Bonnie Duncan Semi-Finals in Art Competition

Many congratulations to Escape Studios animation student Bonnie Duncan who has made the shortlist for the 2022 Visual Art Open Competition.  

Bonnie entered a number of paintings created in the course of her studies at Escape Studios. 

The competition received over 3000 entries - we are delighted that Bonnie made it to the semi-finals.

"VFX EDU" Comes to Escape on 21 February 2023

The VFX Festival 2023 "EDU", part of The VFX Festival 2023, takes place on Tuesday 21 February 2023 at our central London campus at 190 High Holborn, starting at 10am. 

VFX Festival EDU 2023 is aimed at school and college students under 18 years old who are interested in learning about a career in visual effects, animation, game art and motion graphics.

Animation Tutorials with Marc Stevenson

Marc Stevenson YouTube Channel

Escape Studios' tutor Marc Stevenson 

has built up a comprehensive library of animation video tutorials, which can be found at his personal YouTube Channel here.  

Marc’s animation tutorials are all completely free, and can be used at any time by any of our students to catch up on classroom exercises or develop their animation skills. 

"Mechamorphosis" wins "Best VFX" at FOF Awards

Mechamorphosis: Best VFX at the Future of Film Awards

Congratulations to the makers of "Mechamorphosis", which has won Best Visual Effects at the Future of Film Awards.

Mechamorphosis was written and produced by Alberto Scotti and directed by Ilaria Colavito, both of who are now working as Studio Assistants at Escape Studios.  

Animation was completed by Steven Lall.  Hélios Lyons did the sound design and composed the original music.  The project was overseen by Head of Animation Michael Davies. 

"The Stellar Rescue" Hon. Mention for Best Animation

"The Stellar Rescue"  Hon. Mention Best Animation Milan 

Congratulations to the makers of "The Stellar Rescue", which has won an Honourable Mention in the category of Best Animation at the Milan Gold Film Festival

"The Stellar Rescue" was written and directed by Anthony Sarmiento, and produced by Wiktoria Swierk.  It was created as part of a group project by second-year animation students, working together as a team.   The Stellar Rescue tells the story of a young boy who must rescue a fallen baby star and return it to its parents.

Introducing "Papercut"

Escape Studios is proud to present "Papercut", the latest short film created by our animation and VFX students at Escape Studios.  Directed by Giorgos Konstantinou and produced by Victoria Arraez, Papercut was a collaboration between 3rd year undergraduate animation and vfx students, working together to create an original short film.  Studio projects such as this one are part of what we call The Escape Method - bringing together students with multiple talents to work in teams and produce an industry-quality outcome. 

Rianna Patel 33rd out of 241 Entries in 11 Second Club

Many congratulations to Escape Studios student Rianna Patel who came 33rd out of 241 Entries in the November 2022 11 Second Club Competition.  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, which is provided on the first day of every month by the club.

"Working with Dinosaurs" Wins Best Director Award

Many congratulations to the makers of the animated short film "Working with Dinosaurs", which has won its second festival award: "Best Director (Super Short Film)" at the Art Film Awards. 

Working with Dinosaurs is a "mockumentary" short film completed by 2nd year undergraduate animation students at Escape Studios, working alongside industry mentors Framestore.  The film was directed by Daniel Dutton and Harry Pearson, and produced by Velvet Brandon.  Storyboards and Art Direction were by Sarah Andrews; Effects Animation was by Adam Scrivener, and the CG supervisor was Piotr Noworyta.  

AI is Coming, How Will it Change Animation & VFX?

AI is coming, and it's time for everyone in the creative industries, including our students at Escape Studios, to get ready for the changes to come.  

AI represents the biggest technical advance in the animation & VFX industry since 3D animation began to replace traditional hand-animated feature films in the early 2000s.  Artificial Intelligence is here; the question is - how do we make the best use of it?

"Mechamorphosis" Wins Best VFX at Art Film Awards

Mechamorphosis Best VFX at AFA

Congratulations to the makers of "Mechamorphosis", which has won Best Visual Effects at the Art Film Awards.

Mechamorphosis was written and produced by Alberto Scotti and directed by Ilaria Colavito, both of who are now working as Studio Assistants at Escape Studios.  

Animation was completed by Steven Lall, and Hélios Lyons did the sound design and composed the original music.  The project was overseen by Head of Animation Michael Davies. 

"Quarantine Chorus" Wins Award at 1st Fest

Many congratulations to the makers of "Quarantine Chorus", which has won "Best Quarantine Film" at the 1st Monthly Film Festival.

