Escapee wins Sports Emmy: Q&A with Anand Shukla

Is it possible to win an Emmy for one of your first industry jobs after graduating? Game Art Escapee and Escape Studios Studio Assistant Anand Shukla did exactly that - winning a Sports Emmy this year as part of the team behind For Mexico, For All Time, a short film in several parts shown in September 2024 at UFC 306 - a mixed martial arts event held in celebration of Mexican Independence Day. This was the first ever sporting event shown at the Las Vegas Sphere, meaning that the film was shown on the biggest LED screen in the world, and the project won two Sports Emmys: Outstanding Graphic Design - Specialty, which was awarded to Anand’s team, as well as Outstanding Studio or Production Design/Art Direction. Here he lets us know more about his work on this innovative project, and how his studies at Escape Studios helped him to get there. 

What did you study at Escape? 

I studied BA (Hons) The Art of Video Games for three years, and graduated in 2023. 

Can you tell us more about the project that your team won the Sports Emmy for? 

It was for the UFC 306, For Mexico, For All Time, Chapter 3 for Krygon Studios and Factory 15. That project was about the history of Mexico and how it relates to boxing (UFC). We brought together images to tell the story of Mexico and the UFC. The project was rendered in Unreal Engine and Chapter 3 takes you through a scene representing the Day of the Dead. What I contributed was a prop - a drum based on a traditional Mexican drum called a Teponaztli. This was a hero asset and because in the screening it would appear as big as a small room to the viewers, every detail mattered and it took a week. 

How did you get involved in the project? 

I got to meet Bradley Harris (CEO of Krygon) as part of a third-year mock interview. I stayed in touch with him on LinkedIn and asked for feedback on personal projects, and when UFC came up he asked me to work on it with him. Other Game Art students that also specialised in props and characters also interviewed with Bradley, and another Escapee became part of the team that won the Emmy. 

Can you tell us a bit about your other awards?  

I was a finalist for Rookie of the Year and Game of the Year in The Rookie Awards (Immersive Media) in 2024, and also was a finalist with my graduate portfolio for the Career Opportunities category in 2023. I was also an IG50 winner in 2023 – which I entered with my graduate portfolio as well. In second year I was part of a group project called Alexander the Great: The Making of a Myth with students from different years at Escape, which was featured in a Sky News article on interactive media and history. Escape Studios Deputy Principal, Simon Fenton gave us the brief – and we got paid. 

How did your experience as a student at Escape prepare you to work as part of an Emmy winning team?  

My specialism project in third year making a very realistic hero prop from reference gave me experience in this area. The sword I made matched a reference as closely as possible and took six-eight weeks, which helped me work on projects like this faster, and to work to an exact reference as this was my brief for UFC 306. I first got experience texturing a high amount of detail during my degree, and then needed to do this on a much larger scale for the Teponaztli drum. Bradley asked for it not to look like a game asset but a real object, so every pixel mattered. 

Would you say there are transferable skills from your course that you can use in different areas?  

There are a lot, because the UFC prop is a VFX prop for use in films, and is for the big screen, not a computer screen. I’ve also worked on another project with Krygon for Disney that is a virtual production set, similar to The Mandalorian and Superman, which use LED screens to make set backgrounds as realistic as possible. Another Escapee worked on this project with Krygon too. 

Are you working on any new projects? 

I’m currently working on Meet Mat 5 (a texturing competition for The Rookies). I’m also working on a small side project on a game with a team from Bournemouth University – but I can’t say much about it! The team is called Denix Studio and our game is in production right now. We want to make it as good as possible, tech wise and art wise, and make a friendly game for kids - similar to Astro Bot.

What is your advice for new students?

To keep working every day, to stay consistent with your projects, and to not forget about personal projects. Stick to it as well! Stay connected to people on LinkedIn - networking is important. Stay connected with people from Escape too, because you never know, they might be doing big things.  

Also, you need to put the time and effort into your work because if you don’t you won’t achieve big results. Always set mini deadlines for yourself so you are not doing it forever, as you might forget the project you set. So, work on one project at a time at a constant pace. Without hard work nothing will be achieved.

Always look at all the resources that are available to you like YouTube, recorded lectures at Escape, articles and even books, since these days you have access to a lot that is around you.

Another thing is to get feedback from not just people in the creative community, but from your family and people, so you know the ups and downs of your project and that it can appeal to any audience, not just the artists. Make sure to get feedback from your peers, creative Discord and social media, as this will boost your project and make a huge difference, as they might have a different viewpoint and idea of the project. This will give you motivation to keep pushing on.