# Airship: full text of goairship.uk Generated from the live pages on 25 September 2026. For a summary see https://www.goairship.uk/llms.txt. ## Home 100+ artists · 82 titles since 2017 Award-winning art for games and interactive media. End-to-end content: characters, environments, grooms, cinematics and technical art. We have collaborated with some of the world's most ambitious studios. Send us a brief Get an embedded team All 82 titles → Core Your brief in. Finished assets out, in your engine. You send the brief and get back finished assets, on a milestone schedule you can hold us to. We aim to scope and price a project within 2 working days. You get a named team, an art director on our side who talks to yours so your notes travel once, and a producer accountable for both. If the scope changes, you see the price. Send us a brief Horizons Embed artists directly in your team. You get a shortlist in 2 working days. You interview, you choose your artist, and they work to your lead in your Slack and your stand-ups. We carry the employment, the kit and the holiday cover, so you sign a purchase order and nobody joins your payroll. Flat monthly fee, 30 days' notice. See who is available What we make Six disciplines in one studio. Most briefs use three or four of them. The work you can hand us. 01 Groom Real-time hair and fur, from a hero's strands to a creature's pelt, built with FibR, the groom tool we wrote. Horizon Forbidden West · Guerrilla Games 02 Characters Hero models and crowds, scanned or sculpted, delivered with the topology and LODs your engine expects. Silent Hill 2 Remake · Bloober Team 03 Environments Modular kits and hero locations, optimised for your platform on the first pass rather than the last. Hitman 3 · IO Interactive 04 Props and weapons Hard-surface assets with clean topology and textures, built to your acceptance criteria. Diablo IV · Blizzard Entertainment 05 Animation and cinematics Motion capture and in-engine cinematics, with the lighting and effects to match. Dune: Awakening · Funcom 06 Technical art Shaders and pipeline tooling for whatever is stopping your art team, ours included. Baldur's Gate 3 · Larian Studios What each discipline delivers → Case studies From libraries to whole games to bringing an indie title to the world, we have collaborated on some of the most ambitious projects in the industry. MetaHumans Epic Games The stock groom library inside Epic's MetaHumans: 27 cuts, plus beards, moustaches and eyebrows. Read the case study PGA Tour 2K25 HB Studios / 2K Sports Characters, environments, technical art and co-development on the most popular golf game, and our longest-running engagement. Read the case study Dumpster Gang Coyote House Games · Curve Games Two people came to us with a co-op game about raccoons. It did not need more art so much as the right art to take it to the next level. We worked with them start to finish, on the same terms as any other project, and we cannot wait for the release. Case study coming soon Behind the work The capabilities, people and policies you'll want to check before a call. Disciplines → Groom, characters, environments, props, animation and technical art. What each one delivers to you. Sectors → Games, simulation and training including defence, and interactive experiences from theme parks to cruise ships. Tools we wrote → FibR, WispR and Airdeck. We build our own tools to stay ahead of the curve. AI, governed → We take AI disclosure seriously: every project sandboxed, none of your data used for training, and paperwork and auditing behind it. AI or no AI, your decision is respected throughout. People → The people who run the studio, and the leads and artists who contribute to your game. Service Partner of the Year 2025, MCV/Develop. Studios whose titles carry our work. Tell us the brief, or the seat you need to fill. Send us a brief See who is available Book a 30-minute call Or write: hello@goairship.uk You'll hear back within a working day. ## Work The index Every game we have worked on, and what we made on it. 82 titles since 2017. We have contributed to some of the biggest and best games enjoyed by millions. Filter by discipline, or read our case studies. All Groom Characters Environments Props and weapons Animation and cinematics Technical art Newest first Case studies A deep dive on some of the projects we have written about. Baldur's Gate 3 Larian Studios 80 grooms across the game's races in 2019 and 2020, then the lighting on 354 scenes in 2023. Same studio, three years apart. Read the case study MetaHumans Epic Games The stock groom library inside Epic's MetaHumans: 27 cuts, plus beards, moustaches, goatees and eyebrows. Read the case study PGA Tour 2K25 HB Studios / 2K Sports 3,600+ assets across the base game and its season passes, built in Unity alongside HB's own team. Read the case study Dune: Awakening Funcom 20 artists taking on 17 cinematic sequences for the ambitious Dune project, over 3 months. Case study coming soon Diablo IV Blizzard Entertainment Characters and armour, layered sets, built to Blizzard's own material library. Case study coming soon Dumpster Gang Coyote House Games · Curve Games Two people came to us with a co-op game about raccoons. It did not need more art so much as the right art to take it to the next level. We worked with them start to finish, on the same terms as any other project, and we cannot wait for the release. Case study coming soon Year Title Studio · Publisher What we did The art, on ArtStation ↗ 2026 Star Wars Zero Company Bit Reactor / Lucasfilm Games / EA Weapons, Apparel 2025 Avowed Obsidian Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios Creatures, Groom 2025 Clockwork Revolution inXile Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios Characters, Groom 2025 Dune: Awakening Funcom Motion capture, Animation, Lighting, Cinematics, Rigging, Sound design, Visual effects 2025 Dying Light: The Beast Techland Groom 2025 Fable Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios Groom, Characters 2025 Ghost of Yōtei Sucker Punch Productions / Sony Groom 2025 Lost Records: Bloom & Rage Don't Nod Groom 2025 PGA Tour 2K25 Case study Case study HB Studios / 2K Sports Characters, Apparel, Environments, Groom, Props 2025 Polaris Polaris / GameMill Environments 2025 State of Decay 3 Undead Labs / Xbox Game Studios Groom 2025 The Outer Worlds 2 Obsidian Entertainment / Xbox Game Studios Characters, Creatures, Props 2025 World of Wings Vireo Games Environments 2024 Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Don't Nod / Focus Entertainment Art 2024 Concord Firewalk Studios / Sony Environments, Props 2024 Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Blizzard Entertainment Art 2024 Dragon Age: The Veilguard BioWare / EA Groom, Characters 2024 Hunt: Showdown (Post Malone Murder Circus) Crytek Groom 2024 Off The Grid Gunzilla Games Groom 2024 Pax Dei Mainframe Industries Characters, Groom 2024 Silent Hill 2 Remake Bloober Team / Konami Characters, Creatures, Environments 2024 Skull and Bones Ubisoft Singapore Groom 2024 Spectre Divide Mountaintop Studios Groom 2024 Star Wars: Hunters Zynga / Lucasfilm Games Characters 2024 Stellar Blade Shift Up Groom 2024 Still Wakes the Deep The Chinese Room / Secret Mode Characters, Creatures 2024 Tankhead DigiPen / LOAK Characters, Groom, Props 2024 The Casting of Frank Stone Supermassive Games / Behaviour Interactive Characters, Groom 2024 UFL Strikerz Inc. Characters, Animation 2023 Aliens: Dark Descent Tindalos Interactive / Focus Entertainment Characters, Groom 2023 Baldur's Gate 3 Case study Case study Larian Studios Groom, Lighting 2023 Diablo IV Blizzard Entertainment Characters, Weapons, Props 2023 EA Sports FC 24 EA Sports Characters, Groom 2023 F1 Manager 2023 Frontier Developments Groom 2023 Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores Guerrilla Games / Sony Art 2023 Horizon VR: Call of the Mountain Guerrilla Games, Firesprite / Sony Art 2023 Immortals of Aveum Ascendant Studios / EA Groom 2023 Metroid Prime Remastered Retro Studios / Nintendo Groom 2023 Redfall Arkane Austin / Xbox Game Studios Characters, Groom 2023 Silent Hill: Ascension Genvid Entertainment / Konami Art 2023 Starfield Case study Bethesda Game Studios Groom 2023 WWE 2K23 Visual Concepts / 2K Sports Groom 2022 F1 Manager 2022 Frontier Developments Groom 2022 FIFA 23 EA Sports Characters, Animation, Environments 2022 Gotham Knights WB Games Montreal Groom 2022 Horizon Forbidden West Guerrilla Games / Sony Groom 2022 PGA Tour 2K23 HB Studios / 2K Sports Animation, Characters, Apparel, Environments, Groom, Props 2022 Syberia: The World Before Microids Groom 2022 The Callisto Protocol Striking Distance Studios / Krafton Groom 2022 The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me Supermassive Games / Bandai Namco Characters, Environments, Props 2022 Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Fatshark Groom 2022 WWE 2K22 Visual Concepts / 2K Sports Groom 2021 Alan Wake Remastered Remedy Entertainment / Epic Games Characters, Groom 2021 Aliens: Fireteam Elite Cold Iron Studios / Focus Entertainment Art direction 2021 Crysis Remastered Trilogy Crytek / Saber Interactive Characters 2021 Destruction AllStars Lucid Games / Sony Art direction 2021 Forza Horizon 5 Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios Groom, Characters 2021 Halo Infinite 343 Industries / Xbox Game Studios Groom, Characters 2021 Hitman 3 IO Interactive Characters, Environments, Props 2021 I Am Fish Bossa Studios Characters, Environments, Props 2021 Madden NFL 22 EA Tiburon / EA Sports Groom, Art 2021 MetaHumans Case study Epic Games Groom 2021 The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes Supermassive Games / Bandai Namco Characters, Weapons, Groom 2020 Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Treyarch / Activision Groom 2020 Cyberpunk 2077 CD Projekt Red Art direction 2020 Drake Hollow The Molasses Flood Art direction 2020 Fall Guys Mediatonic / Epic Games Characters 2020 Fast & Furious: Crossroads Slightly Mad Studios / Bandai Namco Art direction 2020 Marvel's Avengers Crystal Dynamics / Square Enix Art direction 2020 Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered Insomniac Games / Sony Groom 2020 Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond Respawn Entertainment / EA Art direction 2020 Rogue Company First Watch Games / Hi-Rez Studios Characters, Groom 2020 Spider-Man: Miles Morales Insomniac Games / Sony Groom 2020 The Dark Pictures: Little Hope Supermassive Games / Bandai Namco Characters, Groom 2019 Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order Respawn Entertainment / EA Characters, Creatures, Environments 2019 Tom Clancy's The Division 2 Massive Entertainment / Ubisoft Characters, Groom 2018 Battlefield V EA DICE Groom 2018 Forza Horizon 4 Playground Games / Xbox Game Studios Clothing 2018 Hitman 2 IO Interactive Characters, Groom 2017 Destiny 2 Bungie Weapons 2017 Fortnite Epic Games Props 2017 Star Wars Battlefront II EA DICE Characters, Vehicles, Environments Airship is credited on 82 titles since 2017. Earlier credits are available on request. Tell us the title and the discipline. Send us a brief Get an embedded team Book a 30-minute call Or write: hello@goairship.uk You'll hear back within a working day. ## Services Services Six specialist disciplines. Send us your brief. You send the brief and get back finished assets, in your engine, on a milestone schedule you can hold us to. Send us a brief Book a 30-minute call We aim to scope and price within 2 working days. 01 Groom Real-time hair and fur, from a hero's strands to a creature's pelt, built with FibR, the groom tool we wrote, and the industry's own tools, XGen and Yeti among them. Groom is the discipline we are credited on across some of the biggest games, and our tools and pipeline are what make the volume affordable: FibR builds the level-of-detail ladder as the groom is made, and WispR, our texture tool, generates the card textures so no two grooms on your project share one. Our groom artists cover a wide range of styles, including Afro-textured hair, fantasy styles, and wet and greasy looks. Starfield · Bethesda Game Studios hair and facial hair Ghost of Yōtei · Sucker Punch Productions 49 period grooms for the cast and NPCs, and the wolf Baldur's Gate 3 · Larian Studios 80 grooms, from goblins to githyanki Forza Horizon 5 · Playground Games hair for the drivers ← → MetaHumans · Epic Games the stock groom library, 27 cuts with facial hair built to match 02 Characters Hero models and crowds, scanned or sculpted, delivered with the topology and LODs your engine expects. We build with your material library and your conventions from the first asset, because consistency across a game's characters has