How to Animate Cameras with Marc Stevenson

In this latest video, Escape Studios' animation tutor Marc Stevenson explains the use of cameras in animation film-making, exploring different kinds of cameras and how to use them.  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.

Georgia Baird Production Runner at Acamar Films

Escapee Georgia Baird

Many Congratulations to Escapee Georgia Baird who is a graduate of our MA in 3D Animation.  

Georgia Baird is starting a new job at Acamar Films as a Production Runner. 

While at Escape Studios, Georgia worked on the award-wnning short film "Giles and Rupert's Prehistoric Predicament", which has won many festival awards. 

Escapee Zoe Walker Intern at ILM "Jedi Academy"

Zoe Walker

Congratulations to Escapee Zoe Walker who will start in September as an intern at ILM's Jedi Academy. While at Escape Studios, Zoe studied the Art of Computer Animation. 

Zoe Walker also contributed to a number of short films, including the award-winning short film Liminal, which she wrote and directed. 

Zoe also worked on the short films End of The Line, The Wanderer, and Lux Mediae Noctis. 

Meet Your VFX Tutors - Carlos Poon

Carlos Poon

Meet your tutors - VFX expert Carlos Poon teaches our second year undergraduate vfx artists the art of 3D VFX.  Carlos teaches VX5001, a second year VFX module in which our VFX students master the art of modeling, texturing, match move and lighting. 

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'.  

PR6001 Studio Project Starts 18 Sept 2023

Our third year animation & vfx students will arrive at our new Greenwich Campus on 18th September 2023.  

One of the first modules they will tackle is PR6001; a Studio Project module worth 60 Credits and which runs for the whole academic year.  In PR6001 our animation and vfx students work together in teams to create short films - winning many festival awards.

Students collaborate to work together to a defined brief, designed as closely as possible to simulate working on a live client project. 

The Studio Project Module is broken up into two projects; the first is an Unreal Engine Project, the second is the VFX Project.  To see some examples of award-winning project work, check out Kiwi's Dream, BoxBots, Little Gestures,  Home Sweet Home and Jerich0.

Animation Demo Reel - Giorgos Konstantinou

We're enjoying this latest demo reel from Escapee Giorgos Konstantinou.  Giorgos studied the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios, graduating this summer.  While at Escape Studios, Giorgos directed the short film "Papercut", which has won many festival awards, and which is a finalist in The 2023 Rookies in the category of "VFX Film of The Year".

Escapee Alp Yamanel Animator at Compost Creative

Alp Yamanel

Congratulations to Escapee Alp Yamanel who is working as an animator at Compost Creative.  Alp took our MA in Animation at Escape Studios, taught by Escape Studios' tutor Lee Caller.

Compost Creative is an Emmy award-winning studio based in the UK, founded by former BBC creatives Colin Thornton and Neil Wilson in 2005.

Alp joins Escapee Tim Jones who joined Compost Creative in April 2023.

CR4002 – Creative Foundations - Craft Module

CR4002 Artwork by Ronnie Kaye

CR4002 – Creative Foundations Craft - is a 30 Credit Module taken by all of our First Year Undergraduate Students at Escape Studios.  

Creative Foundations is a Foundation Module in creativity and creative thinking.  Some software, such as Photoshop, is taught in this module, but the main focus is to explore fresh and original ideas.

CR4002 is broken down into a number of "mini modules", including Movement & Narrative, Photography & Composition, Cinematography & Lighting, Art Foundation and TRAP - (Teamwork, academic writing, and presentation skills). 

"Luciferin" Wins Best Super Short at Int'l Gold Awards

Luciferin wins "Best Super Short" at Int'l Gold Awards

Congratulations to the makers of Luciferin, the VFX short created at Escape Studios by our graduating class of VFX artists, which has won "Best Super Short" at the International Gold Awards.

Directed by Jake Roberts and produced by Bruno Urzi,  Luciferin was a collaboration between 2D and 3D VFX Students, working together to create a short film.  

