Inside the Animation of Ionart Studios
Press Release
April 23, 2024 - Budapest/Stuttgart/Los Angeles
Ionart Studios is an award-winning Animation and VFX studio headquartered in Budapest, Hungary that has been recognized for its team’s animation work in short films, commercials, and game cinematics. What makes Ionart unique is that in addition to the studio's expansive international client portfolio, they also have an internal animation studio where the team develops original content. Recently, Ionart has begun to expand business relations in North America as part of the studio’s effort to grow its brand across continents.
Ionart is excited to share their new Animation Reel to tie in with the launch of the IonartStudios.com animation page. Additionally, the studio is also excited to announce their newest project, Ninja Cats, which is being developed exclusively using the Unreal Engine. Ninja Cats is one of the projects under the studio’s newly labeled Ionart Original Productions.
As a full-featured animation studio with the ability to utilize complex motion capture along with skilled keyframe animators, Ionart Studios’ animation team has an impressive portfolio. The team’s work has been featured in cinematic trailers for Lost Survivors and Century Siege as well as commercials for Pepo TV, Mizo, MPL, Femibion, Bonduelle Young Corn, a Barney’s New York and Lexus collaboration, and a Szentkirályi Image film promotion featuring The Avengers. Ionart Studios takes as much pride in bringing the creative visions of their clients to life as they do with their own original content.
Just in time for the Animation Production Days (APD) hosted at the FMX (Film & Media Exchange) 2024 event in Stuttgart, Germany from April 23-26 is the debut trailer for Ninja Cats! The upcoming feature is the team’s first Ionart Original Production to be fully developed using Epic’s Unreal Engine which is fast becoming the industry’s tool of choice. “Utilizing Unreal on this production really allowed us to advance our pipeline to continue creating innovative top-quality animation productions that the industry demands” states Animation Director Csaba Bárdos.
In Ninja Cats, a wise cat master of martial arts and his disciples join forces with a young recruit to thwart the plans of an ambitious city leader who aims to bring eternal daylight upon the land, which would threaten the life of nocturnal creatures and upset the natural balance. You can see the first trailer below.
Ninja Cats by Ionart Studios
Releasing ahead of Ninja Cats but keeping with the cat theme is the Ionart Original Production poCats, a cartoon series aimed at younger audiences. Adapted from the children's book Cipelő cicák written by Judit Berg and illustrated by Írisz Agócs, poCats features magical beanbag kittens named Kira, Pepe, and Laurie whose mischievousness leads them to various adventures and escapades. You can see a preview of this adorable family-friendly series on the Ionart Animation page. PoCats has been picked up for global distribution by Toon2Tango.
poCats by Ionart Studios
Leading Ionart’s animation division is Animation Director Csaba Bárdos who has spent more than twenty years in the animation industry. Bárdos started his career working as a background painter for Mr. Bean before becoming a 3D generalist on other series and feature films. As an animation film director, he worked on the full-length animated feature Micropolis (2011) and made the award-winning short film Albert (2012) in addition to other projects. Bárdos has been Ionart's Animation Director for ten years, being involved in several animation-based commercials as well as the studio’s original content. Additionally, he has directed game cinematics for such companies as THQ Nordic, Innogames, and Vertigo Games, along with supervising and producing animation for live-action productions.
Animation Director Csaba Bárdos has a distinct fondness for developing family-friendly animation, and his dream is to continue expanding the Ionart animation team and creating more Ionart Originals using the studio’s new Unreal Engine pipeline. “We’re really excited to share our work on Ninja Cats with animation fans all over the world and develop more projects with Unreal,” he says.
To learn more about our animation work and what’s coming in the future, visit our new Animation Page.