to be considered through the whole process rather than fixed at the end. Having built characters for games from stylised to realistic, we know what it takes to get a character into your engine and performing, ready for animation. Diablo IV · Blizzard Entertainment layered armour sets, built to Blizzard's material library The Outer Worlds 2 · Obsidian Entertainment characters and creatures The Outer Worlds 2 · Obsidian Entertainment characters and creatures PGA Tour 2K25 · HB Studios the players and their apparel ← → Alan Wake Remastered · Remedy Entertainment characters and their clothing Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order · Respawn Entertainment characters and creatures Silent Hill 2 Remake · Bloober Team characters and creatures Dragon Age: The Veilguard · BioWare heads, alongside the grooms 03 Environments Modular kits and hero locations, optimised for your platform on the first pass rather than the last. We work inside your engine alongside your team instead of exporting into it, and we aim to be part of that team: working with your level designers, gameplay designers and engineers so everything fits your pipeline, with far less of the back-and-forth outsourcing usually brings. PGA Tour 2K25 · HB Studios 1,300 environment assets across the courses, built in Unity with HB's team I Am Fish · Bossa Studios environments, props and characters ← → PGA Tour 2K23 · HB Studios courses and the world around them Hitman 3 · IO Interactive environments, with the characters and props in them Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order · Respawn Entertainment environments 04 Props and weapons Hard-surface assets with clean topology and textures, built to your acceptance criteria. Every weapon and prop is reviewed against those criteria and checked to hold up at any camera distance, and as it moves into surface detail we work to your style guide and the kind of game it is, so the whole prop and environment set stays consistent. Destiny 2 · Bungie weapons Destiny 2 · Bungie weapons Fortnite · Epic Games props ← → The Outer Worlds 2 · Obsidian Entertainment props PGA Tour 2K25 · HB Studios apparel and equipment for the players 05 Animation, cinematics and VFX Motion capture, animation and in-engine cinematics are a specialty Airship is less known for, and one we do very well. A cinematic brings many disciplines together, and our production team has run cinematic projects end to end, so we build the exact team to take yours from storyboard to final cut. Dune: Awakening · Funcom 17 cinematic sequences in about 3 months, from capture to the cut that shipped Dune: Awakening · Funcom 17 cinematic sequences in about 3 months, from capture to the cut that shipped ← → PGA Tour 2K23 · HB Studios an animation team of animators, technical animators and a lead, from 2021 to 2023 Scavengers · In development animation UFL · Strikerz Inc. animation and characters 06 Technical art Shaders and pipeline tooling for whatever your game and your team need. We have applied technical art across many projects, on its own and alongside our other disciplines: writing tools and software, building materials and shaders, and integrating assets into engines. If your team is missing a technical artist, this is the quickest way to bring in someone who will make your pipeline more efficient from the ground up. Baldur's Gate 3 · Larian Studios lighting on 354 scenes in 7 months, inside Larian's own engine Dune: Awakening · Funcom rigging, lighting and effects for the cinematics The tools we wrote → How it runs From your brief to finished assets in your engine. 01 Brief, quote and SOW Your brief sets out everything the work needs. We draft the quote, aiming for 2 working days, and a statement of work is in place before anything starts. 02 Two kick-offs Our team kicks off internally first, then with you. We walk you through the process and every review gate, and share the schedule. 03 Team, access and security We assign the team and introduce them, set up IT and security to your requirements, and run a test session on the remote setup before production starts. 04 Build to the first milestone The team works under our producers, leads and creative director, and the first milestone is where your bar gets set. 05 Review gates You approve each asset stage at a review gate, and which stages you sign off depends on the type of asset. 06 QA and into your engine We QA the work and integrate it directly into your engine, where our technical artists set up shaders, lighting and whatever else the asset needs. "Airship were integral to us completing PGA Tour 2K25. The quality of the visuals, the integration of the team, and the way your team went above and beyond was incredible." Peter Jones, Senior Production Director, HB Studios Questions Questions before you send a brief. What is the smallest job you'll take? One asset: a character, an environment, a mascot. It is quoted the same way as a hundred and goes through the same review. How soon could a team start? We aim for 2 weeks. We staff from our internal studio and our global team, and we keep a curated bench so we can scale up quickly. How do you price a brief? Per engagement, by discipline and by where the work is done: our UK studio, our global team, or a blend of the two. You get a price against each milestone, fixed-price milestones if you want them, and a per-asset price for a defined, repeatable batch. A change of scope is priced before it is built. Who owns the work? You do, from the moment it is made. It is in the contract, and it is not a clause we negotiate. What if an artist leaves mid-project? We replace them at our cost and manage the handover. The naming, rig standards and review history live in the tooling rather than in one person's head, which is what lets a three-year engagement survive a resignation. Will you work in our engine, to our conventions? Yes, and we would rather. We have delivered in Unreal, Unity and clients' own engines, and we take your toolset, naming and review cadence at the start, when adopting them is cheap. Do you use AI? We take AI disclosure seriously. We sandbox every project, never use your data for training, and back it with paperwork and audits, so whether your project uses AI or not, that decision is respected throughout. What about security and NDAs? NDAs as standard. We are Cyber Essentials certified with ISO 27001 in