Escapee Luis Yarroll Joins ILM

Luis Yarroll and friends

Many congratulations to Escape Studios animation student Luis Yarroll who has joined Industrial Light & Magic (ILM), one of the world's leading visual effects houses, as a Production Assistant. 

Luis is in his final year of studies at Escape Studios, but he has already produced three award-winning animated shorts: "Squeaky Clean", "Wake:Up!" (both completed with a small team in under six weeks), and most recently the short film "VOID".  

Fish Animation Tutorial from Marc Stevenson

Escape Studios' UG Animation Programme Leader Marc Stevenson has recorded a new animal and creature animation tutorial - showing how to animate fish in motion.  This latest tutorial joins Marc's Animation YouTube Channel and is based on the concept of offset curves - animating a single motion curve and then copying and pasting it along the spine of the fish, to create the characteristic swaying motion of the fins and tail. 

Animate a Sneaky Walk with Monty

Sneaky Monty

In the video tutorial below we show how to animate a sneaky walk with "Monty" the green pea.

To complete the tutorial, first start with a Basic Walk with "Monty" - which you can learn how to do here.

Then, as with our other character walks tutorials, adapt the basic walk to give it character and personality - in this case a "sneak". 

Nimona & DNEG at Escape Studios 27 Feb 2024

Oscar-nominated "Nimona" & DNEG Animation are coming to Escape Studios tomorrow 27 February 2024, both in-person and also via Zoom. 

Join us for an evening with Dara McGarry, Director of Outreach at DNEG Animation, Bridget Dash, Talent Aquisition Partner, and Anthony Kemp, Executive Digital Producer for DNEG Animation.

DNEG will also be talking about their new Summer Internship Program, and how to apply. 

This is a great opportunity for all our students to get to know one of the UK's leading animation houses, and find out about new jobs and opportunities. 

"Roupell St" Wins Best VFX at Reels Fest

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

Directed by Oliver Chenery and produced by Victoria Arraez, "Curiosities of The Ruthless Roupell St"  has won many festival awards.

"Breakout" by Elissa Heath

Check out "Breakout" by Elissa Heath, a first year undergraduate animation student at Escape Studios. "Breakout" was animated for Elissa's core animation module - Animation 1 - a 15 Credit Module that teaches all our first year students the fundamentals of character and creature animation.  AN4001 lasts four weeks, and covers all the basic principles of animation.  To see some of the best work done by our first year undergraduate animators, follow this link. 

How to Install & Use The Parent Master Plugin

In this short video we show how to install and use the free Parent Master Plugin for Autodesk Maya. The Parent Master Parent Master plugin is a very useful tool that allows animators to attach and un-attach objects easily and quickly.  Here at Escape Studios we've been using it and recommending this tool to our students since 2016.  The plugin is a Python script created by Paolo Dominici and has recently been updated for py3.  Watch the video above to see how to install it. You can also read our original blog post about the Parent Master from 2016. You can find the PM official site here, and also find the latest version at Paolo Dominici's site here.

Introducing "Outpatient"

Introducing "Outpatient", the latest short film produced by our third year undergraduate VFX students at Escape Studios. "Outpatient" was directed by Charlie Wilson, co-directed by Idris Driver, produced by Harry Symonds, and co-produced by Emmanuel Rahman.  "Outpatient" tells the story of a hospital patient on the edge of survival. Abdoulah M Jones stars as The Patient. 

Adam Bennett Introduces the New AI Tool "Sora"

In this short video (just seven minutes long) Escape Studios' Motion Graphics tutor Adam Bennett explores what new video making tools like Sora might mean for the Motion Graphics, Animation and VFX industries.  If you want a quick primer on the latest inroads AI is making in the creative industries, watch this video. 

Escapees Contribute to 2024 BAFTA Nominees

BAFTA Nominated Escapees in 2024

Congratulations to the many Escapees were awarded screen credits on BAFTA-nominated films this year. 

No fewer than 23 Escapees worked on Guardians of The Galaxy 3 - which was nominated in the category of Best Visual Effects.  Other Escapees worked on The Zone of Interest, Barbie, Spider-Man - Across the Spiderverse and Chicken Run - Dawn of The Nugget.  

