THE managing director of Axis, the Glasgow-based animation agency, has insisted there is no shortage of standard of talent in Scotland's creative industries.
But he fears the sector does face a challenge in producing enough creative brains.
Richard Scott said the firm, based in the city's sprawling Skypark business district, taps into a bank of around 40 freelance specialists when working full steam on major projects.
That means the head count at the agency, whose credits include trailers for video games such as Halo on Xbox One and Need for Speed for Electronic Arts, can effectively double at times.
However, Mr Scott admits that it would be difficult to staff up if he was only able to bring in members of staff who come from Scotland. He said: "I think the challenge is maybe the volume of talent, rather than the quality of talent, that comes out of Scotland. If we can staff up with 40 freelance staff then the chances of finding 40 people who are Scottish or are based in Scotland are slim.
"But we do have a regular team of people we bring in freelance... and a lot of our full-time team come from Scotland."
There are three businesses under the Axis umbrella. There is Axis, its original animation studio, the visual effects studio Axis VFX, and Flaunt.
The latter is also focused on animation, but while Axis handles "action adventure type clients for films and video games, Flaunt works on material aimed at a family audience. Flaunt's clients include Disney and the Cartoon Network.
With the exception of Rockstar North, creator of the Grand Theft Auto series, he notes the involvement of Scottish companies has largely shifted from developing "big counsel" games to online, thanks to the "explosion in mobile, tablet and Facebook" gaming.
Mr Scott said: "Now a lot more are focused on that mobile space, with the exception of Rockstar and Grand Theft Auto blowing everybody else in entertainment out of the water with the biggest grossing franchise of all time."
The nature of Axis's work means the majority of its clients - are based in the US. Mr Scott said it is "slightly disappointing" the firm does not work more with Scottish-based clients, believing this is an "interesting dynamic, give that there are exciting things happening here in games and entertainment".
Asked why this is the case, he said it is "the nature of the entertainment industry. It's just where more of our clients are. It can be very focused on the west coast of America.
"It is not even other areas of America, especially the marketing, promotions, advertising element which we do. It's really a geography thing more than anything."
However he did note the growth of Axis' visual effects arm would allow it do more work in Scotland and elsewhere in the UK.
Axis has already established a "satellite" office in Bristol and Mr Scott said he may consider opening in other locations, noting that there is a glass ceiling on how further it can grow in Scotland on the basis of client location and the availability of talent.
Asked whether he would consider opening an office in the US, Mr Scott said: "I think it depends on what direction we take the strategy. I think if you want to be next to the clients then the west coast of America is the next logical step. If you want to be next to talent, maybe you look there, but talent is expensive so you maybe look at other places."
So far the company has made no acquisitions, and Mr Scott appears content that there is sufficient scope for the business to continue to grow organically.
Noting the three parts of the business "interlock really well", albeit animation will always remain the core element of operations, he added: "We plant to keep growing, pushing hard and keep being international and even more international.
"Our plan is to shift our business over time from being a 100 per cent service business to being about service but also [the] development of IP [intellectual] property, pushing that area forward. That's a different type of business and we need to make sure we do it right."
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