"Life's Gifts" Wins Best Super Short Film in NYC

Life's Gifts", wins "Best Super Short Film" at NYC Awards

Congratulations to the makers of short animated film "Life's Gifts", which has won "Best Super Short Film" at the New York Movie Awards.  "Life's Gifts" was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects. 

"Life's Gifts" was written and directed by Jason Cole and produced by Vanessa Marques-Navaratnasingam.  This is its second festival award. 

Escape Studios Students at AUA Las Vegas

Escapees Alfie Williams, Elvinas Mikulin and Xavier Barker all contributed to the animation in the video above, filmed at the recent AUA Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Alfie, Elvinas and Xavier completed the job for Teleflex, a US-based medical technology company.  Alfie animated Teleflex's monster, part of the immersive experience at the conference. Alfie created a series of short animations of the monster walking, blinking, and peeking, all rendered with a transparent background for seamless placement on conference screens.  Elvinas did the modeling and Xavier managed the pipeline. 

"Crab Companion" Wins "Best Super Short" Award

"Crab Companion" wins "Best Super Short" in Hollywood

Congratulations to the makers of the animated short film "Crab Companion", which has won "Best Super Short" at the Hollywood Gold Awards.  

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

"Crab Companion" was written and directed by Sam Blackburn, edited by Aya Najib and produced by John Adarlo.  This is its first festival award. 

Producing for VFX is Back on 10 June 2025

Producing for VFX returns 10 June 2025

Our Evening Class in Producing for VFX is back, starting on 10 June 2025.  Producing for VFX is an eight week evening class, taught two nights a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-10pm). 

Producing for VFX is designed to give students a thorough understanding of how the VFX production pipeline works, and how to apply it in practice.  VFX Producers and Line Producers remain a critical skills gap in industry. 

"Life's Gifts" Wins Best Animated Film Award

Life's Gifts" wins "Best Animation" at Int'l Gold Awards

Congratulations to the makers of short animated film "Life's Gifts", which has won "Best Animated Film" at the International Gold Awards.

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

"Life's Gifts" was written and directed by Jason Cole and produced by Vanessa Marques-Navaratnasingam. This is its first festival award.

Joining DNEG Redefine and "The Escape Verse"

The "Escapeverse"

"The Escapeverse" is what we call the Escape Studios universe - the ecosystem in which we teach, recruit, and work with industry to deliver the highest possible standards of education in the fields of animation, games and visual effects. 

In January of this year I found myself joining The Escapeverse.  After ten years of teaching at Escape Studios, I have joined DNEG Redefine as animation director on a new feature film, a co-production between Redefine and Sky, with most of the animation being done in Hyderabad, India.

"Mini Mail" Wins "Best Super Short" in Florence

Mini Mail wins Best Super Short in Florence

Congratulations to the makers of the VFX Short film Mini Mail, which has won Best Animated Short at the Florence Film Awards.  

Mini Mail was created by our third year graduating class of VFX students at Escape Studios; it was written and directed by Thomas Greensmith  and produced by Nilufer Refet.  

Asia Gayle  was the 3D VFX lead, and Daniel Beeching was the 2D VFX Lead.  John Oakes-Pearson stars as the delivery guy.  Industry feedback was generously provided by Industrial Light & Magic.  This is its first festival award. 

International Student Webinar 21 May 2025

International Student Webinar 21 May 2025

Our International Student webinar takes place on Wednesday 21st May (from 12pm to 1pm) for a chance to learn more about our creative degrees, discuss student visas and answer questions in a Q&A session. 

To sign up or learn more about the event, follow this link: https://bit.ly/3Xjs1Gt.

"Crawl Space" Wins Best Animated Short at EEF Fest

Escape Studios is delighted to congratulation the maker of "Crawl Space", a new short animation created by MA Animation student James Hothi, which as won Best Animated Short at the Eastern Europe Film Awards. 

James Hothi is studying the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios, taught by industry veteran Kevin Richards.  

James Hothi produced and directed the short film, and did all the animation and FX work.  This is the second festival award for Crawl Space. 

Industry Feedback with George Caton-Coult 23 May

George Caton-Coult

Escape Studios is delighted to welcome back Love Love Films Studio Manager George Caton-Coult to review our second-year animation students' film projects on 23 May.

George Caton-Coult is the Studio Manager at Love Love Films, responsible for the TV hit "Pop Paper City"  developed in partnership with Aardman Animation.  

Many Escapees worked on and helped to contribute to the success of "Pop Paper City". 