Escape Studios "Rookies" Certified School in 2024

The Rookies, the international competition for aspiring VFX artists, has again ranked Escape Studios in the top creative schools internationally, awarding us a formal certification of excellence. 

Last year The Rookies ranked Escape Studios No 1 in the world for Production Excellence in Immersive Media.

For many years Escape Studios has ranked in the top ten globally for VFX and Animation Production Excellence.

"Infestation" Wins "Best Sci-Fi Short" at Tekka Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Infestation", one of the latest animated shorts created by our third year animation students at Escape Studios.

Infestation has won "Best Sci-Fi Short" at the Tekka International Film Festival.  

Directed by Thomas Husband and produced by Hugo Whitworth,  Infestation tells the story of a distant space station - HMSS Archimedes - with a big problem.  This is the third festival award for Infestation.

New Books for The Animation & VFX Library

We have more new books for the Animation & VFX Library on the 11th Floor at 6 Mitre Passage.

New books include Shamus Culhane's classic work on animation - "Animation - From Script to Screen". Shamus Culhane was a product of the Golden Age of Animation, contributing to classic films such as Fantasia, and working on iconic characters such as Betty Boop. Culhane's book explains the animation process from start to finish, a process which - despite new technology - has changed little in the past 100 years. 

How to Import an Image Plane in Maya

How to Import an Image Plane in Maya. In the three minute video above, we show how to import an image plane into Maya. Image planes can be especially useful for, as in the example above, importing your thumbnail sketches into Maya, so that you have your reference inside the shot. This way you can follow the reference step by step, and match your animation poses to your thumbnail sketches.

Animate an "On the Spot" Walk with "Monty"

Monty Strolling in Cartoonland

Our newest Locomotion Tutorial Video explains how to animate a basic walk cycle "on the spot" (on a treadmill) with "Monty", the green pea, at our Vimeo Channel, available to all our students and Escapees.

The new tutorial videos add to our growing series of animation tutorials, hosted at Vimeo, with a tutorial on how to animate a basic walk, cycling the walk "on the spot". 

The tutorial uses the free Monty rig, one of the rigs that we recommend for student use in the early stages of learning animation.  

Compositing Tutorial Videos from Lorenzo Maniccia

New Compositing Tutorial Videos

We've uploaded a new series of Compositing Tutorial Videos from Escape Studios' compositing tutor Lorenzo Maniccia, to support our students studying VX4001, our first year compositing module.

These new Compositing Tutorial Videos add to our exisiting tutorials in Compositing, Nuke and 2D VFX.  

Nuke tutorials can all be found here at our Vimeo Tutorial Channel, a large and growing resource for all our students.  Students can find the videos here: https://vimeo.com/showcase/10970075

Introducing "Sea of Madness"

Sea Of Madness - Student Short Film from Jake Hines on Vimeo.

Introducing Sea Of Madness, the latest short film produced by our third year undergraduate VFX students at Escape Studios.  Sea Of Madness tells the story of a gold-seeking pirate who stumbles across an abandoned treasure on a deserted beach.  It was directed by Maria Freitas  and produced by Ivy Wang.  Jakes Hines was the editor and 2D Lead, and Sebastian McKernan was the 3D Lead.  Ian Chavez Zarate stars as The Pirate.  Industry feedback and support was generously provided by Industrial Light & Magic.  

Animate a Candle Using Blend Shapes

Animate a Candle Flickering with Blend Shapes

Below is a very short tutorial on how to create, animate and light a candle using Blend Shapes in Autodesk Maya.  

The goal is to understand how to use Blend Shapes to morph simple objects in Maya from one shape to another, and then use the Blend Shapes to create animation. 

Blend Shapes are used mainly for facial animation, but they can also be used to animate inanimate objects - in this case a flickering candle. 

VES Society Speaker Series For VFX Artists

The Visual Effects Society (VES) has two released a new Speaker Series for VFX students. 

The Speaker Series offers a series of ten 30-40 minute presentations by professionals working in the pipeline of visual effects, games and animation. 

Tripod For Recording Live Action Reference

One of the best ways to get live-action reference for a piece of animation is to film yourself acting it out, capture the footage on your phone, and then import the footage onto an image plane in Maya.

The best way to film yourself is by mounting your smartphone on a tripod. 