Luciferin tells the story of a marine biologist working in a deep sea biosphere.  This is its third festival award.  

Hardship Fund for Students at Escape Studios

Escape Studios Hardship Fund

All students at Escape Studios should be aware of the Escape Studios Hardship Fund, which is available for students that are facing financial difficulties. 

The Hardship Fund is aimed at students who have experienced unexpected and unforeseeable financial problems, and is part of a general system of support available to all our students at Escape Studios. 

Horse Run Tutorial at Our Vimeo Channel

In this latest animation tutorial at our Vimeo Tutorial Channel we demonstrate how to animate a quadruped running. The tutorial is based on a horse, but all quadrupeds run the same way (allowing for anatomy).  Every animator should know how to animate quadrupeds in motion; these are the basic "scales" of animal and creature animation.  This tutorial can be applied to any four-legged creature, but the easiest way to follow the tutorial is to use the free horse rig - available for download from the Mothman TD website. 

VX5001 "VFX Pro" - 2nd Year VFX Module

VX5001 "3D VFX Pro" - student work

VX5001 "3D VFX Pro" is a second year visual effects module in which our undergraduate vfx students learn to master the art of 3D modelling, matchmoving, texturing and lighting.  It builds on the first year 3D VFX Module VX4002.

AN5001 starts on Monday 18th September 2023, and is taught by VFX veteran Carlos Poon.

"Bouya" Wins Best Original Score in Hollywood

"Bouya" wins "Best Original Score" in Hollywood

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

"Bouya" was directed by Chiyoko Coyte and produced by Alex Sellen, both studying the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios. Lorenzo Pelli composed the original score.

"Bouya" tells the hidden story of mysterious forest creatures working together to clean up the mess left by thoughtless humans.  This is Bouya's third festival award. 

VX4001 - 2D VFX - 1st Year Compositing Module

Student work - before (top) and after (bottom)

VX4001 - 2D VFX is a 1st Year Compositing Module, part of the First Year of Undergraduate Study at Escape Studios.

VX4001 one of the modules which must be completed by all our first year undergraduate students, whether they are studying The Art of Animation, Games or Visual Effects.

 
Compositing is the art of combining different images to create a single, cohesive and believable image. This can be done to create realistic or fantastical scenes, or to simply improve the look of an image.  VX4001 is taught by Lorenzo Mannicia.

Lamp Animation by Kamile Pranckunaite

Above is a very good example of First Year Character Animation created in the First Year Animation Module AN4001, in which Escape Studios' students learn to master the art and craft of character animation.  The "Pixo" Lamp Animation above was created by Kamile Pranckunaite, an animation student studying the Art of Computer Animation, who has just completed the first year at Escape Studios.  The shot was animated in Maya and rendered in Arnold.

Danish Adeem Post Production Artist at Flawless AI

Many congratulations to Escapee Danish Adeem who has started work as Post Production Artist at Flawless AI, creators of AI-powered tools for the creative industries.  

Danish joins our very own Allar Kaasik  who left Escape Studios last year to become Visual Effects Supervisor at Flawless AI.

Danish Adeem studied the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios.  While at Escape Studios, Danish contributed to a number of short films, including the award-winning films Liminal, Love Mum, Good Soup and Tech Troubles. 

Danish was Lead Animator on Liminal, and won an award for Best Horror Film at the Art Film Awards.

2023 Animation Demo Reel

We're proud to release the 2023 Escape Studios' Animation Demo Reel. This latest edit of the best animation created by students Escape Studios includes work by our most recent graduating class of animation artists, including clips from many of our award-winning short films.  This latest demo reel was cut by Escapee Miguel Teixeira.

VX4002 - First Year 3D VFX Module

VX4002 - create a photorealistic object 

VX4002 is a four week module taken by all of our First Year Undergraduate Students at Escape Studios. It is worth 15 credits. 

VX4002 introduces students to the basics of the 3D pipeline. Students learn 3D modelling, texturing and lighting in Autodesk Maya.

