Art Foundation Module Starts in September

Photobash by Andy Ramlika

One of the first mini-modules our students will tackle in their first year at Escape Studios is the "Art Foundation" module, taught by Escape Studios' tutor Lorenzo Maniccia

In Art Foundation our students will learn the basics of human anatomy and the fundamentals of environment design.  

Students are asked to produce anatomical sketches, assemble a moodboard and do thumbnail sketches - all in preparation for a final "photobash" concept artwork. 

 

Year 1 at Escape Studios

Thumbnail sketches

Starting in September our new students will arrive at Escape Studios, embarking on their first year of studies, a general year which is common to all our undergraduate courses.  To see more about what's in the first year at Escape Studios, read this blog post. 

Art Foundation Module

The Art Foundation Module is part of Module CR4002 – Creative Foundations, and starts in September 2022.  Art Foundation is taught by Escape Studios' tutor Lorenzo Maniccia. 

In Art Foundation, students engage with shape design, anatomy, moodboards, thumbnails - building up to a basic Photobash concept art piece. 

Art Foundation "Photobash"

What You Will Learn

By the end of this mini-module our students should know how to:

• Sketch basic volumes
• Sketch a basic anatomy study
• Assemble a moodboard
• Produce a quick thumbnail (it shouldn’t take longer than 15 mins) consistent with the idea of the moodboard
• Produce a basic photobash, ideally preparatory for a matte painting (it needs to be as close to photoreal as possible.

Moodboards

What is a "Mood Board"?

A Mood Board is a type of visual presentation or 'collage' consisting of images, typically taken from the web, and combined into a composition.  

Mood boards are used to begin the process of visual development and exploration, to find the right feeling or "mood" of a project, before investing in original artwork.

What is a "Photobash"?

"Photobashing" is a digital art technique commonly used by concept artists. The process involves the merging and blending ("bashing") of photographic images and/or 3d assets to create or composite a final piece of artwork. It is widely used in visual development to create art and design for client projects. 

 

Tutor: Lorenzo Mannicia

Lorenzo Mannicia

Art Foundation is taught by Lorenzo Mannicia, one of our newest VFX tutors at Escape Studios, and an experienced 2D VFX artist with skills in compositing and also in matte painting.  

Lorenzo teaches 2D VFX (Compositing) to our first year undergraduate students, helping to prepare them on their visual effects journey. 

As well as his experience in VFX, Lorenzo has also contributed to the creation of open source educational software (So.Di.Linux) for students.  

Lorenzo Mannicia Demo Reel

You can see some of Lorenzo's matte painting work below:

Lorenzo Maniccia - DMP reel 2019 from Lorenzo Maniccia on Vimeo.

Lorenzo Mannicia

"I've been working with the Escape undergraduate students since the very first programme back in September 2016, first as a Studio Assistant and then progressing to a role as 2D VFX tutor for the first year.  During this time I also had the opportunity to work as a 3D DMP (digital matte painter) at MPC and also undertook a number of freelance assignments.

At university in Italy I studied literature, philosophy, and fine art. Later I realised I was driven to do something more practical and visual, and that's when my adventure with Escape started."

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.