progress, and we already deliver under publishers' own security schedules, including vetting and audit rights. Do you work outside games? Yes. The same artists work on simulation and training, defence programmes included, and on interactive experiences such as theme parks and cruise ships, on the same terms. Sectors → Send us the brief, and you get back the team, the schedule and the price. You will hear from someone who would work on it within a working day. If you would rather have one of our artists inside your team than finished assets from ours, that is Horizons, and it has its own page. Send us a brief Book a 30-minute call See Horizons Or write: hello@goairship.uk You'll hear back within a working day. ## Horizons Horizons Our people. Part of your team. Senior artists in your Slack and your stand-ups, working to your lead. You pay a flat monthly fee on 30 days' notice. We carry the employment and the kit. You sign a purchase order, and nobody joins your payroll. See who is available What it costs Available this quarter Updated every week from our resourcing system. Ask for anyone by name, or for a discipline that isn't listed. Seat Seats Available Technical Art Lead 1 This quarter Enquire about this seat Senior UI Artist 1 This quarter Enquire about this seat 3D Modeller 3 This quarter Enquire about this seat Mid Animator 3 This quarter Enquire about this seat Senior Animator 1 This quarter Enquire about this seat Stylised Concept Artist 1 This quarter Enquire about this seat PGA Tour 2K25 · HB Studios · senior character, technical and environment artists The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered · technical artists, embedded with Virtuos Guild Wars 3 · ArenaNet Seats we fill Any of these at mid, senior, lead or principal. If your seat isn't here, ask. Characters and creatures Character Artist · Creature Artist · Hair and Groom Artist · Cloth Sim Artist · Rigger Environments Environment Artist · Foliage Artist · Material Artist · Lighting Artist · Matte Painter Props and weapons Prop Artist · Hard Surface Artist · Weapon Artist · Vehicle Artist Animation and cinematics Animator · Creature Animator · Facial Animator · Cinematic Animator · Motion Capture Specialist · Storyboard Artist Concept and UI Concept Artist · UI Artist · Marketing Artist Technical art Technical Artist · Pipeline TD · Shader Artist · Tools Developer Art production Art Director · Animation Director · Producer · Associate Producer · Outsourcing Manager Bands Mid, senior, lead or principal. Priced by band and by where the seat sits. How it works 01 You tell us the seat A paragraph is enough. Discipline, seniority, engine, start date and how long. 02 You get a shortlist in 2 working days People already in our curated network. Each with shipped credits matched to your requirements, with costs and portfolios up front. 03 You interview, you choose Our producer sits in if you want. If nobody fits, we say so. 04 They start, on our kit, in your team A flat monthly fee against a purchase order. Nobody joins your payroll. They're in your Slack and your stand-ups, working to your lead, with our employment, kit and cover behind them. 05 30 days' notice, either way If the fit is wrong, we swap the person and keep the thread. If the project outgrows one desk, the overflow comes back to our studio. What it costs One flat monthly fee, per seat. One flat monthly fee per artist, priced by discipline, seniority and where the seat sits. We aim to be competitive with hiring in-house, with no recruitment fee, no employee notice period and no headcount on your books. Horizons seats typically run 6 to 12 months. Request a quote Why not a recruiter A recruiter charges about 20% of a year's salary, once. We charge a flat month, for as long as you need the seat. Nobody joins your payroll. 30 days' notice runs both ways. Your hires come from our global team and the network we have built up over years. Everyone goes through a careful vetting process, so you get the best and most appropriate people for your project, and never anyone from a client's own team. If you want a permanent hire, use a recruiter. For anything shorter, the flexibility of Horizons costs you less and carries less risk than a permanent hire. Enquire about a seat Goes to bd@goairship.uk. You'll hear back within a working day with who is free and a monthly figure. Seat Name Studio Email Start date For how long Anything else Send enquiry “Working with the team at Airship was a great experience. They slotted in seamlessly with the team here, contributed significantly to the product, and brought with them a spirit of innovation, attention to detail, and a passion to deliver exactly what we needed.” Klaudia Kovacs , Lead Artist, Bossa Games Hiring in the UK Boots on the ground in the UK, and the work qualifies for the Video Games Expenditure Credit: up to 34% back on qualifying UK spend when the seat is with Airship. Our network of UK talent is extensive, so we are in the best position to build a UK-based team for you. Tell us the seat. You'll get a shortlist you can interview. See who is available Or send a brief instead Book a 30-minute call Or write: hello@goairship.uk You'll hear back within a working day. ## Sectors Sectors Games taught us to build worlds on a deadline. The rest followed. The same artists, pipeline and quality gates now serve simulation and training, defence programmes among them, and interactive experiences. What changes is how you buy capacity and what controls sit around it. Talk to us about a programme Security and controls 01 Games Where we started and still most of the work. What we build Characters, environments, groom, props, animation and technical art, to your style guide and budget. Engines Unreal, Unity, and your own engine where you give us the tools. How it is bought A brief priced against a milestone schedule, or embedded seats on a flat month. Proof 100+ artists, credited on 82 shipped titles since 2017. Baldur's Gate 3 · Larian Studios · 80 grooms 02 Simulation and training Real-time art that has to hold up at arm's length, for hours, including defence programmes that carry a security schedule. What we build Training environments, vehicles and equipment, trainee and civilian characters, and in-engine sequences that brief a scenario, all built to the bar of a shipped title with fidelity held where your user actually looks. Engines