VX4002 is about mastering the 3D VFX pipeline, aiming at the kind of photorealistic style which dominates work in the visual effects industry.

"Labyrinth" Wins "Best Comedy" at FOF Awards

Labyrinth Reloaded wins "Best Comedy" at FoF Awards

Congratulations to the makers of Labyrinth Reloaded, the animated short created by our graduating class of animation students at Escape Studios, which has won "Best Comedy" at the Future of Film Awards.

Directed by Sholto "CJ" Rock and produced by Wiktoria Swierk, Labyrinth Reloaded was animated with Toonboom Harmony, and edited in Adobe Premiere Pro.

This is Labyrinth Reloaded's third festival award. 

"Luciferin" Wins "Best VFX" at EEFF

Luciferin "Best VFX" at Eastern Europe Film Fest.

Congratulations to the makers of Luciferin, the VFX short created at Escape Studios by our graduating class of VFX artists, which has won "Best VFX" at the Eastern Europe Film Festival.

Directed by Jake Roberts and produced by Bruno Urzi,  Luciferin was a collaboration between 2D and 3D VFX Students, working together to create a short film.  Wiktor Brodowski was the Lead Animator, Harry Dallimore was the 3D Lead, and Ishmael Kargbo was the 3D Lead.  

Luciferin tells the story of a marine biologist working in a deep sea biosphere.  This is its second festival award.  

CR6001 Specialism Module Starts Sept 2023

Frog by Bonnie Duncan

Module CR6001 "Specialism" forms part of the Third Year of Studies at Escape Studios. 

CR6001 is worth 30 Credits and starts on 18th September 2023.  It is a long module that runs over the course of the year. 

The Specialism Module (Module Code C65001) is a largely self-study module in which students select an area of specialism and develop their skills.  

CR6001 culminates in a portfolio presentation in May 2024, in which students present the work they have done over the previous year.  

"Good Soup" Wins "Best Editing" at London Awards

"Good Soup" wins "Best Editing" at London Film Awards

Congratulations to the makers of "Good Soup", the latest animated short created by our graduating class of animation students at Escape Studios, which has won "Best Editing" at the London Film Awards.

Directed by Jessa Timog-Santiago and produced by Iulineia Filip,  Good Soup was made using Maya, Substance Painter, and Unreal Engine.  The editor was Rohnak Sharma.  This is Good Soup's third festival award. 

Escapees Visit Blue Zoo Animation

Escapees visit Blue Zoo

Escape Studios is delighted to thank our industry partners Blue Zoo for their studio tour; this past week our 3rd year undergraduate animators had a studio visit at Blue Zoo, one of London's leading animation studios.

Blue Zoo welcomed our students, showed us their latest animation reel, and also offered an insight into some of their production processes, as well as a studio tour of their facility.

"Roupell St" Wins "Best VFX" at the Rohip Film Fest

Congratulations to the makers of the short VFX film "Curiosities of The Ruthless Roupell St", which has won "Best VFX" at the Rohip International Film Festival.  

Directed by Oliver Chenery and produced by Victoria Arraez, "Curiosities of The Ruthless Roupell St" was a collaboration between 2D and 3D VFX Students, working together to create a short film.  

This is its first festival award. 

Horse Trot Tutorial at Our Vimeo Channel

We've added a new tutorial to our expanding Vimeo Channel showing how to animate a horse trotting. A trot is an intermediate gait between a walk and a run; all quadrupeds trot in the same way (allowing for anatomy).  The Escape Studios Vimeo Tutorial Channel is our main hub for our animation and VFX video tutorials, making it easy for our students to find tutorials to support their classroom studies.

Alex Melville Senior Animator at Steamroller

Alex Melville

Many congratulations to Escapee Alex Melville who is working as a Senior Animator at Steamroller Animation.

Alex took our short course in animation, and has since gone on to enjoy a successful career in industry. 

Steamroller Animation is a US-based animation company specialising in tech, animation and games.

