Adam & Eve Mk II Best Short Film at Arch1

Adam & Eve Mk II by Sebastian Kuder

Many congratulations to Sebastian Kuder, director of Adam & Eve Mk II, which has won the award for Best Short Film Under 5 Minutes at the Arch 1 Festival of Film in London this week.

The award represents the latest in a long line of wins for student films at Escape Studios.

Adam & Eve: Mk II is a sci-fi re-telling of the Genesis story, written and directed by Sebastian Kuder, who has directed and animated a number of short films at Escape Studios over the last three years, including Planet Mars and The Good Old Days.

ToonBoom Harmony Returns on 18 March 2020

Plamen Ananiev with Harmony animators at Escape Studios

Our popular 2D Animation evening class in Toonboom Harmony is returning on Wednesday 18 March 2020.

The class runs for 10 weeks, one evening a week (Tuesdays), and is an introduction to animating in Toonboom Harmony, one of the leading software packages for the creation of 2D animation.

The evening class is taught by Harmony animator Plamen Ananiev, who is an animator at London animation powerhouse Blue Zoo. Harmony animators are much in demand, as 2D animation experiences a significant revival, both in the UK and overseas.

Ash Ellis Technical Animator at MPC

Ash Ellis

Many congratulations to Ash Ellis, who has recently landed a job as a Technical Animator at MPC.

Ash studied animation and VFX at Escape Studios, and then became a Studio Assistant, helping to teach new students at Escape Studios.

Ash was a also a regular tutor in the animation classroom, teaching animation "taster days" for prospective students, and also teaching "lighting for animators" for our 2nd year animation undergraduates.

We're delighted to congratulate Ash on his new job at one of the UK's leading animation houses.

Simone Giampaolo: How Cartoons are Born

Simone Giampaolo at VIEW conference

Escape Studios animation tutor Simone Giampaolo was at the View Conference in Turin this past week, talking to a packed audience about How Cartoons are Born.

Simone explained the basics of animation, including the Twelve Principles, such as the importance of strong poses and silhouettes. He also explained some of the basics of design; such as the use of circles, triangles and squares to express basic contrasts between animated characters.

Funny Fail Stories on Tuesday 29 October

Funny Fail Stories is coming; book your seats on Tuesday 29 October for tales of failure from the world of animation and VFX.

Hosted by Escape Studios' tutor Simone Giampaolo, and sponsored by Escape Studios, this event takes place at Zigfried Von Underbelly at 11 Hoxton Square, London N1, just a 5 minute walk from Old St Tube station.

Speakers bringing tales of disaster and near-disaster in the animation and VFX industry include Alina Bopele from Studio AKA,  Sabina Janetzka from Cinesite, and Stefano Marrone from Nucco Brain.

The event is also supported by the London chapter of SIGGRAPH.

Tickets are free and you can book them here.

Escape Students Learn to Make Sean the Sheep

Recently Aardman animation came to London, bringing model making workshops as part of the launch of their latest feature film Sean the Sheep - Farmageddon.

The workshops took place at the Hackney Picturehouse and The Ritzy in Brixton, and many of our animation students were able to take part.

The afternoon workshops were led by Senior Model Makers from Aardman: Claire Cohen and Ellie Hugill.

Claire and Ellie gave our students a fascinating insight into stop-motion animation, helping the students to build their very own Sean the Sheep.

The skills that make a great stop-motion animator are very similar to the skills that make a great 3D animator. Whether you are working with clay or pixels, an animator still has to give an entertaining performance.

MA 3D Animation Starts 17th Feb 2020

"Flame": MA film project

Our new MA (Master of Arts) in 3D Animation is back, with a new class starting on 17th February 2020.

The MA in animation will be taught at our mid-town campus at 190 High Holborn in central London, and we look forward to welcoming our new cohort of students.

If you're looking for an animation course that teaches you how to animate to a professional level, and also leads to a formal qualification in the field, then this could be the right course for you.

Why Animation Graduates Need Linkedin

Tiffany Feeny, Ted Ty, Alex Williams, Jan-Bart Van Beek

How do animation graduates break into the industry? At this week's VIEW conference in Turin I was invited onto a recruitment panel hosted by New York's School of Visual Arts, hosted by SVA's Director of Career Development Angie Wojak.

Also on the panel was the recruiter Tiffany Feeney of Talent Outpost, an independent recruitment agency based in Switzerland.

Tiffany's big message to recent graduates looking for work?  "Be on Linkedin".

Secrets of the Spider-Verse by Peter Ramsey

Peter Ramsay at VIEW: Into the Spider-Verse

One of the highlights of today's VIEW conference in Turin, Italy, was a talk by Peter Ramsey, co-director of Spiderman – Into The Spider-Verse.

