"Golden Acorn" Best Trailer at Vesuvius Fest

Many congratulations to the makers of "The Golden Acorn", which has just won Best Teaser/Trailer at the Vesuvius Film Festival in Naples, Italy.

This is the second award for The Golden Acorn, which also won Best Teaser/Trailer at the Golden Nugget International Film Festival in 2019. 

"The Golden Acorn" is a movie trailer completed by 2nd year undergraduate Escape Studios Animation students, as part of their Studio Project module, written and directed by Maciej Osuch and Produced by Miguel Teixeira. 

Merry Christmas from Escape Studios!

Merry Christmas from everyone in the Animation Dept. at Escape Studios! Check out our animated Christmas Card "A Buck For Christmas" above, written, directed and animated by undergraduate animation student Shenaaz Suliman, who worked on this project even as she completed all her academic deadlines. We would like to take this opportunity to wish all our students, staff and Escapees a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year; despite everything, this past year has been a year of successes for us at Escape Studios, with dozens of our student films winning awards at film festivals, and many of our students and Escapees successfully breaking into the animation industry.  

Street Ratz Best Trailer at Golden Nugget Fest

"Street Ratz" Best Trailer at Golden Nugget

Many congratulations to the makers of "Street Ratz", which has won "Best Trailer" at the Golden Nugget Film Festival.

This is the third festival award for "Street Ratz", which recently won Best Trailer at the Vesuvius Film Festival, "Best Trailer" at the Changing Face International Film Festival in Australia, and was also 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, produced by Jack Wright, and supervised by Amedeo Beretta. 

Introducing "Palindromo"

We are proud to present "Palindromo", the latest animated short film created at Escape Studios, written and directed by Paolo Amadini, and overseen by Supervising Tutor Amedeo Beretta. 

"Palindromo" is a science-fiction short exploring the logical conundrum behind time travel. 

"Palindromo" translates into English as "palindrome", meaning a short sentence which is spelled the same forwards and backwards (a famous example of a palindrome is: "a man, a plan, a canal, panama").

Why is Paolo's film called Palindrome? Watch the short to find out - it is just two minutes long.

Paolo Amadini is a student at Escape Studios, studying for his MA in the Art of Computer Animation. 

"Palindromo" was completed as part of the final animation module, in which students must complete a short film project of their own.

Animal Lover "Best Animation" at Flicks Fest

Animal Lover - Best Animation at Flicks

Many congratulations to the makers of the short film "Animal Lover", which has won "Best Animation" at the Flicks Film Festival in London. 

"Animal Lover" is a one-minute animated short written and directed by Anastasia Gurova, produced by Priya Shah, and edited by Daniel Brand-Sinyinza.  

This is the first festival award for "Animal Lover", which was a collaboration between students on our MA in Storyboarding and Previsualisation, and undergraduate students studying the art of computer animation. The film has also been a finalist in four festivals, and a semi-finalist in two. 

Character Creation is Back on 26 April 2021

Character Creation by Max Brazier Jones

Our 18 week evening class in Character Creation returns to Escape Studios on Monday 26th April 2021.

This evening course teaches students how to design and create their own character designs, and bring them to life. Over 18 weeks you will design, model, texture, rig and animate your own character.

The Character Creation course is taught by Jonathan McFall, an experienced 3D artist and veteran of many VFX hits including the Harry Potter series, Men in Black 3, and Immortals.

AN4001 Starts 4th January 2021

Robot Bug by Edoardo Sartori

For our first year undergraduates, our core animation module - Animation 1 - starts on Monday 4th January 2021.

AN4001 is a 15 Credit module that teaches the fundamentals of character and creature animation. 

The module, which is taught by veteran animation Marc Stevenson, lasts for four weeks, and covers all the basic principles of animation.

Scholarship Deadline 4 January 2021

The clock is ticking to apply for a scholarship to study on one of our postgraduate degrees in 3D Animation, Game Art, 3D VFX, 2D VFX, and Storyboarding & Previsualisation.