Our next short course in animation starts in February 2023, and is taught by veteran animator and Escape Studios' tutor Lee Caller.

"Papercut" VFX Finalist at The 2023 Rookies

"Papercut": finalist in The 2023 Rookies

Many congratulations to makers of "Papercut", which is a finalist in The 2023 Rookies in the category of "VFX Film of The Year". 
  

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 a short film.  Papercut has won many festival awards. 

The Rookies was founded in 2009 to "showcase the most talented student designers, illustrators, film makers, animators, developers, digital artists, and launch them into the career of their dreams." 

Clara Cornish to Teach "Movement & Narrative"

Clara Cornish

We're delighted to welcome Aardman storyboard artist Clara Cornish to teach Movement & Narrative to our first year undergraduate students at Escape Studios in September 2023.

Movement & Narrative is a mini-module in which students develop their skills in creativity, design, storyboarding and visual narrative; teaching starts on Monday 18th September 2023

"Risen" Wins "Best VFX" at Makizhmithran Film Fest

"Risen" wins "Best VFX" at the Makizhmithran Film Fest.

Congratulations to the makers of the vfx short film "Risen", which has won "Best VFX" at the Makizhmithran Film Festival. 

"Risen" was directed by Jane Williams and produced by Muhadissa Hasham.  Emma Richards was the 2D Lead and Oguzhan "Oz" Arisoy was the 3D Lead.

In Risen, a mysterious demonic force emerges from a ruined churchyard.

This is its first festival award. 

Escape Studios Visit to Jellyfish Pictures

Escape Studios visits Jellyfish Pictures

Escape Studios would like to thank industry partners Jellyfish Pictures and Alexander Thornton for welcoming our recent Escapees to their studio last week.

Studio visits are a great opportunity to learn about the animation and VFX pipeline, and get an insight into how studios actually work. Many thanks to Will Newis and Jo Fletcher Manawa for their insightful presentations. 

Jellyfish Pictures is one of London's leading animation and VFX houses, responsible for many film and TV hits; many Escapees have joined Jellyfish after graduating from Escape Studios. 

Escape Studios Ranked No 3 in UK in 2023

Escape Studios Ranked No.3 in The UK

The 2023 Animation Career Review International School Rankings are in, and we're delighted to have moved up the leaderboard again this year.

This year Animation Career Review have ranked us #14 for Animation Internationally (moving up from #15 last year), #8 for Animation in Europe and #3 for Animation in the UK. 

Congratulations to all our students on their amazing work this past year.

Escapee Barbara Robertson Producer at Blue Zoo

Barbara Robertson

Many congratulations to Escapee Barbara Robertson who has started worked at Blue Zoo as a producer.  

Barbara Robertson took our MA in Storyboarding and Previsualisation at Escape Studios, and since graduation has been working as a freelance producer.

Blue Zoo is a multiple-BAFTA-winning studio and one of the UK's leading animation houses; many of our Escapees have joined Blue Zoo in recent years.

"End of The Line" MoCap Breakdown

Above is a breakdown video above for some of the shots animated by the award-winning animator and director Eren Arnold on the short MoCap project End of The Line.  The original MoCap acting was done by Lead Animator Wiktor Brodowski.  End of The Line was directed by Eren Arnold, and has already won "best Sci-Fi" at the Future of Film Awards.  To see End of The Line, follow this link. 

PS6003 - Professional Practice Module

Prof Practice Module PS6003

Our Professional Practice Module (PS6003) forms part of the Third Year of Studies at Escape Studios; it starts in September 2023.

PS6003 aims to prepare our third year animation, games and VFX students for the workplace as they approach the end of their studies.  Professional Practice focuses on employability, so that students understand well before they graduate what it takes to succeed in the creative industries. 

The animation and vfx industries are booming, but jobs remain competitive, and graduates must ensure they have the right skills to compete successfully. 

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

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

Congratulations to the makers of "Bouya", which has won "Best Micro Short" at the Vesuvius Film Festival.  

