Question time. What do: Magic The Gathering, League of Legends, Gears 5, Destiny 2, Lego, Deathloop, Outlander, Chernobyl, A Gathering of Witches, SAS: Red Notice and Shaun the Sheep all have in common?
If you guessed they all feature maurauding zombie hordes, you’d be wrong. If you guessed they’re all connected to Kevin Bacon by no more than two degrees of separation, you may also be wrong (we’d check, but we’re busy). The correct answer is that they have all had significant work done here in Scotland.
Whether it’s animation in games, or visual effects in film/tv, a growing number of triple A games, tv series, and blockbuster movies are having work carried out by Axis Studios.
Axis is a name we’ve been shouting about for a while here at the Scottish Games Network. The studio is not a game developer, but has produced a huge body of work for the global games industry, with many of the world’s biggest titles and franchises benefitting from Axis’ animation and visual effects (VFX) capabilities.
Like most companies working in the screen industry, Axis produces annual showreels of its work in animation, visual effects and an ‘anthem’ reel, which pulls everything together in one big glorious explosion of lovely, with an excellent soundtrack.
The studio has just released its 2021 showreels and they feature some incredible work. As you can see.
As for the the projects included on these showreels, the running list is incredible:
Animation Reel:
- New WorldK/DA: ‘More’
- Gears 5
- Magic the Gathering: Throne of Eldraine
- Magic the Gathering: Kaldeim
- Magic the Gathering: Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- Magic the Gathering: Zendikar Rising
- Magic the Gathering: War of the Spark
- Magic the Gathering: Theros Beyond Death
- The Famous Grouse
- Love Death and Robots Vol 1: Helping Hand
- Outriders
- Lego City Adventures
- DeathLoop
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure
- Destiny 2
- Kiss Me First
- Lost in Oz
- League of Legends: Legends of Runeterra
- League of Legends: Trials
- Ruined King: A League of Legends Story
- Legends of Runeterra: Wild Rift
- Heroes of the Storm: Heir of Raven Court
- Summoners War: Friends and Rivals
- Happy 2
VFX Reel:
- The Cry
- Luther
- Happy S2
- Game Trailer Awards
- Hostile Planet
- Chernobyl
- Catherine the Great
- SAS: Red Notice
- A Christmas Carol
- Horizon Line
- Farmegedon
- A Discovery of Witches
- Outlander
- Love Death and Robots Vol 1: Helping Hand
- Our GirlHunger Games: Panem Aerial Tour
- Clique the Famous Grouse
Anthem Reel:
- Catherine the Great
- Magic the Gathering: Throne of Eldraine
- Magic the Gathering: Kaldeim
- The Famous Grouse
- Legends of Runeterra
- Ruined King: A League of Legends Story
- Legends of Runeterra: Wild Rift
- A Christmas Carol
- Love Death and Robots Vol 1: Helping Hand
- Gears 5
- Horizon Line
- K/DA: ‘More’
- Outriders
- Hunger Games: Panem Aerial Tour
- Shaun the Sheep: Farmaggedon
- Happy 2
- Hostile Planet
- Magic the Gathering: Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths
- Lego City Adventures
- DeathLoop
- Magic the Gathering: War of the Spark
- A Discovery of Witches
- Sackboy: A Big Adventure
- Days Gone
- SAS: Red Notice
- Destiny 2
- Magic the Gathering: Zendikar Rising
- Kiss Me First
- Lost in Oz
- New World
- League of Legends: Trials
The Scottish Games Network recently spoke to the Axis Studios’ Realtime animation team, which uses game engines including Unreal and Unity, to find out more about this new use for gaming technology and the studio’s work in this field. Watch this space for updates.