Unreal 5, and Unity where the trainer already runs on it. How it is bought Monthly capacity, not a price per asset, so your library grows at a rate the programme can absorb. For defence work, UK-only delivery and a named, vetted team agreed before mobilisation. Examples Shared under NDA on request. Flight training simulator 03 Interactive experiences Attractions people walk into, where the art runs live in front of an audience every day. What we build Characters, environments and real-time scenes for rides, theme parks, cruise ships and walk-in experiences. Engines Unreal 5 and Unity, built to the hardware the venue actually runs. How it is bought A brief priced against a milestone schedule that works back from your opening date. Proof Becoming Iron Man, and experiences for cruise ships and theme parks. Projection dark ride Security and controls If your programme carries a security schedule, these are the controls it attaches to. Each is evidenced on request. Personnel Named artists, vetted before mobilisation. Employed by Airmergent, not subcontracted. Location Agreed before the quote and written on every statement of work. Restricted work stays in the UK or an approved region. Access Least privilege per project. Your toolchain where you require it. Access revoked when a person rotates off. Data Your material held separately per engagement, retained and destroyed to your schedule. AI Your written approval before any use, revocable. Nothing of yours trains a model. The full policy is published. Intellectual property Outputs vest with you on creation. If your ownership is ever threatened, we remake the work by hand at our cost. Continuity A UK limited company, insured. Replacement at our cost if a pick is wrong. Evidence An evidence pack and the process archive, on request under NDA. Why a games studio A training simulator that has to hold a scene at frame rate for an hour is the same problem as a game that requires smooth performance. We've been solving problems like this since 2010. Game tech and game studios are the best place to solve the challenges of simulation and interactive experiences. We build the pipelines that run this work, asset libraries for surveying architectural builds or factories, and one-to-one products for shoe companies that need to see their products in environments, or in AR or VR. Tell us the programme. You'll hear how we'd staff it. Talk to us about a programme Or request the capability pack Book a 30-minute call Or write: hello@goairship.uk You'll hear back within a working day. ## About About An art and tech-art studio, 16 years in. 100+ artists, most of them remote. A studio in Malvern. A habit of writing the tools we use. Airship is an art and tech-art studio of 100+ artists, founded in 2010 and based in Malvern, Worcestershire. We create and co-develop content for games and interactive experiences. We write our own tools and pipelines rather than buying them off the shelf, which is what keeps our clients coming back, game after game. We're set up to build the best teams and manage your project entirely in-house, or embed that team directly in yours for as long as the work lasts. Since 2010 2010 Founded by Joe Harford as a character art studio, after working in some of the top game studios in the world. 2020 150 people. 2023 100 people, and major co-development projects land. 2025 MCV/Develop Service Partner of the Year. 2026 Launched Horizons, our embedded teams, which quickly grew to 50% of our work. The three who run the studio Joe Harford Founder and CEO Started as an artist and still writes tools. Hands-on with overseeing project quality, art director on numerous titles, and an award-winning entrepreneur. Best 3x3 time: 17 seconds. Golf, coding and hot chocolate nerd. Simon Hope Commercial Director 25 years placing skilled people into game studios, so he has seen most of the ways things go right and wrong. Ask for a seat and Simon will help you find the right fit. Film buff and very amateur golfer. Runs 10k before any of us have frothed our milk. Viki Freeman Chief Operating Officer Ran operations and scaling consulting at XR Games, Team17 and many others. Owns the studio's operations, pipeline and people, and makes sure the pipeline and the culture hold as the studio grows. Future Bake Off contestant and interior design geek. How we work Remote first, with a studio in Malvern. Learning and development is part of the job, not a perk. We pride ourselves on being a fair and equitable employer, with a competitive and generous benefits package. We hire on character as well as talent, and believe good work comes from treating our team with respect and giving everyone, in every role, what they need to succeed. The long version is on Careers . Tools we wrote FibR for groom, WispR for its textures, and Airdeck, which runs the studio. Service Partner of the Year 2025, MCV/Develop. Studios whose titles carry our work. Two ways to work with us. One studio behind both. Send us a brief See who is available hello@goairship.uk ## AI, governed AI, governed We can tell you how every asset was made, and show you the record. Don't take the policy on trust. Ask us for the evidence: the tool list, the vendor terms, and a chain-of-custody record for an asset you pick. Why this is the question now Outright bans on AI are giving way to disclosure terms in the contracts we're asked to sign. Your question has changed with them, from whether we use AI to whether we can say what's in the file. Several studios have shipped titles carrying AI artefacts nobody decided to put there, then had to patch and explain. None of it was strategy; each was a gap in review, and a policy doesn't close one. A process does. What that means in practice 01 A reviewed tool list, with the vendor terms behind it Not a list of what we like. A list of what's been read, negotiated and approved, each under an agreement that meets your confidentiality, security, IP and no-training terms. Most tools don't pass. 02 Chain of custody on every deliverable Who made it, which tools touched it, what reference was used, what a human authored. Ask how any single asset was made and the answer comes with the record attached. 