Industry Feedback with Max Howard Thurs 2 March

Max Howard

Veteran Animation producer and former Disney executive Max Howard will join us on Thursday 2 March and Tuesday 7 March at Escape Studios, giving feedback to our second year animation students on their short film projects.

Max has years of experience of animation production, having run animation divisions at Disney, DreamWorks and Warner Bros Feature Animation.

Industry feedback is at the heart of what we do at Escape Studios; one of the Five Pillars of the Escape Method.  Our second year animation students are currently working in groups on their short film projects, part of Module PR5001. 

"Papercut" Wins "Best Creative" at Halicarnassus Fest

"Papercut" wins "Best Creative" at Halicarnassus Fest.

Many congratulations to makers of the VFX short film "Papercut", which has won "Best Creative" at the Halicarnassus Film Festival.
  

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.   

This is the latest festival award for Papercut.

New Sound Design Resources in UG Shares

Sound waves

We've added a huge number of new sound effects to our existing Sound Design Resources in the UG Shares drive. UG Shares contains resources for all our undergraduate students, such as rigs, sets and props, and also filmmaking resources such as sound effects.

Good sound design is a vital part of the film-making process.  50% of the experience of enjoying a film is audio, and yet when teaching film-making we tend to focus most of our attention on what we see with our eyes, sometimes neglecting the importance of sound.  Animators might not always realise it - but we definitely need good sound design.

Storyboarding is Back on 23 March 2024

"Brodiaga" by Anastasia Gurova

Our evening class in Storyboarding returns on 23 March 2024. This evening class in storyboarding is an online class, taught from 7-10pm, and runs for ten weeks.

Storyboarding is a growing area of the animation industry; one which has recorded significant skills shortages in recent years.

Our storyboard students have gone on to successful careers at studios such as Walt Disney, Brown Bag Films and Blue Zoo Animation.

"iCare" Wins "Silver Award" at Milan Gold Awards

"iCare", wins Silver Award in Milan

Congratulations to the makers of the short VFX film "iCare", which has won a Silver Award for Best Student Film at the Milan Gold Awards.

Directed by Bruno Urzi and produced by Alex Sellen,  iCare was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students, working together to create an original story.

This is the latest of many festival awards for iCare.

"Street Ratz" Wins "Best Trailer" at HEI Film Festival

"Street Ratz" wins "Best Trailer" at the HEI Film Festival

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

This is the latest award for "Street Ratz", which tells the story of Tal, a young girl locked in a dystopian universe who must avoid the clutches of a gangland mafia boss to escape the city underworld. 

Street Ratz is a teaser/trailer written and directed by Austin Hill,  and produced by Jack Wright.  The lead animator was Piotr Noworyta.  Street Ratz has won many festival awards. 

Toonboom Harmony is Back on 10 Oct 2023

Animation by Daniella Cirinello

Our 2D Animation part-time online evening class in Toonboom Harmony returns to Escape Studios on 10 October 2023.

Learn the fundamentals of 2D animation over 10 weeks, one evening a week using Toonboom Harmony, one of the leading software packages for the creation of 2D animation.

VFX Festival - Final Day Today

Ian Palmer introduces the VFX Festival

Today is the final day of the VFX Festival at Escape Studios. Today's presentations, classes and panel talks focus on how emerging talent can break into the VFX, animation and games industries.

Today's industry guests include ILM, Union FX, Creative Assembly, The Mill, Untold, Time Based Arts, Electric Theatre Collective, Epic Games, Blue Zoo, The Third Floor and DNEG.  

"Tatty" Wins "Best Micro Short" at Vesuvius Fest

"Tatty" wins "Best Micro Short" at Vesuvius Film Fest

Congratulations to the makers of the VFX short film "Tatty", which has won an award for "Best Micro Short" at the Vesuvius Film Festival.  

Directed by Amelia Watson and produced by Wiktoria Swierk, "Tatty" was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students at Escape Studios, working together to create an original story.

VFX Festival "Emerging Talent" Continues Today

The VFX Festival continues today

The VFX Festival continues today, with today's theme being "Emerging Talent". Today's talks, classes and panel discussions focus on how emerging talent can break into the VFX, animation and games industries.

