Axis Animation Panel Thurs 5 Nov at 5.30pm

Escape Studios are hosting an event next week with Glasgow-based Axis Studios on Thursday 5th Nov at 5.30pm.  Axis are a Scottish studio known for the high quality of their work and especially for their Game Trailers. 

Three senior guests from Axis will joins us on 5th November to talk about Teamworking in the animation industry. The event is open to all our current students at Escape Studios. 

How do studios maintain a spirit of teamwork despite Covid-19, and remote working?  How do new starters get inducted into a new production role when working from home. 

UCAS Deadline 15 January 2021

UCAS - time to apply

It's that time of year again; time to start thinking about your UCAS application. If you're thinking of applying to Escape Studios to study the Art of 3D Animation, Games or Visual effects, it's time to think about UCAS. 

The relevant UCAS deadline is January 15th 2020, but it's always a good idea to apply early.   We are welcoming applications for the fifth intake of our new integrated BA/MArt in Animation, Games and VFX - launched in September 2016.

No1 Reason Why Animators Don't Get Hired

What is the No 1 reason why animation graduates don't find work in the industry? It's not what you think. It's not because their demo reel isn't good enough, it's not because they fluffed the interview. The real reason why animation graduates don't find work in the industry is because...watch the short video above to find out.

"Seeker" Wins Best VFX at Flicks Fest

Many congratulations to Escapee Rassoul Edji, whose short film "Seeker" has won "Best VFX" at the Flicks Film Festival in London.

This is the latest of a series of wins for Seeker, which won Best Low Budget Film at the Assurdo Film Festival in Milan in August, "Best Short" at Lisbon Film Fest, and "Best Cinematography" at the European Film Festival.  The film was also selected as a finalist in this year's Rookies competition, and was nominated for Best Director at the Prague Film Festival.

AN5002 Starts on Monday 2nd November

Sabre tooth tiger by Paloma Zhu

Next week on Monday 2nd November our 2nd year undergraduate animators start a new module: AN5002: Advanced Computer Animation.

In this module, worth 30 credits, students get to grips with animating animals and creatures.

The module starts on Monday 2nd November and lasts six weeks. It finishes on Friday 11th December  shortly before Christmas.

In AN5002 students develop their skills in animal and creature animation, including quadruped locomotion and performance.

Work Fitness Week Mock Interviews

Mock Interviews are something we take very seriously at Escape Studios. Last week we invited our students to register for a series of mock interviews with some of our industry partners and mentors, who kindly offered their time to give our students an idea of what a job interview is actually like.  Learning how to survive an interview is an important part of preparing our students for a career in industry.  Of course, the key to success in the animation, games and VFX industries is primarily about having a great demo reel, easy to find and well-presented.  Once a studio is interested in your demo reel, the next stage is the interview.   In the short video above I explain why we do mock interviews, and what they are for. 

Over Under Best Sci-Fi at Flicks Festival

Many congratulations to the makers of "Over Under" , which has won "Best Sci-Fi" at the Flicks Monthly Film Festival.

"Over Under" is a short film created by our 2020 graduating class of animators. 

At over seven minutes, "Over Under" is our most ambitious animated film project so far.  Directed by Lucy Harris and produced by Aidan Lonergan, "Over Under" includes some very stylish production design and confident character animation. 

Winning Festival Awards at Film Freeway

Entering your film into festival competition can be a daunting process. In the past two years we have had considerable festival success at Escape Studios, with around two dozen films being entered into competitions, winning awards and prizes. The main platform we use is Film Freeway, the leading way for film-makers to enter short films into international competitions. In the short video above, I explain how the system works.

Free Panel Talk with ILM 22 Oct at 5.30pm

Tomorrow Thursday October 22 at 5:30pm VFX powerhouse ILM are coming to Escape Studios (via Zoom of course). 

ILM are hosting a special panel just for our students at Escape Studios.  Do you want to become more employable as an artist in a major studio? If so, sign up for the panel discussion tomorrow.

The panel with ILM focuses on the importance of communication skills and how they form a vital part of the production process.  