This is the latest of many festival awards for Quarantine Chorus, a short story about life under Lockdown in a small town in Italy.  

The film was directed by Edoardo Sartori, produced by Nickoel Izharudin and edited by Paloma Zhu; it was based on an original idea by Tequila Mason. 

2022 Art of Games Reel at Escape Studios

Above is our 2022 Games Reel, our latest edit of the best work done by our talented students studying the Art of Games at Escape Studios.  Like animation, games has grown enormously at Escape Studios over the last few years, and the quality of the work done by our students speaks for itself.  The games industry itself has expanded rapidly in recent years, overtaking the film industry to be one of the biggest employers in the UK, offering excellent career opportunities for those with the right skillset.

"Vivi Ossa" Wins Best Micro Short for 2022

Many congratulations to the makers of "Vivi Ossa", which has won the 2022 Annual Award for "Best Micro Short" at the Dreamachine Film Festival.

Directed by Callum Walters and produced by Matthew Wight, 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.  Piraveen Satkunam: was the 3D lead, and Mitchell Searle was the 2D lead.

Vivi Ossa has won many festival awards.

2022 VFX Showreel

Escape Studios was founded 20 years ago to teach the skills needed to service the rapidly growing visual effects industry, in which there was a desperate shortage of talent.  This we still do, and VFX remains at the heart of everything we do at Escape Studios.  To see some of the latest work done by our talented VFX students, check out the 2022 VFX Showreel above.

"Lighting for Animators" is Back on 26 Jan 2023

Steve Lall teaching at Escape Studios

Animation tutor Steve Lall is back on Thursday 26 January 2023 at to teach our 2nd year animation students the fundamentals of lighting animation in Arnold.

An understanding of lighting in Maya is a necessary part of the animation pipeline, and vital for the short films our students will make in PR5001, the 2nd year Studio Project Module which begins in 2022.

Steve will cover the fundamentals of lighting with Arnold, showing how our animators can achieve successful lighting setups with minimal complexity. We also have a series of videos on lighting at our Vimeo Channel to support the classroom instruction.

"Picture Us", Wins "Best Production Design" Award

Congratulations to the makers of "Picture Us", which has won "Best Production Design" at the London International Film Festival.

“Picture Us” is an animated short film set inside an art gallery, in which two old master paintings fall in love, and must find a way to be together.   

Picture Us was written and directed by Tom Perry and produced by Charlotte Ann Gimbird.   

The Production Designer was Molly McCabe and Eliezer Girma  was Character Designer. 

This is the latest of many film festival awards for Picture Us.  

Molly McCabe Animator at Pop Paper City

Molly McCabe

Many congratulations to Escapee Molly McCabe who has recently joined Aardman Animation's "Pop Paper City" as an animator.

"Pop Paper City" is a new animated TV series being distributed by Aardman Animations and produced by Lovelove films.

Pop Paper City is a preschool craft TV show. The series focuses on a group of paper friends as they find ways to have fun together by creating new parts of their paper world. 

Molly McCabe worked on a number of award-winning short films at Escape Studios, including "Solitude", which she directed.  Molly also contributed to "Picture Us" and "The Beauty of Nature".

New BSc/MSci Degrees for Animation, Games & VFX

"Goblin" by Paul Strachan, MA Character Creation

We're delighted to announce three new undergraduate "Tech Degrees" now recruiting for September 2023.  All three degrees have come about as a result of long consultation with industry, seeking to establish the right mix of creativity and technical skills needed in the modern animation, games and VFX industries. 

Our three new courses are BSc/MSci Technical Art for Games & VFX, BSc/MSci Video Games Design
and BSc/MSci Character Creation for Animation, Games and VFX. 

How AI is Changing Animation, Games & VFX

 Potion by Simeon Fenton with Midjourney

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the face of the creative industries.  

This image on the left of a fantasy potion bottle was created by Simon Fenton, our Dean of Interactive and Real Time, using Midjourney.

The brief was to create a potion bottle that had "an angelic and/or demonic feel to it".

The whole process, including multiple iterations of the potion bottle, took just a tiny fraction of the time that a traditional concept artist would take using digital tools - let alone old school pens and brushes.

 

AI is changing the face of the creative industries, but how should artists respond to the challenge? 

"Mechamorphosis" Wins Best VFX in Athens

Congratulations to the makers of "Mechamorphosis", which has won Best Visual Effects at the Athens Film Festival.