Ramsay's talk was sub-titled “What Story are You Telling?”, and he showed the audience how the answer to that question informed every frame and every pixel of the Oscar and BAFTA winning movie.

Spiderman – Into The Spider-Verse re-invented the Spiderman franchise, and achieved a unique comic book-style look for the world of Spiderman.  How did they do it?

Minuet, Planet Mars, Adam & Eve Mk II and Jericho in ScreenTest on Nov 15-16th

Congratulations to the makers of Minuet, Planet Mars, Adam & Eve Mk II and Jericho.

All four student films were completed at Escape Studios and have made the official selection for ScreenTest, the London Student Film Festival, which tales place in Greenwich, on Friday November 15th and Saturday November 16th. Tickets are just £5, and you can book them here.

Meet Richard Cunningham, External Examiner

Richard Cunningham, external examiner

Meet Richard Cunningham, our new External Examiner for our Master's Degree in 3D animation at Escape Studios.

External examiners play an important part of quality control in UK higher education, ensuring that our courses meet the highest standards, and that the grades awarded are correct and appropriate.

We're honoured to have Richard onboard; he is an experienced animator and a lecturer in Computer Animation and Digital Media at Kingston University.

Richard is also a graduate of Bard College, New York, Kingston University, and Blue Zoo's Anim Dojo animation programme.

2D Compositing Tutorials at Our Vimeo Channel

Our Vimeo channel offers our students online learning to supplement our classroom tuition.  We now have a series of videos on Nuke,  the VFX industry's leading compositing software.

Our online tutorials are intended to complement our classroom studies, allowing students at Escape Studios to recap, or catch up on work they missed, while following a tutorial in their own time.  

Escape Studios in "Zero Budget Film Festival"

Many congratulations to the makers of Jericho, Vivi Ossa and Minuet, who are all award winners in this year's Zero Budget Film Festival, which takes place annually in Sheffield. This year the festival is on Saturday November 16th at 7pm.

All three prize-winning films were completed by our graduating class of animators and 3D artists, who will be receiving their well-earned degrees at the graduation ceremony on November 7th.

We're delighted to have three winners in a single contest, and we hope that at least some of our students will be able to make it to Sheffield to attend the event on the big night. 

Alan Lewis External Examiner Story & Previs

Alan Lewis

Meet Alan Lewis, our new External Examiner for our pioneering Master's Degree in Storyboarding & Previsualisation at Escape Studios, which is running for the first time at our campus at 190 High Holborn.

External examiners play an important part of quality control in UK higher education, ensuring that our courses meet the highest standards, and the grades awarded are correct and appropriate.

We're honoured to have Alan onboard; he is Head of the Division of Creative Technologies for the School of Arts and Creative Industries at South Bank University. In this role, he is responsible for the overall operation and development of the VFX, Games, Digital Design, Sound, and Journalism BA/BSc degrees. He is also the Course Director for the VFX programme at South Bank.

Graduation Ceremony on 7th November

For all our students who passed their exams and were awarded a degree this past summer, the graduation ceremony will be on the 7th November at Milton Court Concert Hall in London. 

We look forward to welcoming all our students for the graduation ceremony and afterwards for a celebratory reception.

This is a particularly exciting day for our students at Escape Studios, as this will be the first cohort of undergraduate Escapees to receive their BA in the Art of Computer Animation, a major milestone for us all.

Undergraduate Portfolio Tips & Advice

Thinking of applying for our BA/MArt in The Art of Computer Animation? One of the most common questions we get asked by prospective students is: What should go into my portfolio? The short answer is - a bit of everything: drawings, painting, life drawing, sketches, scribbles, 3D digital artwork - whatever you have to hand - ideally uploaded to your own website or blog. 

We're Going to VIEW 21-25 October

We're going to VIEW, the 20th International VFX & Computer Graphics Conference that takes place every year in Turin.

This year the VIEW conference runs from Monday 21st October until Friday 25th October.

On Wednesday October 23 at 2.30pm I'll be on a panel with SVA titled "Starting Your Animation Career: How to Get Noticed and Get Hired".

And on Thursday October 24th I'll be teaching a one-day masterclass in Maya demonstrating how to animate dinosaurs, from 9.30am at Piazza Mestiere.

The class is aimed at complete beginners and requires no prior experience with Maya.

Katerina Zacharakis at Playstation

Katerina Zacharakis

Many congratulations to Escapee Katerina Zacharakis who has recently started a new job as a production assistant with Sony at the Playstation London Studio, working alongside fellow Escapee Maddison Gould.