How to Animate Lipsync

Above is a short video on how to animate lipsync, showing how to keep the process as simple as possible.  The idea is to break things down into easy sections so as to make sure that your work starts off simple and gradually grows in complexity as you layer in the detail. At its simplest, good lipsync is just about opening and closing the mouth on the vowels, and closing it on the consonants. But, developing a system to keep it simple and at the same time get a sophisticated result, is all part of mastering the art and craft of animation.

The Best Book to Learn Animation

The Animator's Survival Kit  is the core textbook we recommend to all our student animators at Escape Studios. The ASK is now the standard textbook for animators and easily the most comprehensive book available for learning animation.  We have two copies in the library at 190 High Holborn, and it can also be bought as an eBook download for the iPad. It's even better as an eBook since you can watch the videos as well, to illustrate the examples.  Watch the video above to find out why it's so useful.

Why Animated Characters Need to Blink

This month our student animators are entering the 11 Second Club, the monthly character animation competition open to animators all over the world.  One of the challenges of character animation is to make the audience believe that the digital puppets that we bring to life are living, breathing characters that can think and feel.  This means that we need to put a great deal of effort into (amongst other things) animating our characters' eyes, for the eyes are the "window to the soul". Once simple way to keep a character alive is to have them blink - something we all do often, without even thinking about it. 

Adam & Eve Mk II Best SciFi at Mid West Fest

Many congratulations to Sebastian Kuder, director of "Adam & Eve Mk II", which has won "Best SciFi Short" at the Mid West Horror Film Festival.

This is the latest in a series of awards for Adam & Eve Mk II,  a sci-fi re-telling of the Genesis story, which was recently a Runner-Up in the category of "Best College Short" at the Brooklyn Sci-Fi Film Festival.

Sebastian Kuder graduated from Escape Studios in the summer of 2019 and is currently working as a PreVis Artist at The Third Floor in London. 

  

Concept Art Returns on 6th January 2021

Escapee Student concept art

Concept Art is back! Our popular evening class returns on 6th January 2021, taught by industry veteran Cenay Oekmen.

Concept Art is a part-time evening class, taught one night a week, running for ten weeks.

Concept Art introduces students to the techniques and skills that go up to make a well-rounded concept artist, including 3D & 2D software.

"Street Ratz" Best Trailer at CFIF Fest

"Street Ratz" Best Trailer at the CFIFF

Many congratulations to the makers of "Street Ratz", which has won "Best Trailer" at the Changing Face International Film Festival in Australia.  

This is the latest award for "Street Ratz", which was nominated for "Best Trailer" at the Assurdo Film Festival in Milan in July.  

Street Ratz" is a teaser/trailer written and directed by Austin Hill, a graduate student at Escape Studios studying for his MA in Storyboarding & Previsualisation.

Mock Interviews at Escape Studios 15 October

Today is the last chance for our students to register for a series of mock interviews with some of our industry partners and mentors, who have kindly offered their time to give our students an idea of what a job interview is actually like.

Learning how to survive an interview is an important part of preparing our students for a career in industry.

Of course, the key to success in the animation, games and VFX industries is primarily about having a great demo reel, easy to find and well-presented.  Once a studio is interested in your demo reel, the next stage is the interview.  

Once the studio has called you to interview, you know they like your reel and are interested in hiring you. Now they want to know - are you the kind of person who shows up on time and is nice to work with?

Home Sweet Home Best Animation in Potenza

Best Animation at Basilicata Film Fest

Many congratulations to the makers of "Home Sweet Home", the short film directed by Escapee Maria Robertson, which has won "Best Animation" at the Basilicata International Film Festival in Potenza, Italy.  

Home Sweet Home is a short film about a gang of discarded sweets trying to make it back to their sweet shop home.  The film, completed in 2019, has won a number of festival awards, including Best Student Animation at the 2018 British Animation Film Festival.

Live Action Reference & The 11 Second Club

This month our second year undergraduate animators are entering the 11 Second Club, part of Module AN5001 in which they learn the art and craft of character animation. 

The 11 Second Club is a monthly character animation competition in which aspiring animators compete to win prizes and get their work noticed. Animators from all over the world participate, animating a character speaking a line of dialogue, sharing their progress with one another and critique each other's work - just like in a real animation studio.

So how to succeed in the 11 Second Club? One dependable method is for animators to film themselves acting out the line of dialogue - using live action reference to guide the animation.