03 A clean room around your material Your IP never enters a third-party model, directly or indirectly, aggregated or not. Deletion certified in writing when you ask. 04 Records that survive an audit Documented diligence per deliverable. A named human reviewer accountable for each pass. The file available to you on reasonable notice. The five rules 01 Written approval first, and revocable Before any AI touches your project we ask, in writing, and record the answer. You can say no, yes, or yes with conditions such as human review, limited data access or watermarking. You can withdraw the yes at any point. We re-ask when anything material changes. 02 Tools under terms at least as protective as yours Every AI tool we use sits under a written agreement that protects your material at least as well as your contract with us does. If a tool can't give us that, we don't use it on your work, whatever it would save. 03 Nothing of yours trains a model Not your reference, not your briefs, not what we make for you. No model of ours or anyone else's learns from it, even anonymised or aggregated. It's the rule with no exceptions. 04 Marked deliverables and a kept record Any deliverable that used AI is marked, with the human and AI parts identified. We keep the prompts, references and process on file, and hand them to you on request. 05 If ownership is ever at risk, we redo it If an AI output ever threatens your ability to own the work outright, we tell you, and we remake it by hand at our cost. Ask any vendor for these four Including us. It's the fastest way to find out whether a studio has done this work or written a paragraph about it. 01 Your tool allowlist, and the vendor terms behind each one. 02 A chain-of-custody record for one specific asset that you choose. 03 Your no-training clause, written into the contract. 04 What happens, in writing, if an output threatens our ownership. Where we already work to this One of our largest clients writes a full AI addendum into its master agreement: prior approval, tool-vendor terms, an absolute training prohibition, marking and explainability, documented diligence, indemnity and audit rights. We've delivered under it for 2 years. The standard is the publisher's, and it's a higher bar than we'd have set ourselves. The compliance spine underneath it already existed: Cyber Essentials certified, TPN in renewal, ISO 27001 in progress. AI governance was bolted onto that spine, and this page describes it. Where we use it, and where we do not With approval, never on the final asset unmarked Reference gathering, blockout and layout exploration, texture variation through WispR, our own tool, and the parts of a pipeline that check work without producing any. Where a studio says no None of it happens on your work, and every artist on the project is told so in writing. A prohibition that lives only in a contract isn't a prohibition. Why we publish it Because the honest answer to your legal team is a process they can inspect, not a promise they have to take. Several clients have written their own AI terms into our contracts. This is the policy that lets us sign them, and it's the same for everyone. If yours is stricter, send it and we'll work to it. Ask for the policy, or send us yours to sign. Request the AI policy Send us a brief Book a 30-minute call Or write: hello@goairship.uk You'll hear back within a working day. ## Careers Careers We hire people who care about the detail nobody else notices. Remote first, with a studio in Malvern if you want one. Credits on games you've played. Mentoring that's part of the job, not a perk. What we look for 01 You finish things properly You won't hand something over until it's right, even when nobody would have caught it. 02 You share what you know Honest feedback, given early, to juniors and seniors alike. The studio gets better because you're in it. 03 You think past the task You know how the asset sits in the project, how the project sits with the client, and what the client is nervous about this week. 04 You lean into change New engine, new client, new tool, new pipeline. You're the one who reads the docs first. 05 You are good to work with Kind, direct and reliable. We hire people we'd want in the room on a bad day. How we work Remote first, with a studio in Malvern Most of the studio works from wherever they do their best work. The office is there if you want one, and for the days your team needs a room. Mentoring is part of the job Seniors make the people around them better, and the studio is measured on whether they did. We want you better next year than this. We hire on character first Talent gets you the interview. Being kind, direct and useful to the people next to you gets you the job. Groom work in progress In the studio At work Benefits For UK employees. Flexible working A compressed week, a nine-day fortnight, or hours you set with your lead. 25+ days' holiday Plus holiday buy-back, and bank holidays you can swap for days that suit you. Duvet days and your birthday Two duvet days a year with no reason needed, and your birthday off. Summer hours One or two early finishes a week through the summer. Private medical and dental Bupa medical cover and private dental. Family leave Enhanced maternity and paternity leave, and parental leave. Sick, menstrual and menopause leave Paid sick leave, and leave for menstrual and menopause symptoms. Recovery time Later starts after events and long-haul travel, and time off in lieu for weekend work. Tech scheme and gym discounts Spread the cost of kit, and pay less for the gym. Open roles Nothing here that fits? Send a portfolio anyway. Most of the studio arrived that way. Role Discipline Where Salary Technical Generalist Technical art · Mid or Senior Remote £48k–£52k Apply Senior Environment Artist Environments · Senior Remote £34k–£38k Apply Senior Character Artist Characters · Senior Remote £34k–£38k Apply Send a portfolio. Tell us what you want to be better at next year. Apply hello@goairship.uk ## Contact Contact Tell us what you need. Within a working day you'll hear how we'd do it. Two ways to work with us. Pick the one that fits you best, or let's discuss on a call. Core · send a brief Your brief in. Finished assets out, in your engine. Name Studio Email What you need Timeline Attach a brief Send Horizons · ask for a seat Our people. Part of your team. Name Studio Email The seat: discipline, seniority, engine Start date and for how long Send Rather talk first? Book 30 minutes with Joe or Simon. Pick a slot and tell us what you're working on. No brief needed. However you get in