"Life's Gifts" Wins Best Animated Film in Milan

Life's Gifts wins "Best Animated Short" in Milan 

Congratulations to the makers of short animated film "Life's Gifts", which has won "Best Animated Film" at the Milan Gold Awards.  "Life's Gifts" was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects.  

"Life's Gifts" was written and directed by Jason Cole and produced by Vanessa Marques-Navaratnasingam.  

Peter Sellers on Acting - For Animators

Comic genius Peter Sellers

Recently I stumbled across a quote from the late great actor Peter Sellers, on how he approached creating a character. 

Sellers said this: "I start with the voice. I find out how the character sounds...after the voice comes the looks of the man...after that I discover how the character walks...and then something strange happens...the man you play begins to exist."

It's just the same with animation. 

"Save Yourself" Wins "Best Sci-Fi Film" at 1st Film Fest

Congratulations to the makers of VFX short Save Yourself which has won "Best Sci-Fi Film" at the 1st Film Festival.  Save Yourself was created by our third year graduating class of VFX students at Escape Studios.  

The short film was written and directed by Jasmine Patel and produced by Charlie Cope.  Harrison Davies was the 3D VFX lead, and Fiona Lee was the 2D VFX Lead.  Cinematography was by Irene Gomez-Emilsson.  Industry feedback was generously provided by Industrial Light & Magic.  This is the third award for Save Yourself. 

Yibi Hu Explains The Art of The Pitch

Yibi Hu, founder of Future Power Station

At a recent industry event animator Yibi Hu, founder of the animation studio Future Power Station, explained the importance of crafting a great pitch. 

As Yibi Hu put it: "Pitch is a Bitch" - in essence a huge amount of unpaid work for a client who might - or might not - like your work. 

The conundrum is that you have to pitch to get the job, but all the work might be in vain. Pitching is free work, but you have to do it anyway.

Meet the External Examiners at Escape Studios

Meet the External examiners at Escape Studios.  External examiners are part of the landscape of higher education in the UK. 

They help to ensure that standards are consistent across the animation sector.  External examiners double-check our grades, make sure we're awarding marks appropriately, and check that our standards are consistent with other universities and colleges in the UK.  

Second Marking at Escape Studios

Second marking at Escape Studios is part of the process by which we ensure that academic standards are being met. Is the marking fair? Is it reasonable? Are the correct criteria being applied?

Looking at your students' work through the eyes of another tutor is a valuable exercise; it is a reminder of how personal marking can be, and how important it is to apply objective criteria.

As tutors, we don't always get the marks right first time - which is why second marking is important.

Escape Studios Graduation Showcase 4 June 2025

Escape Studios is proud to host our annual End of Year Student Showcase, which this year takes place on Wednesday 4th June at the Vue West End (Leicester Square) - 3 Cranbourn St, London WC2H 7AL.

This year's event is a showcase of the very best work done by our third year graduating class and also our Master's degree students.  

"Life's Gifts" Wins "Best Animated Short" Award

Congratulations to the makers of short animated film "Life's Gifts", which has won "Best Animated Short Film" at the Makizhmithran Film Festival. 

"Life's Gifts" was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects.  

"Life's Gifts" was written and directed by Jason Cole and produced by Vanessa Marques-Navaratnasingam.  This is its third festival award. 

3D Animation Evening Class Returns 8 Sept 2025

Our 3D Animation Evening Class runs for 20 weeks on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, from 7-10pm, and is taught online by veteran animator Matteo Sanna.

Students start with basic exercises and build towards an industry-ready demo reel.

The 3D Animation Evening Class returns on 8 September 2025. 

"Life's Gifts" Wins Best Super Short Film in NYC

Life's Gifts", wins "Best Super Short Film" at NYC Awards

Congratulations to the makers of short animated film "Life's Gifts", which has won "Best Super Short Film" at the New York Movie Awards.  "Life's Gifts" was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects. 

"Life's Gifts" was written and directed by Jason Cole and produced by Vanessa Marques-Navaratnasingam.  This is its second festival award. 

Escape Studios Students at AUA Las Vegas

Escapees Alfie Williams, Elvinas Mikulin and Xavier Barker all contributed to the animation in the video above, filmed at the recent AUA Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada.  Alfie, Elvinas and Xavier completed the job for Teleflex, a US-based medical technology company.  Alfie animated Teleflex's monster, part of the immersive experience at the conference. Alfie created a series of short animations of the monster walking, blinking, and peeking, all rendered with a transparent background for seamless placement on conference screens.  Elvinas did the modeling and Xavier managed the pipeline. 

