Axis Studios' Head of Characters on What Makes a Character Good

Can you introduce yourself and tell a little bit about yourself and your company?

My name is Amy Ash. I am the Head of Characters and Groom at Axis Studios in Glasgow. We create content for a wide variety of things, from game cinematics to feature films and episodic television shows. And we have an animation arm in Glasgow and a VFX section in Bristol.

We very recently hit a milestone of 500 people. We've worked with Blur, Netflix, Blizzard, Riot, Microsoft, and any big client really in the games industry.

How do you know a good character is good? How do you make this judgment?

For me, it always comes down to fundamentals like form and silhouette, and then representation of reality, if it is a realistic thing. Or the rhythm of shapes and interplay of colors on stylized assets.

I think what is behind all successful characters is that we tell a story. And in every single decision that's made as part of that character, it's in service of that story. And I think that's what hooks people and what makes people want to keep looking at the character. They want to know who that person is, what the backstory is, all those kinds of things. As soon as you see something that sparks your imagination and has that draw, that's what gives it the appeal.

You can have something that's extremely technically well done but just feels dry and lifeless. But as soon as you start to have that life to a character, that feeling that there's backstory to them, there's events that have led to who they are in that moment, I think that's what draws people in. 

Do you think about kind of like the hero's journey, kind of map where this character is coming from, where it's going?

Yeah, exactly. We always try and build a story into all the decisions that we make. And that can be very small decisions, like where a certain piece of clothing is placed on a character, to bigger decisions like, do we have particular scars or carry certain things or dress in certain ways? And I think keeping that in mind all the way through, even if it's just boiled down to a few creative pillars, helps bring that character to life as an asset. As soon as you start to forget that and think, "I'm just modeling a shirt and a pair of boots," you're not thinking about where those things are situated, the world that they live in, all those kinds of things that make that character who they are, then you start going down that very lifeless route, I think.

Tell us a little bit about your workflow. How is it different from other companies or how they are doing it? What's unique about it?

It varies hugely from project to project. In the case of Love, Death & Robots, for example, we were creating an entirely new character and an entirely new world. That means we have a lot more creative input into it and can explore and bring in people with different viewpoints and ways of looking at things. We always try to explore the boundaries of that character. In other cases, we'll be creating characters that the client has very clear ideas about, with existing designs, and wants to be particular about how that character is represented. In that case, we have to work closely with the client to ensure we're being true to the character they have and want in the show.

We also often work with existing assets from games or other sources and add quality to those for a cinematic while staying true to the original character in a way that the client is happy with. We approach it from several different ways and need to be flexible even within the same project. We may have a character that's part of an existing canon alongside new characters where we have more creative input, and we have to make those characters fit into that world as well.

We pride ourselves on the breadth of work we do and our flexibility. It's one of the unique selling points of Axis Studios – the range of work we do and our ability to adapt to each situation and bring the best to each project.

If you're starting and want to do 3D characters how do you start? What do you do? Do you go to ZBrush and start putting some spheres together? Or maybe some other ways? Go to an art school and learn human anatomy?

I think execution does need to come first. As soon as you can execute something, then all the other parts, like telling a story and having all that as part of it, become easier. It's very difficult to tell a story in the way that you want to if you don't have the tools to do that. So, I think understanding the fundamentals of character modeling, sculpture, anatomy, and form versus detail are all things that people need to focus on first. Then, everything else will come with experience on the job. 

If you have an amazing imagination and want to create new worlds, by all means, put that into your characters because it's going to make them unique and interesting. But it's no good having a unique and interesting character if it's badly executed has bad anatomy or doesn't show a good understanding of form or rhythm within the character.

So, I always say to everyone starting, focus on the basics, on the fundamentals. Keep practicing and don't be precious about your work. I'm a huge fan of speed sculpts, of doing fast sculpts to try and understand forms and improve quickly. I think they're really useful. Studying anatomy and even life drawing classes, looking at what the best are doing and what makes their assets stand out from everyone else, seeing how your work compares to that, and being honest with yourself. Then, look for criticism and feedback, take that on board, and apply it to your journey and growth. I think that's all important.