"Save Yourself" Wins "Best Super Short" in London

Save Yourself wins "Best Super Short Film" in London

Congratulations to the makers of Save Yourself, the latest VFX short from Escape Studios, which has won "Best Super Short Film" at the London Movie Awards.  Save Yourself was created by our third year graduating class of VFX students at Escape Studios.  

The short film was written and directed by Jasmine Patel and produced by Charlie Cope.  Harrison Davies was the 3D VFX lead, and Fiona Lee was the 2D VFX Lead.  Cinematography was by Irene Gomez-Emilsson.  Industry feedback was generously provided by Industrial Light & Magic.  This is the second award for Save Yourself. 

Introducing "Crab Companion"

Introducing "Crab Companion", the latest short animated film from Escape Studios.  "Crab Companion" was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects.  "Crab Companion" was written and directed by Sam Blackburn, edited by Aya Najib and produced by John Adarlo. 

Why Animators Need to Be Problem-Solvers

Eyeline problem from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"

Studios love animators who are also problem solvers. An animator who helps to solve problems (and, hopefully, doesn't create them) is a golden asset to any organisation.

On the left is an example of problem-solving by animator Simon Wells, on the 1988 feature film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.  

Back in 1987 I was Simon's In-betweener (a job that involved smoothing out the animation flow), and I was always impressed by Simon's ability to solve visual problems, such as the one on the left.

"Cursed Bond" Wins "Best Student Film" in Milan

"Cursed Bond" wins "Best Student Film" in Milan

Many congratulations to the makers of "Cursed Bond", which has won "Best Student Film" at the Milan Gold Awards. "Cursed Bond" was created by our third year graduating class of VFX students at Escape Studios.  

The short film was written and directed by Ted Walker, and produced by Mahak Chowdhary.  Cinematography was by Irene Gomez Emilsson and the VFX Supervisor was Oliver Eveson.  Art direction was by Quimey Dasso.  Ted Walker stars as the Hermit.  This is its third festival award. 

Post-Graduate Open Event 18 June 2025

VFX Created at Escape Studios

Join us on Wednesday 18 June at 6pm for our next Short Course and Post-Graduate Open Evening at Escape Studios, hosted at our North Greenwich Campus, right next to The O2. 

The event offers prospective students a chance to visit our studios and find out what it's like to study with us.   

Come along and explore our studios and meet our tutors. 

Max Howard Returns for Industry Feedback

Max Howard

Escape Studios is delighted to welcome back animation producer Max Howard to review the short films being created by our Second Year Animation Students.

Max was the founder of Walt Disney Animation Florida, and also ran animation divisions at DreamWorks and Warner Bros Feature Animation in Los Angeles.

Industry feedback is at the heart of what we do at Escape Studios; one of the Five Pillars of the Escape Method.  

Max's screen credits include Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Iron Giant, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, and Igor.

"Cursed Bond" Wins "Best Student Film" in Hollywood

"Cursed Bond" wins "Best Student Film" in Hollywood

Many congratulations to the makers of "Cursed Bond", which has won "Best Student Film" at the Hollywood Gold Awards. "Cursed Bond" was created by our third year graduating class of VFX students at Escape Studios.  

The short film was written and directed by Ted Walker, and produced by Mahak Chowdhary.  Cinematography was by Irene Gomez Emilsson and the VFX Supervisor was Oliver Eveson.  Art direction was by Quimey Dasso.  Ted Walker stars as the Hermit. This is its second festival award. 

Introducing "Life's Gifts"

Introducing "Life's Gifts", the latest short animated film from Escape Studios.  "Life's Gifts" was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects.  "Life's Gifts" was written and directed by Jason Cole and produced by Vanessa Marques-Navaratnasingam. 

Freefolk "Futurefolk" Internship Now Open

"Futurefolk", is back, and now accepting applications

VFX House Freefolk has announced that their internship scheme, "Futurefolk", is back, and now accepting applications. 

Freefolk's talent team is now "ready to spot the skill, creativity and enthusiasm required to kick-start the careers of the next generation of VFX stars".  Deadline for submissions is midnight on April 29th 2025.  You can apply via the Freefolk website here.

"Crawl Space" Wins "Best Animated Short" Award

Crawl Space wins Best Animated Short Award 

Escape Studios is delighted to congratulation the maker of "Crawl Space", a new short animation created by MA Animation student James Hothi, which as won Best Animated Short Film at the Makizhmithran Film Festival. 

James Hothi is studying the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios, taught by industry veteran Kevin Richards.  

James Hothi produced and directed the short film, and did all the animation and FX work.  This is the first festival award for Crawl Space.