Let’s Get Animated!
An innovative Scots studio is transporting TV to a brave new virtual world
THE gaming industry has used animation to entertain children and adults since the 1980s. But its use in prime-time television shows created purely for adult audiences is still a rarity.
One company bringing hyperreal animation to the mass market is Scotland’s Axis Studios, which is headquartered in Glasgow and counts global giants Netflix, Microsoft, Sega, Universal Studios and Amazon Studios as clients.
The firm’s animators and designers – who were behind the viral trailer for hit video game Dead Island – recently created the animated worlds for the big-budget Netflix and Channel 4 drama, Kiss Me First. The thriller, written by Skins co-creator Bryan Elsley – also a Scot
– saw Leila, a lonely young woman hooked on a virtual reality game, disappear into the digital world of Azana.
It was considered ground-breaking as it was one of the first times animated content depicting a virtual reality experience was used in this way on television – and it was pivotal for Axis Studios.
Axis had already worked on visual effects (VFX) for TV shows like the BBC’S Doctor Who, Luther and Shetland. But unlike those, where computer-generated imagery (CGI) is placed into live action, Kiss Me First was a live action show where people entered a virtual reality video game. It involved a 40-strong team in Glasgow.
Richard Scott, chief executive and co-founder of Axis Studios, explains how this differed. “Making the Tardis in Doctor Who look as if it is travelling through space is considered ‘visual effects’ – you’re not meant to spot the joins. It is different to what we did on Kiss Me First. The point of the animation on that show was to transport you to a different reality. This was the first time animation has been used in that way in UK drama, so it was innovative and exciting to see that work getting done in Scotland.
“It helped us to continue to evolve out of being ‘the guys who worked with the video games industry’. Now we have done work for television, film and theme parks.”
It was the longevity of Axis Studios that first attracted