"Aztlan" Wins "Best Super Short" at Int'l Gold Awards

The Lost City of Aztlan wins "Best Super Short" Award  

Congratulations to the makers of The Lost City of Aztlan, which has won "Best Super Short" at the International Gold Awards.  

Directed by Mariam Hussein and produced by Michael Vodden, this short film about a long-hidden Mayan civilisation was created by our VFX students as part of their final graduation project.  

Filmed on location in Chislehurst Caves in South East London, this is its first film festival award.

BT Tower Destruction - Top 10 Escape VFX Shots

BT Tower destruction

This BT Tower destruction shot is one of our all-time favourite VFX shots created at Escape Studios.  

Over the years our students have detonated many global landmarks (digitally of course) including Big Ben, Greenwich Maritime, The City of London, An Italian Campanile, a Football Stadium, an unfortunate Tube Train and countless London backstreets blown up and exploded.  

Sofia Caldeira Celebrates "Wicked" & Gladiator"

Sofia Caldeira celebrates two new releases

Congratulations to Escapee Sofia Caldeira who is celebrating the simultaneous release of two new films, Wicked and Gladiator, that Sofia worked on at The Third Floor, one of the UK's leading previsualisation houses. 

Sofia Caldeira took our Evening Class in Character Creation at Escape Studios, and also our Evening Class in 3D VFX.

Sofia Caldeira is one of a number of Escapees to start their careers with The Third Floor.

Previsualisation is a growing area of animation and VFX pre-production, as artists work with directors to lock down the look and feel of a project at an early stage.

Maria Robertson Animator at Spliced Animation

Maria Robertson

Many congratulations to Escape Studios undergraduate animation student Maria Robertson who is working as an animator at Spliced Animation Studio in Manchester. 

Maria Robertson studied the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios, graduating with a First-Class Degree.  While at Escape, Maria also worked on a number of award-winning short films, including Home Sweet Home, Planet Mars and Minuet.

Charlie Wilson Joins Framestore as Environment TD

Escapee Charlie Wilson

Congratulations to Escapee Charlie Wilson who has joined London VFX house Framestore as an Environment TD.  

Charlie Wilson studied the Art of Visual Effects at Escape Studios.  While studying with us, he directed two award-winning short films: DANS and Outpatient. 

Environment TDs create photo-real digital environments for high end visual effects shots through the use of digital tools and techniques. 

Four Escape Student Films in Animex Film Festival

Four Films Selected for Animex Film Festival

We're delighted to congratulate our students on having four short films accepted into this year's Animex Film Festival. 

Animex is an annual international film festival of animation, VFX and games which takes place at Middlesborough Town Hall in North Yorkshire.  This year Animex runs from 11-15 November 2024. 

2024 Escape Studios' VFX Showreel

We're proud to present our 2024 VFX demo reel from Escape Studios, featuring the best work created by our students over the past year.  Visual Effects is at the heart of what we do; it's where we began over twenty years ago when Escape Studios was first founded to bridge the gap between the needs of industry for studio ready talent, and the ability of schools and HE institutions to teach the necessary skills. Enjoy our students' latest VFX fabulousness.

Mad Scramble Run Animation Tutorial with "Monty"

Cartoony run and smear frame exit with Monty

In this new animation tutorial we show how to animate a cartoony "mad scramble" run and smear frame exit with Monty, the green pea.  

It's a simple tutorial aimed at animation beginners, and covers runs, jumps and smear frames.  We'll also need to do some attaches and parenting (for Monty's hat) basic lighting in Arnold and learn how to add motion blur to the final render.

Why Do We Do Group Projects at Escape Studios?

Studio Projects at Escape

Why do we do so many group projects at Escape Studios? It's a question many students ask, because at Escape Studios there is a significant focus on group, or "Studio Projects" as we call them. 

We don't do Studio Projects because they are easy, we do them because they are hard.  The animation and visual effects industries are a team sport, and it's vital that we prepare our students for the realities of working in - and for - a team.  And this means figuring how to work successfully with other people in the workplace. 

"Checkmate" Wins "Best Super Short" in London

"Checkmate" wins "Best Super Short" in London

Congratulations to the makers of the short animated film "Checkmate", which has won "Best Super Short" at the London Movie Awards.

