Beyond Lockdown - What Will Happen in September?

For the past eight weeks our students have been working from home, just like the animation industry has done, moving our classrooms online and working remotely. The results have been stunningly successful; our second year animators now have six films in festival competition - five more than this time last year.  Of course, we don't yet know what things will look like come September, but we can count on some kind of blend of online and (hopefully) a return to classroom learning.  Watch the short video above to hear from our Deputy Dean, Saint John Walker, on how we've adapted to teaching online, see some of the great work created by our undergraduate students, and find out what the future holds.

How we are teaching at Escape Studios

Google Meet

Immediately after lockdown, we moved all our classes online, to keep our students projects on track. Google Meet and SyncSketch quickly emerged as two of the best ways to keep things moving. We run our online classrooms at Google Meet - it allows many people to join a conversation and stream at the same time. We combine this with SyncSketch to review student work in real time.

Laptop and broadband connection
As long as our students have a laptop and a decent broadband connection, they are continuing to work remotely successfully, following tutorials, working on projects and also working in teams on platforms such as Google Meet, Syncsketch and Facebook.

Facebook Classroom
We have Facebook Classrooms for all the animation classes. As an online classroom, these closed groups are already well-used forums where students post their work to get feedback,  and where we run animation dailies. Facebook is useful for posting queries, animation tests and test renders.

Online learning at Vimeo
We also have a vast number of tutorials hosted at Vimeo which teach the art and craft of animation, as well as related areas such as modeling, texturing and lighting. You can find the Vimeo channel here, and learn a huge amount online. If there is a video you need, but can't find, let us know, and we'll get a fresh video tutorial uploaded to the channel.

Classroom Teaching
We don't know when we will be able to get our classrooms back up and running - hopefully soon. Much depends on Government guidance, but when the time comes, we will be ready. And we know now that we can provide our students with an excellent education, even if we're not in the classroom full time.

Meanwhile, the Animation Industry is Thriving
According to a recent piece in The Guardian, the animation industry is thriving despite the Corona Lockdown.  Unlike live action shoots, which have been shut down due to Covid-19, the animation industry is expanding, as programmers scramble to replace live-action content with animation.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for our BA/MArt in 3D Animation, follow this link.  To apply for our storyboarding evening class, visit this page here.  For the next 12 week animation course, click here.