Axis Studios, the animation and visual effects specialist, is working on a film the company believes will be the biggest ever animation created in Scotland.
Headquartered in Glasgow, the company, which already employs 325, is now recruiting another 50 staff to work on the project.
The new roles being created are based in the company’s Glasgow, Bristol and London offices (though staff are all currently wokring remotely) and include character artists, animators, visual effects specialists and team supervisors.
The film, will be Axis’ biggest project yet, in terms of the number of people involved, the amount of content being produced and the profile of the project. We have no information about the type of movie, genre, story, or other details of the project. Initial information should be released at some point in 2021.
Axis has worked on numerous projects for global partners including Netflix, Universal Studios and the BBC, as well as a wide range of game-related trailers, cut scenes and in-game animation, movies, tv shows and theme parks, picking up a whole lot of awards on the way.
Its recent credits include Magic The Gathering: Theros Beyond Death, Gears 5, Tales of Runterra, Red Dwarf, Sky One’s A Discovery of Witches, Sky Atlantic’s Chernobyl, HBO’s Catherine The Great and Shaun The Sheep: Farmageddon, Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots and Nickelodeon’s Lego City Adventures.
Chief Executive Richard Scott, told The Herald:
From a Scottish perspective, this will probably be the biggest animated production ever done in Scotland,” said Axis Studios chief executive Richard Scott. “A major part of the vision for Axis over the last three years has been to move into this area of film production and to have bigger productions happening here in Scotland, so we’re really excited about that.
In the eyes of others, especially those in the US, it takes us from being a studio that had the potential to do this, to a studio that’s actually doing it,” Mr Scott said. “We only started a few months ago, even though we can’t reveal all the details people are showing a lot of interest.
Mr Scott also told The Herald that the games industry in Scotland had far outstripped animation in terms of its impact internationally, but that he was now seeing other animation studios in Scotland with global ambitions.
As everyone knows, the entertainments industry is very focused in London, New York and Los Angeles,” he said. “It’s not easy to break in, but it’s not impossible. We believe that what Axis is doing will help other companies in Scotland realise that they can do it too.”
This could be the first of several projects focusing on the company’s own IP. According to The Herald, Axis has been developing its own intellectual property since 2018, by building its own universe of proprietary worlds and characters for possible film and TV projects.
Richard told the paper:
We’ve been pitching these to various studios in Los Angeles and the response has been very positive, and plan to make this a big part of our future.
Given the company’s incredible success with trailers, shorts, TV and visual effects work, we will wait with baited breath to see what the studio is working on.