At Escape Studios we offer a £8,000 scholarship to one successful applicant for each postgraduate degree, significantly reducing the cost of study.

Don't wait! Apply now. The deadline is 4th January 2021.

Marc Stevenson To Teach Anim 1 on 4 January

Marc Stevenson

We're delighted to welcome back veteran animator Marc Stevenson, who will be joining us at Escape Studios early on 4th January to teach animation basics - AN4001 - to our first year undergraduate students.

Marc has credits on many Hollywood hit films including Fast & Furious 6, Avengers, Age of Ultron, Moon, and Victor Frankenstein.

Marc has also taught a number of classes to our short course animators, and is very familiar with Escape Studios and our systems. He has also created many online tutorials for our students, which you can find at our Animation Vimeo Channel.

Tutorial on Physical Shaders in Arnold

We've uploaded a new series of tutorials at our Vimeo Channel, on the use of Physical Shaders in Arnold, taught by UG Program leader Michael Davies.  

In these tutorials you will learn how to create materials for glass, metal, thin film & iridium, sub-surface scattering, and cloth.

CR5001 Specialism Anim Starts 4 January 2021

Leopard animation by Daniel Amor

Module CR5001 "Animation Specialism" starts on January 4th 2021. 

The second year of animation studies at Escape Studios is where our students begin to focus on individual proficiency in the craft of animation.

The Specialism Module (Module Code CR5001) is a self-study module in which students must select an area of specialism and develop their proficiency in that area. CR5001 is worth 15 credits and runs for five weeks, culminating in a portfolio presentation.

"Joe" Wins "Best Genre Film" at Heroes Fest

Many congratulations to the makers of Joe, which has won the "Best Genre Short Film" Award at the Heroes International Film Festival.

 "Joe" is a short film directed by Callum Reeve and produced by Aidan Lonergan, completed as part of animation Module PR6001,  a Studio Project worth 60 Credits. 

This is the third festival award for Joe, which won the "Director's Choice" award at the Sci-On film festival and a "Four Stars Award" at the British International Amateur Film Festival.

"Vivi Ossa" Wins "Best Trailer" at Prague Fest

Many congratulations to the makers of "Vivi Ossa", which has won the award for "Best Trailer" at the Prague Monthly Film Festival.

Vivi Ossa (Latin for "living bones") is a short film about a museum visitor who brings ancient bones to life through the power of music.

This is the fifth festival award for Vivi Ossa, which has already won "Best One Minute Film" at the Varese Film Festival, Best Microfilm at the Golden Nugget Film Festival, the Zero Budget Film Festival, and a "Special Mention" at the London Seasonal Short Film Festival.

MoCap Comes to Escape Studios

Last week Motion Capture came to Escape Studios, as cinematographer and film-maker Clement Gharini tested out his new XSens MoCap suit on our student projects. We're delighted to be working with Clem  - the XSens system is one of the best on the market, and offers a user-friendly solution to the challenges of motion capture hardware.  MoCap expert and Escape Studios tutor Amedeo Beretta was on hand to process the data - a "soup to nuts" pipeline in which the MoCap performance was successfully captured and then re-targeted onto the students' animation rigs.

"Over Under" Wins "Most Fabulous Animation"

Over Under - "Most Fabulous Animation"

Many congratulations to the makers of "Over Under" , which has won an award for "Most Fabulous Animation" at the Animafantasia Film Festival 2020. 

This is the second award for Over Under, which recently won an award for "Best Sci-Fi" at the Flicks Monthly Film Festival.  "Over Under" is a short fantasy sci-fi film directed by Lucy Harris and produced by Aidan Lonergan.

Hat Shop Wins Best Super Short at UK Fest

"Hat Shop": "Best Super Short"

Congratulations to the makers of "Hat Shop", which has won "Best Super Short" at the UK Monthly Film Festival. 