"Bouya" was directed by Chiyoko Coyte and produced by Alex Sellen, both studying the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios.  

"Bouya" tells the story of hidden forest creatures working to clean up the mess left by humans.  This is Bouya's second festival award. 

Animate Monty "Smokin!"

In the short beginner's animation tutorial below we show how to animate a character with no mouth saying a line of dialogue.  But how can you animate dialogue and lipsync - with no lips?  The answer is - it's all in the acting and the performance.  If the body language is working, then the audience will believe that the character is speaking - even if the character itself has no mouth.  In this tutorial we animate "Monty" saying a line of dialogue - "Smokin!" - the line originally delivered by Jim Carrey in the 80s hit movie The Mask. 

"Wake:Up!" Wins Hon Mention at FOF Awards

"Wake:Up!" wins Hon Mention for "Best Editing" at FofFA

Congratulations to the makers of "Wake:Up!", one of the short films created by our second year animation students at Escape Studios, which has won an Honourable Mention in the category of "Best Editing" at the Future of Film Awards. 

Wake:Up! was written, co-edited and directed by David Martin Lanuza and co-edited and produced by Luis Yarroll.

This is its second festival award. 

Jamie Floodgate Lead Animator at Blue Zoo

Jamie Floodgate

Many congratulations to Escapee Jamie Floodgate, who has recently been promoted to Lead Animator at the London animation studio Blue Zoo.

Jamie applied to Blue Zoo on the strength of his animation demo reel which he put together after taking our 12 week animation course at Escape Studios.

Jamie wasn't initially successful applying to Blue Zoo. Undaunted, he continued to polish his animation skills, working on an entry to the 11 Second Club monthly competition.  The second time around, everything fell into place.

AN5002 Creature Animation Returns 18 Sept 2023

Snake by Bonnie Duncan

On Monday 18 September 2023 our 2nd year undergraduate animators return to Escape Studios to start their next module: AN5002: Advanced Computer Animation, in which students learn to animate animals and creatures.  

AN5002 starts on Monday 18 September 2023 and finishes on Friday 20 October 2023.  The Portfolio assignment, a 7-11 second animal or creature animation, is due on Wednesday 18 October 2023. The Retrospective assignment is due on Monday 23rd October 2023 at 11.59pm.

"Backtrack" Best Trailer at Makizhmithran Fest

"Backtrack" wins "Best Trailer" at Makizhmithran Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Backtrack", the teaser/trailer created by our second year animation students at Escape Studios, which has won "Best Trailer" at the Makizhmithran International Film Festival.

"Backtrack" is a teaser/trailer for an animated film telling the story of a young athlete who is bullied at school. 

The Backtrack trailer was directed by Philippa "Pip" Cowen and produced by Sihaam "Simu" Weheliye. It has won many festival awards. 

"Giles & Rupert" Wins 3 Stars Award at the BIAFF

Giles and Rupert wins 3 Stars Award at BIAFF

Congratulations to the makers of Giles and Rupert's Prehistoric Predicament, which has won a 3 Stars Award at the British International Amateur Film Festival. 

Giles and Rupert's Prehistoric Predicament is a teaser/trailer for an original animated TV series created at Escape Studios by director Toby Haslam and producers Samia Chowdhury and Georgia Baird.  Giles and Rupert are Victorian inventors whose time machine invention goes horribly wrong - creating a world of Jurassic trouble. 

"Alex" Cartoonist Visits Escape Studios

Charles Peattie draws "Alex"

Recently Escape Studios welcomed veteran cartoonist and animator Charles Peattie for a seminar on the use of AI in animation. 

Charles Peattie is the author of the "Alex" cartoon strip that has run for over 30 years in the pages of the Daily Telegraph. 

"Alex" is an investment banker who first appeared on the pages of The Independent during the 1980s, the era of financial deregulation and "Big Bang" in the City of London.  Today "Alex" can be found in the Business Pages of The Daily Telegraph, and also online.