Directed Study Week Starts Monday 6 Jan

Digital lighting

All our undergraduate students have a directed study week starting tomorrow, Monday January 6th. For our first year undergraduates, we have created an online project for all our students that will help them to learn about camera and lighting in Maya.

Lighting and camera are essential skills that will benefit all of our students during the course of their studies at Escape Studios.

Introduction to Camera and Lighting in Maya
This project has been designed by Jonathan McFall, Program Leader of VFX at Escape Studios, who also teaches our evening class in Character Creation which starts on 3 February 2020.

U Drive
Students can access the files in the U drive here:
U:\ug_2019-20\L4\zz400x_spring_term_cameras_and_lighting_intro_project

Lighting & Composition Tutorial

Jonathan McFall

Start by copying the Maya project folder called "Lighting & Composition Tutorial" and paste it into a new project folder on your computer, Then open Maya and set the project to that folder. You can then open up the project and start to learn how to experiment with lights and cameras in Maya.

You will also find a useful PDF in this folder:
U:\ug_2019-20\L4\zz400x_spring_term_cameras_and_lighting_intro_project

The PDF is a guide that will help you to structure how you progress over the course of the week. For example

• Day 1 Learn about the basics of lighting in Maya
• Day 2 Learn about the basics of cameras
• Day 3 Learn about Composition
• Day 4 Learn about Depth of Field

There are also links to some curated YouTube videos on the PDF which can be helpful if you are new to cameras and lighting in Maya.

Orson Wells' Citizen Kane - the art of composition

The art of film-making
During the directed study week all our students should experiment with the art of film-making in Maya. Take the skills you have learned in your Cinematography and Photography classes last year and apply them to Maya.

Work at Escape, or at home
Our first year undergraduate students are encouraged to attend Escape Studios to make use of our facilities. You can do this project from home, but it will be easier for you to access the software if you are at Escape.

Vimeo Channel
Students are also encouraged to make use of the many tutorial videos at our Vimeo Channel, which you can find here.

First Year at Escape Studios
To see more about what's in the first year at Escape Studios, follow this link.

To see what's in the second year at Escape, follow this link. To see more about the third year, click here. And to find out more about our 4th and final year, read this post.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our BA/MArt in 3D Animation, follow this link.  To apply for our MA in Storyboarding and Previsualisation visit this page here.  For the next 12 week animation course, click here.