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. 

Hell Chess Festival

Ruy Lopez Opening

The Hell Chess Festival takes place annually in Spain, and is dedicated to the game of chess. The Ruy Lopez Award is named after the 16th-century Spanish priest and chess champion Ruy López de Segura, whose opening move is still a standard chess move to today. 

Festival Awards for "Draw"

This latest award is the fifth festival win for  "Draw", which previously won a "Winners Award" at the Arte Non Stop Film Festival in Buenos Aires, "Best Micro Film" at the Golden Nugget Film Fest in London, "Best Fight Choreography" at the Flicks Film Festival, "Highest Commendation" at the London Seasonal Short Film Festival in May, and a "Four Stars Award" at the British International Amateur Film Festival.  

Module PR6001

Festival success - five awards

"Draw" was completed as part of the third year animation Module PR6001, a Studio VFX Project worth 60 Credits, in which animators and visual effects artists collaborate to produce a short film.

 

A scene from "Draw"

About "Draw"
Draw is a short film about a game of chess, in which we go beyond the inanimate objects that make up the game and see the combat beneath the surface.

Studio Project
Working with a team of ten students from both the VFX and animation departments, this collaborative short was filmed on location in London, with animation and VFX all completed at Escape Studios.  The live action plates were scanned and tracked, and were completed with digital animation in Maya, composited and rendered in Arnold.

Director Martin Kamminga

Director & Producer
Director Martin Kamminga, from The Netherlands, is a student at Escape Studios in London, studying the Art of Visual Effects.  Draw is his first film. Draw was produced by Conway Dobbs, and the lead animator was Maciej Osuch - who in 2019 directed the award-winning short Golden Acorn.  The 3D VFX Lead was Jake Newton and the 2D VFX Lead was Christopher Fernandes.

Credits

• Martin Kamminga - Director, 3D VFX
• Conway Dobbs - Producer, animator
• Maciej Osuch - Head of Animation
• Clement Gharini - Director of Photography
• Jake Newton - 3D VFX Lead
• Christopher Fernandes - 2D VFX Lead 
• Malvina Hedenberg - Animator
• Will Lum - 3D VFX
• Marlon Neshava - 3D VFX

Project supervisors
The VFX project "Draw" was overseen by our 3rd year tutors:

• Davi Stein, Head of 2D at Escape Studios
• Michael Davies, Animation Tutor and UG program leader
• Jonathan McFall, 3rd year VFX Tutor and UG program leader

Draw at IMDB
You can find Draw at the IMDB here. You can also find "Draw" among the list of winners here at the Golden Nugget Film Festival Official Website.

 
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.