Like last year, the 2023 VFX Festival is a hybrid event, both online and also in person.   The VFX Festival runs for two more days from at our midTown Campus at 190 High Holborn WC1. 

VFX Festival "Edu" at Escape Studios Today 21st Feb

2023 VFX Festival Edu begins today

The 2023 VFX Festival begins today, focusing on education, and on how school leavers and recent graduates can break into the animation, games and VFX festivals.

Like last year, the 2023 VFX Festival is a hybrid event, both online and also in person. The event runs for three days from 21-23 February at our midTown Campus at 190 High Holborn WC1. 

Shelley Page Animation Feedback Monday 27 Feb

Escape Studios is delighted to welcome back Locksmith Animation's Shelley Page on Monday 27 February to give our second year animation students industry feedback on their Group Projects, part of Studio Module PR5001.

Shelley's film credits include "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", "Shrek 1-4", "Shark Tale", "Madagascar", "Kung Fu Panda", and "How to Train Your Dragon".  Shelley is currently Key Talent and Artist Liaison at Locksmith Animation in London.  

New Books for The Animation Library

New books!

We've got a bunch of new books for the Escape Studios Animation library, where we keep traditional hard copies (ie actual physical books) on the Third Floor at 190 High Holborn, WC1. 

New books include "The Art of Spiderman - Into the Spiderverse", and "The Art of Frozen", and "Directing the Story" by Disney director Francis Glebas.

The Animation Library is located outside Toontown and Winterfell, and is free for all our currently enrolled students.

"Threaded Together" Wins Best Score in Hollywood

"Threaded Together": Best Original Score in Hollywood

Congratulations to the makers of "Threaded Together", which has won Best Original Score at the Hollywood Gold Awards.

Threaded Together was directed by Shauna Ludgate and produced by Manos Zervoudakis. The original score was composed by Maria Cortes-Monroy.  Sound design and foley was by Mihail Sustov.

Threaded Together tells the story of a needle who longs to be reunited with his friends.   This is the latest of many festival awards for Threaded Together. 

"iCare" Wins "Best Director" Award at FOFA

"iCare" wins "Best First-Time Director" at FOFA

Congratulations to the makers of the short VFX film "iCare", which has won "Best First-Time Director" at the Future of Film Awards (FOFA).

Directed by Bruno Urzi and produced by Alex Sellen,  iCare was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students, working together to create an original story.

This is the latest of many festival awards for iCare.

Sebastien Foucan Visits Escape Studios

Sebastien Foucan in Casino Royale 

We're delighted to welcome back Parkour founder Sebastien Foucan to Escape Studios.

Sebastien Foucan was talking to our third year animation students this week about what makes a great action scene. How does an animator go about choosing the right action for the right circumstance?

Sebastien Foucan is the founder of the Foucan Academy and also one of the founders of the Parkour Movement, the athletic training discipline in which practitioners move in the most fluid way possible.

"Adam & Eve Mk II" Wins Best Cinematography Award

"Adam & Eve Mk II"  wins Best Cinematography at the IGA

Many congratulations to the makers of "Adam & Eve Mk II", which has won an award for Best Cinematography at the International Gold Awards (IGA).

Adam & Eve Mk II, is a sci-fi re-telling of the Genesis story, directed by Escapee Sebastian Kuder.   Adam & Eve Mk II has won many festival awards.  

  

MoCap at Escape Studios with Clem Gharini

Wiktor Brodowski MoCap

This week our third year animation students have been experimenting with motion capture, led by Escape Studios cinematographer and MoCap expert Clem Gharini, operating the XSens Motion Capture System. 

Wiktor Brodowski (left) was acting out scenes from his new short film,  a third year Studio Project in which our students work together to create studio-quality work.

Once the acting performance is captured, the XSens data is edited and retargeted onto the production rigs, animated and cleaned up in Autodesk Maya. 

Wiktor described the experience as "an amazing opportunity to participate in mocap recordings for my current uni project. I have never "animated" so much so fast in my life.  Lots of fun! Really awesome to try this technique. Probably will be lots to fix about it anyway, but I'm eager to see how it looks in Maya".

