Axis Animation behind Halo 4 episodic CGI

Glasgow animation outfit Axis has parternered with 343 Industries on the Halo 4 episodic series Spartan Ops.

The company has created cutscenes and other CGI elements for the first season of Spartan Ops, which offers weekly releases of a game based around the extended adventures of Halo vessel UNSC Infinity.

Spartan Ops consists of ten animated episodes, offering over 1,200 CGI animated shots, and is being directed by Axis Animation’s co-founder and tech director Stuart Aitken.

“Spartan Ops was an absolutely unique project, with a unique schedule and unique challenges,” said Frank O’Connor, franchise development director at 343 Industries. “Axis stepped up to those challenges with imagination and energy, and more importantly, a wonderfully collaborative vision of the story we wanted to tell. Working with our writers, our cinematics team, and a dizzying plethora of tools and assets, they became a seamless extension of our narrative group – and we look forward to continuing our relationship and creative partnership in the future.”

“What makes this such an incredible opportunity is that this is full CGI movie-style storytelling and character development within the rich and exciting world of Halo,” added Aitken. “We’ve collaborated at every level with 343 Industries throughout the process to create a truly immersive cinematic experience.”

Working on the series pushed Axis Animation to embrace several new challenges, including working with motion-capture to cover a range of character scales from 5.5ft to 14ft, to pushing its facial animation with a custom solution built in conjunction with Giant Studios and Cubic Motion.

For audio Axis worked with Savalas, a previous collaborator on the sensationally popular Dead Island trailer.