We're recommending this excellent (and inexpensive) tripod, made by Linkcool, for mounting your phone/camera, while you do the acting and give the performance.

New Books for The Animation & VFX Library

New books on Storyboarding in the Anim & VFX Library

We have more new books for the Animation & VFX Library on the 11th Floor at 6 Mitre Passage, Escape Studios' new home in North Greenwich.

New books include The Storyboard Design Course: The Ultimate Guide by Guiseppe Cristiano, a collection of Wallace & Gromit storyboards from Aardman Animation, and a new copy of Richard Williams' Animator's Survival Kit "Minis" - on Animating Walks. 

Anchor Tool at Escape Studios' Animation Shelf

Escape Studios has just released a new Escape Studios Animation Shelf for all our animation students working in Maya. 

Open up Autodesk Maya, load it as a shelf - Maya will automatically copy it into the right folder. You can find the shelf in UG shares. Just search in UG Animation under assets and look for scripts. 

The Animation Shelf has many useful tools in it, including a Tween Tool and an Anchor Tool, which allows animators to anchor a foot in world space for a set number of frames, solving the problem of sliding feet in walk cycles. 

Many thanks to Escape Studios' tutor Michael Davies for creating the Escape Studios Animation Shelf - a huge benefit for all our students. 

Introducing "Theseus and The Minotaur"

Theseus And The Minotaur - An Escape Studios Student Short Film from Ethan Mainwaring-taylor on Vimeo.

Meet Theseus and The Minotaur, the latest short produced by our third year undergraduate VFX students at Escape Studios.  Theseus and The Minotaur tells the story of the Greek hero's entry into the Labyrinth, and was directed by Mitchell Wright and produced by Ayesha-Ria Jina. The 3D lead was Xavier Barker, and the 2D Lead was Ethan Mainwaring-Taylor.  Industry feedback and support was generously provided by Industrial Light & Magic. 

Introducing "Ghosting"

 

Introducing Ghosting, the latest animated short created by our third year animation students at Escape Studios.  Directed by Caroline Geddis and produced by Marc Montebon, Ghosting tells the story of a boy who enters a mysterious mansion on a dark and stormy night. 

"Infestation" Wins "Best Micro Short" in Malaysia

Infestation "Best Micro Short" at Indo Malaysia Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Infestation", one of the latest animated shorts created by our third year animation students at Escape Studios.

Infestation has won "Best Micro Short" at the Indo Malaysia Film Festival.  

Directed by Thomas Husband and produced by Hugo Whitworth,  Infestation tells the story of a distant space station - HMSS Archimedes - with a big problem. 

This is the second festival award for Infestation.

How to Animate with "Heavy" in Maya 2024

We've recently updated the "Heavy" rig, one of the free rigs we recommend for learning animation. Heavy can be downloaded from highend3d.com, and you can read all about him here, as well as see how to use him to Animate a Basic Walk Cycle and also animate a Run Cycle with Heavy here. 

"Lemons" Wins "Best Super Short" at FoF Awards

When Life Gives You Lemons - Best Super Short

Congratulations to the makers of "When Life Gives You Lemons", which has won "Best Super Short" at the Future of Film Awards.

When Life Gives You Lemons is one of the latest animated shorts created by our third year animation students at Escape Studios.  

Directed by Sirisha Mutty and co-directed by Maye Liu, When Life Gives You Lemons was produced by Annabelle Leuschke.  

Fixing Problems With The Pixo Jr Rig

Pixo Jr is a great rig for learning animation, which you can read all about here.  You can also see a series of short tutorials for animation beginners, showing how to make the lamp hop.  But Pixo is an old rig (2006) and works less well in Maya today.  This is because of Maya's implementation of Parallel Evaluation, designed to make rigs perform faster in the Viewport.  Part of the Pixo Jr's rig is not behaving correctly in this new evaluation mode.  To see how to fix it - scroll down below. 

VOID Wins Best Animated Film in Dubai

Congratulations to the makers of "Void", which has won Best Animated Short at the Dubai Miracle Film Festival. 

Void is one of the latest short film from our third year undergraduate animation students at Escape Studios.  

"Void" was directed by Kaya Akinci, edited and produced by Luis Yarroll.  

This is its first festival award.