"Game Knight" Wins Best Animation at Milan Awards

Game Knight wins Best Animation at Milan Gold Awards

Congratulations to the makers of "Game Knight", which has won an award for Best Animation at the Milan Gold Awards.  

Directed by Wyndham Brunt and produced by Christopher Marsden-Carleton,  

Game Knight was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students. 

This is its second festival award. 

Blue Zoo's Will Lloyd-Cook Animation Feedback

Will Lloyd-Cook

Many thanks to Blue Zoo's William Lloyd-Cook for giving animation feedback to our third year animation students at Escape Studios.  Will is an experienced animator and series director at London's Blue Zoo, one of London's leading animation studios.  

Industry feedback is at the heart of what we do at Escape Studios, part of what we call The Escape Method, a combination of intensive classroom teaching, online tutorials, constructive feedback, industry engagement, and group project work.

"iCare" Wins "Best Director" (Hon Mention) at AFA

"iCare" Hon Mention "Best Director - Short Film" at AFA

Congratulations to the makers of the short VFX film "iCare", which has won an Honourable Mention in the category of "Best Director - Short Film" at the Art Film Awards.

Directed by Bruno Urzi and produced by Alex Sellen,  iCare was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students, working together to create an original story.

This is the latest of many festival awards.

Technical Art & Game Design Reel 2023

Our just-launched BSc/MSci in Technical Art for Games & VFX is now recruiting for September 2023; to see the kind of work being done, take a look at the demo reel above.  This new course aims to bridge the gap between technology and art in the VFX and Games industries, teaching students to embrace the technical architecture that underpins games and VFX work, as well as the artistic side. If you are good at coding and also have an artistic eye - this course could be right for you.

"Our Ocean" Wins Best Animation at Rohip Fest

"Our Ocean" wins Best Animation at Rohip Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Our Ocean", which has won Best Animated Short Film at the Rohip Film Festival.

Our Ocean was created by our fourth year animation and vfx students, studying the Art of Computer Animation and VFX.   

Written and Directed by Priya Shah, and produced by Ethen Dent, Our Ocean was a collaboration with the charity "Ocean Generation".   This is the latest of many festival awards for Our Ocean.

DNEG's Karan Reddy Gives Animation Feedback

Karan Reddy

A warm welcome to DNEG Supervising animator Karan Reddy who has been giving industry feedback today to our Short Course and MA Animation Students at Escape Studios. 

Industry feedback is at the heart of what we do at Escape Studios, part of what we call The Escape Method, a combination of intensive classroom teaching, online tutorials, constructive feedback, industry engagement, and group project work. 

DNEG is a global animation and VFX house, responsible for multiple VFX hits. 

"Papercut" Wins "Best VFX" at Art Film Awards

"Papercut", wins "Best VFX" at the Art Film Awards.

Many congratulations to makers of the VFX short film "Papercut", which has won "Best VFX" at the Art Film Awards.
  

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.   

This is the third festival award for Papercut.

An Evening With...Simon Stanley-Clamp 27 Feb 2023

Escape Studios is delighted to welcome Cinesite VFX Supervisor Simon Stanley-Clamp to our next "Evening With..." event at Escape Studios on Monday 27th February at 5pm. 

Simon Stanley-Clamp is a veteran VFX Supervisor whose credits include Ant Man, John Carter, Avengers Endgame and Edge of Tomorrow. 

As always, "Evening With..." events are a great opportunity for our currently enrolled students to meet some of the leading figures from the animation and vfx communities, and find out more about how the vfx pipeline actually works.

The event takes place on on Monday 27th February at 5pm at 190 High Holborn, Rooms 2.8 and 2.9 - and is free for all our students. 

Helen Piercy External Examiner for UG Animation

Helen Piercy

Meet Helen Piercy, our new External Examiner for our BA in 3D animation at Escape Studios.  External examiners play an important part of quality control in UK higher education, ensuring that our courses meet the highest standards, and the grades awarded are correct and appropriate.

We're honoured to have Helen onboard; she is an experienced animator, published author, Education Director for Animated Women UK and also an Animation Lecturer at the Norwich University of the Arts. 