touch, you'll hear back within a working day. Book a call Email hello@goairship.uk Work Airship on ArtStation ↗ Studio The Barn, Blackmore Park Road Malvern WR14 6PH ## Case study: Baldur's Gate 3 Case study · Larian Studios · 2019–2023 Baldur's Gate 3 We took 80 grooms to final for Larian, from human beards to goblins, githyanki and three of the companions, before the game entered Early Access. Two and a half years later they hired us again for something else: cutscene lighting on 354 scenes, in their own engine. Studio Larian Studios Shipped August 2023, PC, PS5, Xbox What we did Groom, cutscene lighting Engagement Core: groom 2019–20, lighting 2023 Baldur's Gate 3. Image © Larian Studios. The brief Larian needed range without the look coming apart. A goblin's hair had to look unkempt and nasty, a harpy's and an ogre's had nothing human to borrow from, and the human cast ran from short beards to long curls, yet every style had to sit in the same game and inside a triangle budget set per style, 20,000 for a short cut and 30,000 for a long one. The lighting brief in 2023 carried a different risk: working inside Larian's own engine, on cutscenes that were already built, in the last seven months before launch. What we did We built the grooms as hair cards in FibR, our own Maya tool, and took each one through blockout, mid-production and final, with Larian's notes coming in from the blockout onwards, while a change of silhouette was still cheap. The triangle count was checked against the style's budget at every internal review alongside the look, so a style that crept over (one short cut came in at 22,044 against 20,000) went back to the artist from our own review. On the lighting, the first two months went on learning Larian's engine and lighting a pilot scene, and production scenes started in March, so the learning happened on a scene nobody was going to ship. How it ran 01 Blockout Silhouette and volume only, reviewed before any detail went in, so Larian's first notes landed when acting on them cost least. 02 Mid-production Cards laid and textured, with the triangle count measured against that style's budget at every review rather than discovered at the end. 03 Final and polish 80 styles taken to final between April 2019 and July 2020, with an extra polish pass on the ones that needed another round. 04 Lighting, 2023 A lighting test and a pilot scene in Larian's engine, then 354 cutscenes lit between March and July, each closed with a written lighting summary. What shipped 80 grooms at final: 57 human, 11 of them beards, 7 goblin, 7 githyanki, 2 elf, and one each for a gnome, a harpy, an ogre and a tiefling, plus the hair for Lae'zel, Astarion and Shadowheart. Then 354 lit cutscenes, the last of them logged the week before the PC launch of a game that went on to win Game of the Year in 2023. Airship were an integral part of developing Baldur's Gate 3. They delivered exceptional hairstyles and were great to work with. Spencer Low , Director, Business Development and Special Projects, Larian Studios Also in the credits Starfield 2023 · Groom PGA Tour 2K25 2025 · Characters, Apparel, Environments, Groom, Props Diablo IV 2023 · Characters, Weapons, Props Ghost of Yōtei 2025 · Groom A cast this varied, inside your budget. Send us a brief See the full index Book a 30-minute call Or write: hello@goairship.uk You'll hear back within a working day. ## Case study: PGA TOUR 2K25 Case study · HB Studios PGA Tour 2K25 More than three and a half thousand assets for HB Studios and 2K Sports across the base game and its season passes: branded apparel, licensed courses, equipment, player likenesses, grooms and effects, built in Unity alongside the client's own team. Studio HB Studios Shipped February 2025 What we did Characters, Environments, Props, Hair & Groom Assets 3,625 Team at peak 29 artists Engagement since May 2023, still running Pebble Beach. Airship work on PGA Tour 2K25, from our own portfolio. Images © HB Studios. The brief HB Studios needed a partner capable of creating hyperrealistic character work that could bring real pros like Tiger Woods and Matt Fitzpatrick to life in-game, while maintaining visual consistency and avoiding the uncanny valley effect. The scope included full courses with environmental assets, plus detailed apparel visible from player perspectives. What we did We used a mixture of tools and scan data to ensure high accuracy during character development. The core workgroup remained mostly the same throughout the process to maintain consistent style. Our team worked directly in Unity with HB Studios, enabling rapid feedback on visual iterations. We also innovated around player perspectives and apparel visibility, particularly from behind, where detail still mattered for immersion. Hair and groom. Clubhouse. Branded apparel. Apparel. Creating New Workflows We worked in Unity alongside HB Studios rather than exporting into it, so a visual note could be answered the same day instead of at the next delivery. Adopting a client's toolset costs us a fortnight at the start of an engagement and saves a great deal more than that across two years of it. Keeping in Touch Daily standups with HB Studios set each day's goals, and our artists had weekly training alongside them, so a convention agreed in a meeting reached the whole team the same week. What shipped 3,625 assets and counting: 1,900 of them apparel, 1,300 environment, and the rest equipment, characters, grooms and effects, from a team that peaked at 29 and has been on the title since May 2023. It follows the same partnership that delivered PGA Tour 2K23, and the core group stayed together across both, which is why apparel on a 2K25 golfer sits in the same visual language as apparel on a 2K23 one. Airship were integral to us completing PGA Tour 2K25. We couldn't have done it without you. The quality of the visuals, the integration of the team, and the way your team went above and beyond was incredible. Peter Jones , Senior Production Director, HB Studios Also in the credits Baldur's Gate 3 2023 · Groom, Lighting MetaHumans 2021 · Groom Dune: Awakening 2025 · Motion capture, Animation, Lighting, Cinematics, Rigging, Sound design, Visual effects Guild Wars 3 · Groom, Environments, Characters, Props, Weapons Volume like this, on your schedule. Send us a brief See the full index Book a 30-minute call Or write: hello@goairship.uk You'll hear