Escape Studios 2016 VFX Festival opens today!

The 2016 Escape Studios VFX Festival opens today! The Festival takes place at London's O2 from today February 23rd and finishes on thursday February 25th, and brings you the latest in VFX, games, animation and motion graphics.

This year we've got tons of great speakers, including MPC - talking about their work on The Martian, and The Mill talking about augmented - and virtual - reality.  So what's happening in the festival today at the O2?





Day One
Tuesday 23rd February 2016 - aimed at VFX, Games & Animation Newcomers

10:30 am
REWIND: From VFX to "VRX"
Sol Rogers discusses what the VR industry must learn from its little brother.

11:30 am
Hamilton+Kidd: Diving in at the Deep End - VR Great White Sharks
Virtual Reality offers an opportunity to go anywhere. Ben will discuss how and why Hamilton+Kidd choose to swim with Sharks.

12:15 pm
The Edge: Turn Your Talent Into Your Career.
Sarah Gregory from The Edge will give an introduction to the exciting and sometimes unknown careers across VFX, games and animation with an overview of the formal and informal entry routes to these exciting and growing careers.

13:00 pm
DNeg TV: Fungus and the Bogeyman
DNeg TV talk us through the art of facefolding in Fungus the Bogeyman, the three part TV series.


 

14:00 pm
The Mill VFX Showcase:
Making the unbelievable, believable: A case study of Audi ‘Birth’
Take a look behind the scenes at the ground breaking and visually striking 100% CG commercial for Audi, ‘Birth’. CG Lead Dan Moller discusses how a team of VFX artists carefully crafted two cars and a futuristic environment entirely in CG over the course of just nine weeks to help create a powerful, mechanical and organic spot.

To see the full schedule, follow this link.

And to give you a flavour of what the Festival will be like, below is a panel talk on careers in VFX from the 2015 Festival, featuring a discussion of what it takes to break into the industry.



VFX is a constantly changing landscape. Last year's "big thing" is this year's old news. So come along, and find out about the latest trends in our industry.


To see some of the recent work done by students at Escape studios, watch the video below. My personal favourite is the shot of London's BT Tower coming down, made by Escapee Michael Battcock - it's the last shot on the reel. Skip forward if you're in a hurry!





The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our new BA/MA starting in September 2016, follow this link.