"Crab Companion" Wins "Best Super Short" Award

"Crab Companion" wins "Best Super Short" in Hollywood

Congratulations to the makers of the animated short film "Crab Companion", which has won "Best Super Short" at the Hollywood Gold Awards.  

"Crab Companion" was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects.  

"Crab Companion" was written and directed by Sam Blackburn, edited by Aya Najib and produced by John Adarlo.  This is its first festival award. 

Producing for VFX is Back on 10 June 2025

Producing for VFX returns 10 June 2025

Our Evening Class in Producing for VFX is back, starting on 10 June 2025.  Producing for VFX is an eight week evening class, taught two nights a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-10pm). 

Producing for VFX is designed to give students a thorough understanding of how the VFX production pipeline works, and how to apply it in practice.  VFX Producers and Line Producers remain a critical skills gap in industry. 

"Life's Gifts" Wins Best Animated Film Award

Life's Gifts" wins "Best Animation" at Int'l Gold Awards

Congratulations to the makers of short animated film "Life's Gifts", which has won "Best Animated Film" at the International Gold Awards.

"Life's Gifts" was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects.

"Life's Gifts" was written and directed by Jason Cole and produced by Vanessa Marques-Navaratnasingam. This is its first festival award.

Joining DNEG Redefine and "The Escape Verse"

The "Escapeverse"

"The Escapeverse" is what we call the Escape Studios universe - the ecosystem in which we teach, recruit, and work with industry to deliver the highest possible standards of education in the fields of animation, games and visual effects. 

In January of this year I found myself joining The Escapeverse.  After ten years of teaching at Escape Studios, I have gone on industry secondment - joining DNEG Redefine as animation director on a new feature film, a co-production between Redefine and Sky, with most of the animation being done in Hyderabad, India.

"Mini Mail" Wins "Best Super Short" in Florence

Mini Mail wins Best Super Short in Florence

Congratulations to the makers of the VFX Short film Mini Mail, which has won "Best Super Short" at the Florence Film Awards.  

Mini Mail was created by our third year graduating class of VFX students at Escape Studios; it was written and directed by Thomas Greensmith  and produced by Nilufer Refet.  

Asia Gayle  was the 3D VFX lead, and Daniel Beeching was the 2D VFX Lead.  John Oakes-Pearson stars as the delivery guy.  Industry feedback was generously provided by Industrial Light & Magic.  This is its first festival award. 

International Student Webinar 21 May 2025

International Student Webinar 21 May 2025

Our International Student webinar takes place on Wednesday 21st May (from 12pm to 1pm) for a chance to learn more about our creative degrees, discuss student visas and answer questions in a Q&A session. 

To sign up or learn more about the event, follow this link: https://bit.ly/3Xjs1Gt.

"Crawl Space" Wins Best Animated Short at EEF Fest

Escape Studios is delighted to congratulation the maker of "Crawl Space", a new short animation created by MA Animation student James Hothi, which as won Best Animated Short at the Eastern Europe Film Awards. 

James Hothi is studying the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios, taught by industry veteran Kevin Richards.  

James Hothi produced and directed the short film, and did all the animation and FX work.  This is the second festival award for Crawl Space. 

Industry Feedback with George Caton-Coult 23 May

George Caton-Coult

Escape Studios is delighted to welcome back Love Love Films Studio Manager George Caton-Coult to review our second-year animation students' film projects on 23 May.

George Caton-Coult is the Studio Manager at Love Love Films, responsible for the TV hit "Pop Paper City"  developed in partnership with Aardman Animation.  

Many Escapees worked on and helped to contribute to the success of "Pop Paper City". 

"Save Yourself" Wins "Best Super Short" in London

Save Yourself wins "Best Super Short Film" in London

Congratulations to the makers of Save Yourself, the latest VFX short from Escape Studios, which has won "Best Super Short Film" at the London Movie Awards.  Save Yourself was created by our third year graduating class of VFX students at Escape Studios.  

The short film was written and directed by Jasmine Patel and produced by Charlie Cope.  Harrison Davies was the 3D VFX lead, and Fiona Lee was the 2D VFX Lead.  Cinematography was by Irene Gomez-Emilsson.  Industry feedback was generously provided by Industrial Light & Magic.  This is the second award for Save Yourself.