Checkmate was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects.  

Checkmate was directed by Cara Masters and produced by Erminas Surgautas.  This is its second festival award. 

Render Motion Blur in Maya and Arnold

How to Render Motion Blur in Maya and Arnold:  This very simple and very short tutorial shows how to turn on Motion Blur in the Arnold Renderer in Autodesk Maya.  Why would we want to turn on motion blur? Because when we have very fast action, we almost always want motion blur; this simulates how our eyes actually see things in real life. 

Escapee Jake Newton VFX Lead at Vine FX

Jake Newton VFX Lead at Vine FX

We're proud to congratulate Escapee Jake Newton who has been promoted to VFX Lead at Vine FX, one of London's leading VFX houses.

Jake Newton graduated from Escape Studios with an MArt (First Class) in The Art of Visual Effects.  While studying at Escape Studios Jake worked on a number of award-winning films, including the vfx short "Draw", which has won many festival awards, and on which Jake served as the VFX Lead. 

2024 Escape Studios 3D Animation Demo Reel

We're proud to present our 2024 Escape Studios Animation Demo Reel, a selection of the best animation completed at Escape Studios over the past year.  This year Animation Career Review ranked us #3 for Animation in the UK, #8 for Animation in Europe and #17 for Animation Internationally.  To see more student work at Escape Studios, follow this link. 

Carine Ong Producer at Apple TV

Carine Ong

Many congratulations to Escapee Carine Ong who has joined MPC as a VFX Associate Producer.

MPC is one of the UK's longest-established VFX and animation houses; responsible for blockbuster hits such as The Lion King and The Jungle Book.

Carine  took our Evening class in 3D VFX ("VFX Foundation") at Escape Studios - joining the growing number of Escapees working in production roles across VFX, animation and games.

"Father's Blade" Wins "Best Design" Award at EEFF

Congratulations to the makers of the short film "Father's Blade", which has won an Honourable Mention in the category of Best Production Design at the Eastern Europe Film Festival.

"Father's Blade" was directed by Thomas Husband and produced by Hugo Whitworth; the editor was Alfie Williams and the lead animator was Brandon Rai.   

This is the fourth festival award for Father's Blade. 

Character Design is Back 3 March 2025

Character Design by Luzia Soares

Character Design returns to Escape Studios on 3 March 2025. 

Character Design is an eight week evening class taught by industry veteran and Escape Studios' Head of Character Design Steve Sole.

Steve guides students through the principles of character design, building up to an industry brief.

"Checkmate" Wins Special Award at Rohip Festival

"Checkmate" wins Special Mention Award at Rohip Fest

Congratulations to the makers of the short animated film "Checkmate", which has won a Special Mention Award in the category of Best Micro Short Film at the Rohip Film Festival.  

Checkmate was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects.  

Checkmate was directed by Cara Masters and produced by Erminas Surgautas.  This is its first festival award. 

VES Awards Open for Entries: Deadline 31 Oct 2024

The VES Awards: Deadline 31 October 2024

The 23rd Annual VES Awards are now taking entries.  Here at Escape Studios we encourage all our students to enter Category 25: Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project. 

The VES awards are sponsored by Autodesk, who make Maya, the leading animation and VFX software.  The VES Awards deadline is 31st October 2024.

3D VFX Foundations Returns 4 March 2025

Our Evening Class in 3D VFX Foundations returns on 3 March 2025, and runs for 20 weeks. 3D VFX Foundations is a part-time evening class that teaches the art and craft of 3D Visual Effects. 

Taught by industry veteran Dan Shutt, 3D VFX Foundation course is taught live online two nights a week, Monday and Wednesday evenings, from 7pm until 10pm.

Escapee Lydia Layton VFX Manager at Pixomondo

Lydia Layton

Many congratulations to Escapee Lydia Layton, who is currently working as VFX Manager at Pixomondo in Toronto, Canada. 

Lydia took our 12 week class in 3D animation at Escape Studios. Since graduation, Lydia has worked on a number of Hollywood films including No Time to Die, Black Panther and The Fall Guy.  

In recent years, many of our Escapees have gone on to fill producing roles in the creative industries, in part because of Escape Studios' focus on managing group project work on our award-winning films.