When you're working on these characters and you're starting to get something that's alive, do you start to fantasize about how this character might move? How flexible, dynamic, or slow the character is going to be? Does it influence your design as well?

Yeah, absolutely. It's something we need to keep in mind throughout the character build and design process. If we're creating a character that's supposed to be fast and nimble, we don't want joints that have obstructions or add bulk that weigh them down. We want a certain rhythm that gives elegance to the character. We might make the limbs longer or more streamlined to imply speed and quickness. Similarly, with a heavy character, there's a shape language that communicates their weight. We're working on a show right now where the characters have to be very athletic and perform almost gymnastics. This heavily influences the design, from how the limbs are treated to the sculpting of muscles, giving them a powerful and streamlined look, like they're always coiled and ready to move. It's a conversation we have with rigging and animation, and early animation tests help us refine it. If something doesn't work, we go back and fix it. Establishing this early in the design process is crucial.

Overall, do you feel like the process has become faster now, with tools like ZBrush? 

If you look at character development over the years, especially personal projects shared online, the complexity and detail of characters has increased exponentially. In the early days, when poly modeling was the norm, it took a lot of time and was laborious and slow. Nowadays, with ZBrush, you can sculpt almost anything you want without limitations.

I think the speed of workflows and tools means that you can add so much quality and detail to things quickly. Workflows within studios have been refined and honed over the years. Scanning and photogrammetry of existing assets from vendors have also improved results, especially with skin, quickly speeding up the process of creating photorealistic characters. However, the expectation has also increased, so we still need to spend time to reach the levels that people expect nowadays.

Could you share some characters that you like? 

Well, one thing that stands out for me is "The Lord of the Rings," specifically Gollum and creatures like the Balrog. The Balrog was one of the coolest things I had ever seen at that time, while Gollum is a milestone for CG characters that can act and hold their own on the screen.

I think more recently, "Spider-Verse" stands out. We went to go and see "Across the Spider-Verse" recently. I mean, the artistry in every frame is just incredible. It's the way that everything is thought about and treated. There's so much care and attention gone into all of it. It's just beautiful to watch from a technical viewpoint but also an artistic viewpoint. So, I enjoyed that as a film and also as someone who sometimes goes to films and can be quite critical of the CG when we know how it's made. But that was something that wowed me.

What about realistic characters? How do you approach them? 

I mean, adding character to people, regardless of the level of realism, is what we're all trying to achieve. And I think there are a lot of ways to create realistic characters now, like scanning and casting someone and going through that process. That is generally the route that people take to kind of get the results quickly. I'm a fan of the skill involved in all types of characters and the variety of characters that we do is what I enjoy. But I think it's so easy to take a realistic character and just think it's just an average person, we'll just put them in a suit, straight, we don't need to think about it too much. But there's still the story behind that character and how we can represent that in their face, or the way that their suit is fitted, or how well their tie is tied.

You know, all those kinds of things that all add towards that character. A man in a suit can look like he runs the world, or he could look like he's just been fired and he's on the street. And so, there's a whole range, even just within that description, that I think you could approach it from.

As far as the kind of character I enjoy the most, there's a certain level of realism but with stylization that I think a lot of sculptors enjoy doing. Because you get to bring anatomy to it, but then break that anatomy in interesting ways. I think games like Dishonored did this well. And that's something that is always kind of fun to work on. Because you're still drawing on all of your understanding of anatomy and all of your skill in those areas, but you're able to kind of push things a little bit further, to amplify the character and any characteristics in there, and have fun with proportions and things like that.

What tips could you give to people willing to join your team? 

I think personally, for my team, for the character team, we always prioritize understanding form and anatomy in someone's portfolio. If someone knows how to sculpt and can sculpt forms in a way that convinces, then technically, you can teach them a lot. But it's much more difficult to teach those kinds of foundations. So, that's really important. And then, beyond that, if someone has kind of gotten to the point where they're having an interview with us, where we feel like their work is really good, attitude and how much of a team player they are, and how willing they are to learn and progress and push themselves, I think is something we look for.

Amy Ash, Head of Characters at Axis Studios

Interview conducted by Kirill Tokarev