"Hat Shop" is a short film set in a futuristic robot world, written and directed by Stevie Stedman, produced by Jess Hiles, animation directed by Ross Green.  

This the fourth award for Hat Shop, which recently won "Best Animation" and "Best Sci-Fi" at the Flicks Film Festival, and "Most Awesome Animation" at the International Student Animafantasia Film Festival. 

UFO Animation Tutorial With Blend Shapes

UFO Animation with Blend Shapes by Gabriel Munn

We've uploaded a new tutorial to our expanding Vimeo Tutorial Channel.  This latest tutorial demonstrates how to animate Blend Shapes (also known as Morph Targets) in Maya; you can find the tutorial here at our Vimeo channel.  

Create a simple object (a cube) and turn it into a shape-shifting UFO - as in this example by Escapee Gabriel Munn.  Blend Shapes, which are used extensively in facial rigging, are a simple animation technique that can yield impressive results. 

Quarantine Chorus Wins "Most Heartwarming"

Quarantine Chorus: "Most Heartwarming Animation"

Many congratulations to the makers of "Quarantine Chorus", which has won an award for "Most Heartwarming Animation" at the Animafantasia Film Festival.

Quarantine Chorus, which has now won seven festival awards, is a short animated film about life under Lockdown, and a celebration of the human spirit. It was based on an original idea by Tequila Mason, directed by Edoardo Sartori, edited by Paloma Zhu, and produced by Nickoel Izharudin. 

Michael Gandham on Animation Startups 7 Dec

Michael Gandham

This week on Monday 7 December at 10am Escape Studios welcomes animator and producer Michael Gandham, who founded his own Animation Studio, Arcus Animation, based in Gateshead, Newcastle Upon Tyne.

Arcus Animation are a 2D animation studio that creates broadcast animation, promotional videos, video installations, in-house original content and also develops new IP.  Their clients include CBBC and E4.

This event is for current students at Escape Studios, who are invited to find out how Michael built his company, how Arcus works, and what it takes to land a job as an animator with Arcus. 

At the end of the webinar there will be a Q&A, when Michael will take questions from our students.

Draw Wins "Best Director" at Hell Chess Fest

Escape Studios is proud to announce that the short film "Draw", directed by Martin Kamminga, and produced by Conway Dobbs, has won "Best Director" at the Hell Chess festival.  

The Hell Chess Festival takes place annually in Campo de Gibraltar, Spain.

This is the fifth festival award for Draw, a short animated film in which two kings battle for mastery of the chessboard. 

Charlotte Gimbird QC Animations at YouTube

QC Animations

QC Animations is a YouTube Channel created by Charlotte Ann Gimbird, a second year undergraduate student at Escape Studios, studying the Art of Computer Animation. 

QC Animations has over 80,000 subscribers, with hundreds of thousands of views every month. 

Charlotte has found critical and commercial success in one of the biggest-growing parts of the animation industry - YouTube video animation.  In the case of QC Animations, Charlotte's universe is built about the world of Minecraft - the world's most popular video game.  

Escape Studios' Free Software Handbook

Escape Studios' first ever Software Handbook is now live, and ready to download.

The Software Handbook, which is completely free, is designed to help our students learn more about the key software that is currently used in the creative industries.

The Software Handbook also helps identify the free software that our students can download at no cost, and use to start polishing their skills.

"Hat Shop" Wins Two Awards At Flicks Fest

"Hat Shop": Best Anim & Best Sci-Fi at Flicks

Congratulations to the makers of "Hat Shop", which has won two more awards: "Best Animation" and "Best Sci-Fi" at the Flicks Film Festival.

"Hat Shop" is a short film set in a futuristic robot world, written and directed by Stevie Stedman, produced by Jess Hiles, animation directed by Ross Green.  

These are the second and third awards for Hat Shop, which recently won "Most Awesome Animation" at the International Student Animafantasia Film Festival.