Mechamorphosis was written and produced by Alberto Scotti and directed by Ilaria Colavito, both of who are now working as Studio Assistants at Escape Studios.  

Animation was completed by Steven Lall, and Hélios Lyons did the sound design and composed the original music.  

The project was overseen by Escape Studios Head of Animation Michael Davies. 

Julien Rashti to Teach "Animation 1" in Jan 2023

Julien Rashti

In January 2023 we welcome Julien Rashti to Escape Studios as our newest animation tutor. 

Julien will be teaching AN4001 "Locomotion & Mechanics" to our first year animation students from January 2023.

Julien comes to us from MPC where he worked on animated films such as "Pinocchio", "Disenchanted" and the forthcoming remake of Disney's "Snow White".

Julien has skills in both 3D and also 2D animation - as we broaden our animation teaching to embrace the recent revival in 2D computer animation. 

Studio Module PR5001 Starts 13 Feb 2023

"Love, Mum" was created in PR5001

On 13th February 2023 our 2nd year undergraduate animation students begin Studio Project Module PR5001, where animators collaborate together on group projects, creating short films - the culmination of the second year of study at Escape Studios.

The Studio Projects are designed to simulate as closely as possible the experience of working on a live client project.  It runs for 12 weeks until the end of the summer term in May.

The Studio Project is worth 45 credits and is broken up into two six week projects, Project A and Project B, giving students two chances to practice their film-making, animation, and story-telling skills. 

Project A is due on Wednesday 29th March. Project B is due on 17th May, the Retrospective is due on 19th May. 

Character & Creature Creation Returns 2 Oct 2023

Lizard Creature by Paul Strachan

We're delighted to announce the return of our new short course in Character and Creature Creation on 2nd October 2023.

This 12 week course in Character & Creature Creation - first launched in September 2021 - is all about designing, modeling, and rigging your own characters, with a view to becoming a Character Artist at a Games, Animation or VFX house.  

Students learn all the stages of character creation from design through to final render.   To apply, visit the official course page here.  

"Post-Mortem" Wins Hon Mention for Best Short

Post Mortem Wins Hon. Mention at London Movie Awards

Congratulations to the makers of  the VFX short "Post Mortem" which has won an Honourable Mention in the category of "Best Super Short Film" at the London Movie Awards. 

Post Mortem was directed by Toby Haslam and Ridma Suriyagoda, and produced by Aidan Callaghan, who was also the 3D Lead.  Scott Middleton was the 2D Lead. 

Post Mortem takes place in a futuristic secure facility, where a surgeon performs an autopsy on a mysterious patient.  This is Post Mortem's seventh festival award.

Steve Sole Teaches Production Design 23 Jan

Steve Sole...and Mr Bean 

On Monday 23rd January 2023 we welcome back designer & visual development artist Steven Sole to teach the fundamentals of Production Design for Animation. 

Production Design is a vital part of making a short film.  What will the film look like? What is the colour palette?

Steven will be teaching our 2nd year undergraduate students, who are currently working on their Specialism Module CR5001.

"Minuet" Wins Hon Mention for Music in Hollywood

Minuet wins "Honourable Mention" in Hollywood

Congratulations to the makers of Minuet, which has won an "Honourable Mention" in the Category of "Best Original Score" at the Hollywood Gold Awards. 

Minuet is a short film about a young girl preparing for a concert recital, directed by Aaron Hopwood and Harry Pearson, and produced by Maddison Gould.   The original score was composed by Alexandra Harwood.  Minuet has won many festival awards. 

Iliana Franklin Teaches Storyboarding Thurs Jan 19

Iliana Franklin Teaching at Escape Studios

Escape Studios' Head of Story Iliana Franklin is back on Thursday Jan 19th 2023 to teach "Storyboarding for Animators" to our Second Year animation students.

Iliana teaches our master's degree in Storyboarding and Previsualisation, and also runs her own production company Mediaframe.

Iliana's class will help our animation students learn the art and craft of storyboarding, a necessary part of the film-making process and a vital skill as our students get ready for their 2nd year studio projects.

VFX Festival is Back February 21-23 2023

2023 VFX Festival is Coming Soon

The VFX Festival is back!  In the New Year the 2023 VFX Festival returns to Escape Studios. 

Like last year it will run as a hybrid event, both online and also in person. The event runs from 21-23 February. 

We're hosting the 2023 VFX Festival at Escape Studios at our midTown Campus at 190 High Holborn, and streaming the events for a live online audience. To book your tickets, follow this link to thevfxfestival.com.