back within a working day. ## Case study: Starfield Case study · Bethesda Game Studios Starfield 64 grooms for Bethesda's Starfield across the base game and the Shattered Space expansion: 53 hairstyles and 11 beards, every one built to deform with the face and to survive a helmet. Studio Bethesda Game Studios Shipped September 2023 What we did Hair & Groom Assets 64 Team at peak 5 artists Engagement four and a half years, base game and DLC Groom, Starfield. Airship work on Starfield, from our own portfolio. Images © Bethesda Game Studios. The brief Two problems on top of the usual one. A creator groom has to sit on any face a player builds, which is hard enough. This one also had to move, because Starfield's faces emote, and it had to survive being put inside a space helmet, because most of the game is spent in one. A hairstyle that looks right on a static bare head and then intersects a visor is not finished. What we did We built morph targets alongside the grooms rather than afterwards (61 of the tasks on this project are morphs), so each cut deforms with the face it sits on instead of floating over it. Helmet and hat variants were authored as part of the same asset, so the game can swap to a compressed version when headgear goes on rather than clipping through it. Groom. Groom. Groom. Beards. Hair that has to move Starfield's faces emote, so a groom that is only correct at rest is only half a groom. Morph targets were built alongside each style rather than retro-fitted, which is why sixty-one of the tasks on this project are morphs and why the hair sits on the face rather than hovering above it. Hair that has to fit inside a helmet Most of Starfield is played in a spacesuit. Every cut needed a variant that compresses under headgear, authored as part of the same asset, because the alternative is a visor with a fringe coming through it. It is the least glamorous requirement on the project and the one a player would notice first. Four and a half years, two releases The work started in 2019 and ran to 2024, through launch and into the Shattered Space expansion. Grooms built in the fourth year had to match grooms built in the first, so the conventions (card layout, level-of-detail steps, naming) were settled once at the start and inherited by everything after. What shipped 64 grooms delivered across four and a half years and two releases: 53 hairstyles and 11 pieces of facial hair, each with its cards, its volume pass, its morph targets and its headgear variant. Also in the credits Baldur's Gate 3 2023 · Groom, Lighting MetaHumans 2021 · Groom PGA Tour 2K25 2025 · Characters, Apparel, Environments, Groom, Props Dune: Awakening 2025 · Motion capture, Animation, Lighting, Cinematics, Rigging, Sound design, Visual effects Work like this, for your title. Send us a brief See the full index Book a 30-minute call Or write: hello@goairship.uk You'll hear back within a working day. ## Case study: MetaHumans Case study · Epic Games MetaHumans 52 styles for Epic's MetaHuman library, built as hair cards that match the strand groom closely enough that the switch between them doesn't show, from LOD0 all the way down to LOD4. Studio Epic Games Shipped April 2021 onward, in MetaHuman Creator What we did Hair cards, textures, LODs Styles 52 Team at peak 12 Engagement Core, 2020 to 2024 MetaHumans. Image © Epic Games. The brief Every other groom on this site was fitted to one character. These go into a system: MetaHuman Creator lets a user reshape the head, and the style has to follow it. Each style also exists twice. The strand groom sets the look and is what a high-end machine renders up close, the cards are what everything else runs, and the engine swaps from one to the other as the camera pulls back. If the cards differ from the strands in silhouette, density or curl, the hair visibly changes at the swap, and a user sees it every time the camera moves. What we did We built the card version of every style, and for some of them the strand groom as well; the rest were matched to Epic's strands. Each started with LOD0 cards and textures, reviewed side by side with the strands, then four lower levels of detail, reviewed again as a set. Coverage maps were made at more than one density so the thin and thick parts of a style read the same on cards as they do in strands. The test Epic applied was the match rather than the look in isolation, which is harder because it has a right answer, and 76 rounds of feedback went into the library, most of them about a hairline, a curl or a density that had drifted from the strands. Built for a head we would never see A character groom is fitted to one sculpt. A MetaHuman style sits on whatever head a user builds, so the hairline has to hold as the head changes shape, and it has to hold at the extremes rather than on an average face, because the ends of the sliders are where people play. The switch has to be invisible A style can look right at every level in a still and fail anyway, because the fault only shows in motion: a pop when strands hand over to cards, or the outer edge of an eyebrow jumping between LOD2 and LOD4. So the reviews were animated comparisons with the strands alongside, and a level wasn't finished until the transition into it was clean. A library gets maintained In 2022 the base head the styles are fitted to was updated, and styles already built on the old head were refitted to the new one. In 2023 ten styles already in the library came back for another full round of feedback and LODs. A library outlives its first release, so the second and third passes are part of the job, and we have done them. What shipped 62 deliveries: 52 styles (27 cuts, 16 beards, moustaches and goatees, and 9 sets of eyebrows) plus 10 of those rebuilt in 2023, delivered as cards, textures and LODs. The work ran from August 2020 through 2023, with a last round of fixes in September 2024, and peaked at 12 people in a month. Also in the credits Baldur's Gate 3 2023 · Groom, Lighting PGA Tour 2K25 2025 · Characters, Apparel, Environments, Groom, Props Dune: Awakening 2025 · Motion capture, Animation, Lighting, Cinematics, Rigging, Sound design, Visual effects Guild Wars 3 · Groom, Environments, Characters, Props, Weapons Send us the strands. We'll build cards that match. Send us a brief See the full index Book a 30-minute call Or write: hello@goairship.uk You'll hear back within a working day.