SIGGRAPH Screening of LAIKA’s “Kubo and the Two Strings” on Tuesday December 6

SIGGRAPH's London chapter is hosting a local screening of Laika's latest stop motion triumph - the Annie-nominated “Kubo and the Two Strings”.

After the movie I'll be hosting a Q&A with Director Travis Knight and Producer Arianne Sutner who will talk about the making of the film.

Events like this are a great way for our students to meet leading film-makers in person, and find out what makes the industry tick.

Animation Taster Day - Wednesday 14 December

Learn to animate a bird in flight

We still have a few seats left for our next Animation Taster Day at Escape Studios on Wednesday 14 December - so come and learn about character and creature animation.

We're running this animation taster day to give future animators an idea of what it's like to work in the  industry, and find out if this is a career that's right for them.

You will work with Autodesk Maya and the Adobe Creative Suite, and you’ll get a hands-on introduction to 3D Animation techniques, all for just £25!  By the end of the day you'll have your own piece of animation uploaded to your YouTube channel.  So, how do you sign up?

Brynley Gibson from Curve Digital on Virtual Reality

At last week's BlueGFX Expo, one of the most interesting presentations was by Brynley Gibson from indie games developer Curve Digital on the subject of Virtual Reality.

Gibson posed a number of questions to the audience about what exactly VR is about, and how digital artists should approach VR projects.

And the first question anyone attempting a VR project should ask is a simple one: why does this need to be VR?

Visual Effects Society Host VR Event at Escape Studios Monday 28 November

On Monday 28 November from 6:00PM until 11:30pm we have the privilege of hosting The Visual Effects Society at our mid-town campus at 190 High Holborn for an evening titled "The Business of Virtual Reality".

The evening will include VR related demonstrations and a discussion about the future of Virtual Reality in our industry.

UCAS Deadlines - Time to Apply For Our New Undergraduate Courses

UCAS - time to apply

Thinking of applying to Escape Studios to study the Art of 3D Animation, Games or Visual effects?  UCAS is now open, and we are welcoming applications for the second intake of our new integrated BA/MArt in Animation, Games and VFX - just launched in September of this year.

Below are some good reasons why we believe we are building one of the best animation courses in the country, and how you can get started on your new career as a digital artist. Best of all - you will study in central London, a short walk from the centre of the industry, and learn from industry professionals with extensive experience.

Escape Labs is Back! Rendering Software Panel on Thursday 24 November

3D Render

There are just a few places left at our Escape Labs Software session on Thursday, to be held at our brand new campus at 190 High Holborn.

Come along on thursday 24th November at 6pm and hear from Fluid Pictures, Jordi Bares from Glassworks, and Amaan Akram from The Mill as they share their knowledge of rendering software and discuss what are the best solutions for visual effects artists.

The event is free, and we'll even throw in free drinks and nibbles!

Escape Studios Head of 3D Mark Spevick Joins Board of VES

Mark Spevick

We're congratulating our Head of 3D Mark Spevick, who has just joined the board of the the Visual Effects Society (VES), the global organisation that "represents the full breadth of VFX practitioners with over 3,000 professional members in 33 countries worldwide".

VES supports our industry with, among other things, the VES Awards, the deadline for which is fast approaching. If you're a student and you have a great VFX shot you'd like to submit, this could be a great chance to get noticed and start your career. The winner gets a paid flight to Beverly Hills and receives a VES statue.

Meet Panel Forge - New Storyboard Wizard

One of the highlights of yesterday’s Blue GFX Expo was Blue Zoo’s Tom Box introducing Panel Forge Pro (the first public demonstration of the software), a new storyboard and pipeline tool which has now been extensively road tested at Blue Zoo on the Miffy the Rabbit and Digby Dragon TV Series.

Panel Forge uses 3D Layouts – much like its rival Redboard (also developed here in London) – to save time in Storyboarding.  Panel Forge allows board artists to use low resolution 3D assets to help set up camera angles and layouts, and has been used on “10,000 shots” to date.  So, what is Panel Forge all about, and why should our students be interested?

How The Simpsons Predicted President Trump

Why read the news when you can watch animation? Specifically, The Simpsons, back in 2000, when in a now infamous episode titled “Bart to the Future,” the long-running animated TV series predicted that Donald Trump would one day become president of the United States of America.  Simpsons writer Dan Greaney recently told The Hollywood Reporter that the thought of a Trump presidency "just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom. It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane".

Blue GFX Expo Tomorrow! Last Chance to Register!