A Long Way Home Wins Best Trailer at 1stMFF

Congratulations to the makers of A Long Way Home, which has won an award for at the Best Trailer at the 1st Monthly Film Festival.

A Long Way Home is a teaser/trailer directed by Harrison Bell and produced by Josiah Martin-Lofters, about an orphaned girl searching for her biological mother.  

The film was edited by Cameron Haley, the CG Supervisor was Nicole Widmer.  A Long Way Home has won many festival awards. 

Animate a Weight Shift with Monty

Monty Weight Shift

We've uploaded a new tutorial to our Vimeo Tutorial Channel - How to Animate a weight shift using the free character rig "Monty", which you can download from Creative Crash.   

One of the hardest things to achieve in 3D animation is the creation a sense of weight. Weight is hard to simulate because our characters are just pixels - they have no intrinsic weight, so we have to create the illusion of weight from scratch.  

This tutorial shows how to transfer weight so that the character does not appear floaty or weightless.

December 2022 11 Second Club - Time to Enter

This month at Escape Studios our second year undergraduate student animators are polishing their character animation skills by entering The 11 Second Club, the 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, which is provided on the first day of every month by the club. 

Comedy for Animators with Joe Dieffenbacher

Joe Dieffenbacher

Tomorrow, Tuesday 6 December 2022, we welcome actor, clown and improv artist Joe Dieffenbacher to Escape Studios, to teach a masterclass in "Physical Comedy for Animators" with our Short Course and MA Animation students.

Joe's class is a practical, physical workshop in acting skills, aimed specifically at helping animators to create more believable, authentic (and funny) acting choices in their work.

Animators are actors - with a pencil or a mouse - and we need to learn how to make a strong acting performance and then translate that into our on-screen animation.

"Love, Mum" Wins Best Student Film-Maker Award

Love, Mum wins Best Student Film-Maker at EEFF

Congratulations to the makers of "Love, Mum", the short film created by our second-year students at Escape Studios, which has won the "Best Student Film-Maker" award at the Eastern Europe Film Festival.

"Love, Mum"  tells the story of a young woman who tries to find the secret ingredient in her beloved mother's favourite recipe.  

"Love, Mum" was written, directed and edited by Amelia Watson, and produced by Llewelyn Whitney.  

Chrissy Metge: "Producing for Animators" 9 Jan 2023

Chrissy Metge

We're delighted to welcome back animation & VFX producer Chrissy Metge to teach a class on "Producing for Animators" to our second year undergraduate animators at Escape Studios on Monday 9th January 2023.

Chrissy is an experienced producer, and also creative director at Fuzzy Duckling Media and Duckling Publishing.  She has worked in the animation film and TV industry for 18 years, and has film credits on many movies, including VFX blockbusters The Hobbit, Ironman 3 and Hunger Games 2.

You can see Chrissy's full list of credits at her IMDB page here. 

Chosen Wins "Best Micro Short" at Golden Eagle

"Chosen" Best Micro Short at Golden Eagle Film Fest

Congratulations to Escape Studios animation student Pietro Mingione whose short animated film "Chosen" has won Best Micro Short at the Golden Eagle Film Festival. 

Chosen was animated and directed by Escape Studios animation student Pietro Mingione.  "Chosen" is a short animated film about the power of faith.  

Pietro took our MA in 3D Animation at Escape Studios, taught by veteran animator Lee Caller.  

Simon Browne to Teach Houdini at Escape Studios

Simon Browne Teaches Houdini

Escape Studios welcomes veteran VFX artist Simon Browne in early January 2023 to Teach Houdini to our second year undergraduate VFX students, as part of their Specialism Module CR5001. 

Simon Browne has worked in TV, advertising and corporate media. He specialises in simulation-based animation,  but he is also an experienced 3D animator with over 20 years of experience.

Simon has experience with Matchmove, Coding, and is skilled in Maya, Houdini, 3DSMax, Redshift, After Effects and Unity. 

"Mechamorphosis" Wins Hon Mention in Tokyo

Mechamorphosis: Best VFX (Hon Mention) in Tokyo

Congratulations to the makers of "Mechamorphosis", which has won an Honourable Mention in the category of Best Visual Effects at the Tokyo International Film Festival.

Mechamorphosis was written and produced by Alberto Scotti and directed by Ilaria Colavito, both of who are now working as Studio Assistants at Escape Studios.  Animation was completed by Steven Lall, and Hélios Lyons did the sound design and composed the original music.  The project was overseen by Head of Animation Michael Davies.