"iCare" Wins "Best Student Filmmaker" at EEFF

"iCare" wins "Best Student Filmmaker" at EEFF

Congratulations to the makers of the short VFX film "iCare", which has won two festival awards: "Best Student Filmmaker" and "Best Director" at the Eastern Europe Film Festival.

Directed by Bruno Urzi and produced by Alex Sellen,  iCare was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students, working together to create an original story.

iCare has won several festival awards.

Edoardo Sartori Previs Artist at Axis Animation

Edoardo Sartori

Congratulations to Escapee Edoardo Sartori who has started a new role at Axis Animation as a Previs/Layout artist. 

Previs and Layout is one of the key roles on an animated film; previs artists work closely with directors to master the look and feel of a sequence, establishing the visual narrative, shot flow, camera moves and visual storytelling. 

At Escape Studios Edoardo directed the short film "Quarantine Chorus", which has won multiple festival awards, and was rendered in Unreal Engine, the real-time renderer which has become the tool of choice for many animation companies.  

Game Knight Wins Best Director (Hon Mention)

Congratulations to the makers of "Game Knight", which has won an Honourable Mention in the category of "Best Director - Short Film" at the Future of Film Awards.  

Directed by Wyndham Brunt and produced by Christopher Marsden-Carleton,  

Game Knight was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students. 

This is its first festival award. 

Motion Graphics Taster Tuesday 7 February 2023

Escape Studios hosting a free Online Motion Graphics Taster on Tuesday 7th February at 5pm

Come along and find out what's involved in our motion graphics courses at Escape Studios.

The market for skilled motion designers has never been bigger, and London is host to the world’s largest motion design community. 

To find out more about Motion Graphics at Escape Studios, and how to sign up, visit the official course page here.

Animation and VFX Pipeline - Free Download

Escape Studios has just released our latest free download - the animation and VFX pipeline handbook.  

Understanding the animation, VFX and games pipeline is an important first step to making an informed choice about what area to specialise in. 

The creative industries are increasingly complex and specialised. Before you decide whether to study animation, games or VFX - learn how the pipeline works, and what your role in it might be. 

"Tatty" Wins "Best VFX" at Future of Film Awards.

Congratulations to the makers of the VFX short film "Tatty", which has won an award for "Best VFX" at the Future of Film Awards.  

Directed by Amelia Watson and produced by Wiktoria Swierk, "Tatty" was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students at Escape Studios.

Oz Arisoy was the VFX Supervisor, Emma Richards was the 2D VFX Lead, and Liam Jones was the 3D VFX Lead.  This is Tatty's first festival award.

Last Call for the VFX Festival 21-23 Feb 2023

2023 VFX Festival is Coming Soon

Last call for the 2023 VFX Festival - it is selling out fast, especially the in-person tickets. 

Like last year it will be 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.

Using AI to Generate Ideas for Short Films

AI is a powerful tool for the creation of stories and ideas.  Watch the video above to see how to use the playground at Open AI to help generate ideas for stories for the award-winning short films we make at Escape Studios.  AI represents the biggest technical advance in the animation & VFX industry since 3D animation began to replace traditional hand-animated feature films in the late 1990s.  Artificial Intelligence is here to stay - so let's make the most of what it has to offer.

"iCare" Wins "Best Student Film" at 8 & 1/2 Awards

"iCare" wins "Best Student Film" at 8 & 1/2 Film Awards

Congratulations to the makers of the short VFX film "iCare", which has won "Best Student Film" at the Eight and a Half Film Awards.

Directed by Bruno Urzi and produced by Alex Sellen,  iCare was a collaboration between undergraduate animation and vfx students, working together to create an original story.

This is the film's first festival award.

Concept Art is Back on 7 February 2024

Student artwork: Pictish Village

Concept Art is coming back to Escape Studios. Our online evening class in Concept Art returns on 7 February 2024. 

 
Concept Art is a part-time evening class, taught one night a week, running for ten weeks. Concept Art runs for 10 weeks, from 7 until 10pm.  Classes take place one night per week.

Concept Art introduces students to the techniques and skills that go up to make a well-rounded concept artist, including 3D & 2D software and - of course - the growing power of AI.