Rookies Ranks Escape No 5 Anim Production

VFX & Anim Production Excellence 2020

We're delighted that The Rookies, the international online competition for aspiring VFX artists, has ranked Escape Studios No5 globally for VFX & Animation Production Excellence.

Production Excellence is an accolade awarded to the very best schools that focus on working as a team to create full 3D Animation short films. 

Team work is something we take very seriously at Escape Studios, one of the five pillars of what we call "The Escape Method". 

Group projects aren't always easy to manage, but our industry is a collaborative one, and well-organised teamwork helps to prepare our students for the realities of life in the industry.

Last Call for Character Design on 19 October

Artwork by Josh O'Brien

Last call for our online Character Design Evening Class, which is returning to Escape Studios on 19 October 2020. 

Character Design is an eight week evening class taught by the very talented Josh O'Brien, an experienced character designer currently working for Blue Zoo Animation in London.

Like all of our courses, this class is taught by a working industry professional; Josh will guide students through the principles of character design, building up to an industry brief.

Webinar with Rich Jeffery Monday 26 October

Rich Jeffrey

We're delighted to welcome Emmy-award-winning Escapee Rich Jeffery back to Escape Studios for an animation webinar on Monday 26 October at 10am. 

Rich will be talking about his career in animation since leaving Escape Studios, what it has been like working on the Australian TV series "Bluey" , which won an International Emmy at the 8th International Emmy Kids Awards this year. 

Rich was animation director on "Bluey" Series One, and director on the Series Two. Rich will be sharing his insights into the animation industry, how we got where he is today, and what students and graduates need to do to succeed.

"Offcut" Wins Best Anim at Beer Town Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Offcut", which has won an award for "Best Animation" at the Beer Town Film Festival in Burton-on-Trent, winning a prize of £500 - plus a good deal of free beer.

This is the fifth festival award for "Offcut", which in July was selected for the finals for "VFX Film of the Year" in The 2020 Rookies.

In June "Offcut" won two awards: "Best Under 5 Minute Film" at the Flicks Film Festival, and Best DOP (Director of Photography) at the "We Make Films Festival" in London.

Animation Webinar with Michael Morgan

Recently we uploaded a Character Animation Webinar with Escape Studios animation tutor Michael Morgan to our Animation YouTube Channel. In this webinar, Michael talks about his approach to character animation, and how he approaches the blocking and execution of a shot. Michael teaches our 20 week evening class in animation, and brings a wealth of experience to teaching, including films such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Beauty and the Beast, and Black Panther.

Quarantine Chorus Best Animation in Paris

"Best Animated Short" at the PRPAA

Many congratulations to the makers of "Quarantine Chorus", the short animated film completed earlier this year by our second-year animation students at Escape Studios, about life under the Corona Lockdown, which has won Best Animated Short at the Prix Royal Paris Film Awards. 

This latest success comes on top of two previous awards: Best Animation at the Berlin Flash Film Festival, and also Best Super Short Film at the Prague Monthly Film Festival.

Steve Burch Course Leader for 4th year MArt

Producer Steve Burch

Veteran animation producer Steve Burch is back at Escape Studios.  Steve joins us as the new Course Leader for the 4th and final year of our Integrated MArt in 3D Animation.

Steve, who has worked on animation classics such as The Iron Giant, Space Jam, and Osmosis Jones, is an experienced producer with a long list of industry credits.

Producing animation is an increasingly important part of what we teach at Escape Studios, as our students collaborate on short film projects, entering festivals and winning awards.

Emily Lim Sarrias Animator at B-Waterstudios

Emily Lim-Sarrias

Many congratulations to Escapee Emily Lim Sarrias, who has recently landed a job on a TV series at B-Waterstudios. 

Emily Lim Sarrias graduated from Escape Studios and soon found work as an animator at MPC in Montreal.

At MPC, Emily has contributed shots to multiple VFX projects, including Artemis Fowl - Time to Believe,  The Voyage of Dr DoLittle, and Call of the Wild.

After leaving Escape Studios Emily joined the Technicolour MPC Academy, on the strength of her strong demo reel and a follow-up interview, and then found work as a junior animator at MPC in Canada.