Today is the last chance to register for Blue GFX Expo - taking place in London tomorrow, 17th November.

This year speakers include Tom Box from Blue Zoo, one of the UK's biggest TV animation companies, Framestore on Dr Strange, as well as the folks from Autodesk showing the latest tools in Maya 2017. The event is free and we highly recommend that all our students attend the full day.

ASIFA-Hollywood Helps Rescue Thief and The Cobbler Artwork

Some good news at last for Richard Williams' lost masterpiece - The Thief and The Cobbler.  LA animation chapter ASIFA-Hollywood has donated the not-insignificant sum of $20,000 to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to assist with the curation and documentation of a big chunk of the movie's original production artwork.

Escapees Lewis Young and Alastair Cross To Visit Escape Studios on Wednesday November 16th

Escape Studios is hosting an "Evening With" talk on Wednesday November 16th at our new mid-town campus at 190 High Holborn.

We will be welcoming Escapees Lewis Young, animation director at Polar Media, and Alastair Cross, a visual effects artist who has worked on many vfx hits including The Martian, Pan and the forthcoming must-see movie of the year: Fantastic Beasts - And Where to Find Them.

Come along to this free event and find out about these amazing movies from two of the people who helped put them together.

The event starts at 6.30pm and lasts until 8pm.

John Lewis Christmas Ad 2016 - by MPC

The John Lewis Christmas Ad is back, featuring some stunning CG creature work on Buster the Boxer by our good friends at MPC Advertising, based in London's Soho - just a short walk from our new MidTown Campus on High Holborn.  Ads like this show how far CG animation has come in recent years, pushing the boundaries of realism and making it hard for even seasoned experts to know what is real and what is digital. That's why our animation course focuses strongly not just on character animation but also on animal and creature work - helping our students to find work in the expanding world of animation in a visual effects environment.

A Chuck Jones Animation Tutorial

In this excellent 13 minute animation tutorial, actor and director Ron Howard introduces the work of animation legend Chuck Jones, the creative master behing the Road Runner and Bugs Bunny. There are other great voices here too - such as Disney animation stars Glen Keane and Eric Goldberg (the latter the author of the excellent "Character Animation Crash Course" - one of the books on our student reading list).  The video is a great introduction to the basic principles of animation, such as anticipation, squash and stretch, secondary action and overlapping action. We're recommending it to all our students.

"Bring Your Own Animation" Monday November 21st

The Lukin - BYOA!

"Bring Your Own Animation" (BYOA) is an animation event that takes place every month in London.

This month it is being held on Monday 21st November at 6.30pm at the Lukin pub, 4 Conway Street in central London W1T 6BB.

Anyone can bring their animation or just come along for drinks.  If you are a student, or a professional who's working on a shot or a reel, bring your work and get feedback from Professional Animators.

Escape Studios at Design Your Future in Manchester on 22nd 23 November

Manchester Central Convention Complex

Escape Studios will be at the Design Your Future event organised by UCAS in Manchester on 22nd 23 November.

We'll be showing off some cool animation tools and explaining how we can help students become professional animators and visual effects artists.

Got questions about our BA/MArt in 3D Animation, Games or VFX? Come and meet us at the Pearson College/Escape Studios stand.

"Creating Open Worlds" by Ubisoft at BAFTA on Wednesday 9 November

BAFTA is a superb resource for all our students studying in central London. The BAFTA clubhouse is at 195 Piccadilly - a short walk from our MidTown campus on High Holborn. Increasingly BAFTA is supporting not just film and TV but the games industry as well.

On Wednesday 9 November, BAFTA is hosting a games event titled "Creating Open Worlds", hosted by games titan Ubisoft.

This will be an amazing chance for our games students to meet the creative team behind Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Watch Dogs 2 and Steep. Tickets aren't free, but at £7.50 it's cheaper than a movie, and far more rewarding.

An Evening With Sean Danischevsky - Thursday 3 November

This Thursday, 3rd November Escape Studios is hosting an evening with Sean Danischevsky, a visual effects supervisor with over 20 years' experience working in film and television. Highlights of his career include Dark Knight, Batman Begins and Harry Potter.  Sean has worked for some of the biggest studios in London including Double Negative, The Mill and Framestore.

Events like this are a great way to find out how big VFX movies actually get made, by the people who made them. The event is free, so come along on thursday and find out the secrets behind some of the biggest VFX hits of recent years.

Plus, there will be free beer and pizza!