots so that we can take on more work and continue to deliver a premium service for our clients.”
Mark Maltby, CTO of The Look London
The Innovate UK grant will fund the development of Spotlight V3, Electric Sheep’s most advanced rotoscoping tool yet. The upgraded version will further streamline video segmentation, reducing manual input while improving accuracy.
“We want to make rotoscoping so easy that VFX artists can have their shots ready in a few clicks. Rotoscoping is one of many tedious and repetitive tasks that gets in the way of creativity. We're focusing on automating these, so artists can tell spectacular stories without being slowed down by manual work.”
Richie Murray, co-founder of Electric Sheep
Founded in the UK, Electric Sheep specializes in applying AI and cloud computing to optimize VFX production workflows. The startup’s Spotlight technology has gained traction among post-production houses, offering a scalable solution for high-volume video editing projects.
The company’s co-founders, Jake Laver, Gary Palmer, and Richie Murray, have combined expertise in AI, film production, and software engineering, positioning Electric Sheep at the intersection of technology and creativity.
Electric Sheep has received investment from Look AI Ventures, an AI-focused VC fund supporting early-stage deep tech startups.
“Artificial intelligence is not just a tool for the VFX industry; it’s a shift toward a new era of efficiency. By cutting down rotoscoping time dramatically, Electric Sheep enables artists to focus on what truly matters—creative storytelling.”
Angelo Burgarello, Partner at Look AI Ventures