Playstation London was founded in 2002, and is located in the heart of Soho.  Their mission is to "pioneer new ways to tell stories and immerse the players in action, adventure and technology driven experiences."

Anim Evening Class Returns on 7 Jan 2020

Michael Morgan teaches at Escape Studios

Our 20 week part-time Animation evening class in 3D animation starts on Tuesday 7th January 2020 at our High Holborn campus.

The class runs for 20 weeks on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, from 7-10pm, and is taught by veteran animators Michael Morgan and Benoit Moranne.

Model Making Workshops with Aardman 12 Oct

Aardman animation are coming to London, bringing two model making workshops this Saturday 12th October.

The workshops are one hour long and take place at 4pm at the Hackney Picturehouse (see flyer below) and at 3.45pm at The Ritzy in Brixton (see flyer left).

The workshops form a part of the Aardman Animation day, which includes screenings and activities for kids, starting at 10.30am.

The afternoon workshops are for adults only and will be led by Senior Model Makers from Aardman Claire Cohen and Ellie Hugill.

Claire and Ellie will give an insight into stop-motion animation and what it is like to work at one of the UK's most enduring and well-loved animation houses.

Blue GFX Expo 12 November 2019

It's that time of year again. Blue GFX Expo 2019 is taking place in London on Tuesday 12th November.

I'm suspending animation classes at Escape on the day, so our 2nd year under graduate students can catch up with latest in animation, VFX and Games. 

Jericho & Home Sweet Home at BFI Fest

Escapees at the BFI on Saturday

On Saturday October 5th the makers of Jericho and Home Sweet Home represented Escape Studios at the 63rd BFI London Film Festival, with their films being screened as part of the Family Short Film Programme.

Ten short films were shown, including two from Disney and one from DreamWorks.

Three shorts were shown from the UK, and after the screening was over, our students were invited up to the front of the stage where the BFI's Justin Johnson did a short interview with each team.

Dominika Brodowska Story Artist at Blue Zoo

Dominika Brodowska

Many congratulations to Dominika Brodowska, who is working as a Storyboard Cleanup Artist at Blue Zoo animation in London.

Dominika took our three month intensive short course in animation here at Escape Studios, learning Maya and mastering the animation pipeline.

Dominika also excelled at gesture drawing, and developed a portfolio of drawings and sketches to apply for storyboarding jobs, initially finding work with Cloth Cat animation in Cardiff.

Scholarships at Escape Studios - and Beyond

Eamonn Butler

One question we often get asked at Escape Studios is what kind of scholarships are available for study.

We have a dedicated scholarship for studying animation; it's the Eamonn Butler scholarship, named after the Head of Animation at Cinesite, who for many years headed up the animation dept at Disney.

Code First Offers Free Courses in Coding

Code First: Girls Team is offering a free course in coding, or "front end web development", exclusively for our female students at Escape Studios.

This is a free course, which normally costs over £600. There are 30 spaces, and class takes place on Monday 14th October and run until December 2nd, from 6:30-8:30pm, on the 1st floor, at 190 High Holborn WC1.

The application deadline is 10th October, and the link to sign up to the course is here.

An understanding of the principles of web coding is a very useful addition to the animator's toolkit. 

Escapee Rich Jeffrey Directs "Bluey"

"Bluey" - 2nd series directed by Escapee Rich Jeffrey

Many congratulations to Escapee Rich Jeffrey whose new TV series "Bluey" is coming to screens in New Zealand, and will soon be coming to the UK.

Rich has been working on the show in Australia for the past two years, and it is now coming to screens on TVNZ on demand, as well as NZ prime time TV.

Autodesk Launches "Maya Indie License"

Autodesk, the folks who make Maya, for many years now the industry-standard software for 3D Animation, has launched the "Maya Indie License".

This new low-cost commercial license costs just £275 for a single seat, and allows students who have learned to animate using the free student version of the software to enter the marketplace at a much-reduced price.

This is great news for our students and graduates; Autodesk now offers junior animators the chance to "become a pro at a price you can afford". This means that our students can take on small freelance jobs and be able to pay for commercial software at a reasonable price.

Escape Studios Character Design Competition

Many congratulations to Cara Lambert, Sofia Antonova and Augusto Galvao who placed first, second and third in our character design competition. Escape Studios hosted a competition to find a new character to join our family of avatars (such as the ones above).  Cara won a free place on our storyboarding evening class, Sofia won tickets to London Comic Con and Augusto won £100 of movie tickets.  Congratulations to them all, and also to the runners-up, on their excellent work.