Meet the VFX Team at Escape Studios

VFX Team at Escape Studios

Meet the VFX Team at Escape Studios! VFX is the jewel in the crown at Escape Studios, it's at the very root of what we do, where we began 20 years ago when the VFX Industry was just starting to boom.

Back in the early 2000s there were few places in the UK where students could learn the necessary skills to land that crucial first job in the industry. 

Today, Escape Studios is ranked No 1 in the UK by The Rookies for VFX Production.

Below, in no particular order, are our talented tutors who teach the art and craft of VFX at Escape Studios, helping to ensure we remain the UK's leading centre for the study of VFX.

2D VFX Team - Compositing

Klaudija Cermak

Klaudija Cermak

Klaudija Cermak teaches the Art of Compositing for VFX at Escape Studios; she teaches the short course (12 weeks) in VFX Compositing as well as teaching the second year undergraduate students and also postgraduate students.

Klaudija has over 20 years experience on commercials, broadcast TV and feature films.  Klaudija has worked at most of the major post-production houses in London including MPC, Mill, Millfilm, Framestore, Double Negative and Glassworks.  

Klaudija's feature film credits include hits such as Ridley Scott's Gladiator, ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’ and ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’.  You can listen to Klaudija's VFX Podcast here. 

Sokratis Synitos

Sokratis Synitos

Sokratis Synitos has many years of experience in compositing for both film and TV, and teaches the Art of Compositing to our Short Course and MA students.  

Sokratis has worked on projects at studios such as DNEG, Cinesite and Warner Bros.  Sokratis has degrees in computer engineering and also in film studies. He is also a graduate of the 12 weeks compositing VFX program of Escape Studios.

Sokratis has worked on many major films including: Spectre, Avengers: Endgame as well as episodes of Black Mirror, Altered Carbon and Dr. Who. You can find Sokratis here at the IMDB.  

Clement Gharini

Clement Gharini

Clement Gharini teaches Cinematography and Compositing on our Visual Effects courses, especially our first and also third year undergraduate students.  

Clement Gharini started 20 years ago as a cameraman on productions such as Harry Potter and Mission Impossible.  Clement then turned to Visual Effects and became a Digital Compositor for 10 years, contributing to productions such as Game of Thrones, Doctor Who as well as Oscar winning Ex Machina.   Clem also specialises in virtual production, creating photo realistic digital humans.

Clement teaches cinematography to our first year undergraduate students, in which students get experience with live action cameras. He also teaches compositing to our 3rd year VFX students, and runs the motion capture pipeline at Escape Studios.

Lorenzo Mannicia

Lorenzo Mannicia is an experienced 2D VFX artist with skills in compositing and also matte painting.  Lorenzo has also worked as a localiser of open source educational software (So.Di.Linux) for students. A number of projects have involved the translation of operative guides specifically arranged for young students.  

Lorenzo teaches 2D VFX (Compositing) to our first year undergraduate students. 

3D VFX Team 

Dan Shutt

Dan Shutt

Dan Shutt is one of our most experienced VFX tutors, with over 23 years’ experience in a wide variety of 3D fields, from feature film effects and games graphics, to TV commercials and architectural rendering.  He has been with Escape Studios since 2009. 

Dan Shutt’s early work in architecture included rendering the Sega World amusement attraction in Piccadilly Circus, before moving on to roles within the games industry at Sierra and Divide By Zero.  Daniel worked in post-production for Lost in Space, on projects for clients such as the BBC, Discovery Channel, National Geographic, Channel 4 and ITV.  

Dan teaches our short course and MA in 3D VFX, and is also an expert in Houdini.  You can listen to Dan's VFX Podcast here. 

Sagar Rathod

Sagar Rathod is one of our newest VFX tutors at Escape Studios. Sagar a veteran 3D digital artist with almost 20 years' experience in the visual effects industry.  

Sagar's many film credits include Fantastic Beasts, Kingsman, Alien: Covenant, and Guardians of the Galaxy.

Sagar is teaching the 2nd year VFX and animation students as they join forces on the VFX Project, which runs from September 2022 until the end of December. 

Mark Spevick

Mark Spevick

Mark Spevick has many years of experience working in industry and six working in higher education and teaching.  

Mark Spevick started at Peerless Camera, the production house co-owned by Terry Gilliam, and worked on every Gilliam film from ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ to ‘The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus’.  

Mark is one of our in-house experts in Houdini, and has created a number of online tutorials in Houdini.  Mark is our Head of Industry Training, and works in industry, most recently at Framestore, one of the UK's leading VFX production houses.  

Carlos Poon

Carlos Poon

Carlos Poon has worked across all major 3D industries for 14 years, starting in industrial design, then working as Assistant Technical Supervisor on the BAFTA winning TV series 'Tiny Planets'.  

Carlos worked as FMV supervisor for five games titles including 'Lego Bionicles', and worked as a VFX Artist on the HBO series 'Rome' and on the Oscar-winning 'Inception'. Carlos Poon has worked at studios including Double Negative and Cinesite.

Carlos Poon teaches 3D VFX to the second year VFX students at Escape Studios.  

Federico Arculeo

Federico Arculeo

Federico Arculeo is a 3D tutor at Escape Studios with experience in higher education and also in industry; his film credits include "Thor: Love and Thunder" on which Federico worked as a matchmove artist.

Federico Arculeo teaches 3D VFX to our first year undergraduate animation and vfx students. 

Compositing Short Course

To sign up for our short course (12 weeks) in VFX Compositing, follow this link to the official site.

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. For the next 12 week animation course, click here.