Why Animation Demo Reels Need a Walk Cycle

Character walk by Ben Swallow

Every animation demo reel should include at least one good walk cycle.  It might seem too basic, but a well executed walk tells a recruiter a lot about your animation skills — timing, weight, character, and appeal — all in a few seconds of motion. 

You can have a number of walk cycles on your reel, as long as they show character and personality, and as long as you keep them short and snappy.  

Escapee Emma Richards Visits Escape Studios

Emma Richards returns to Escape Studios

Last week Escape studios welcomed back Escapee Emma Richards to talk to our students about her career in visual effects. 

Emma Richards studied the Art of VFX at Escape Studios, specialising in 2D compositing.  While at Escape Studios, Emma supervised the 2D work on two award-winning animated films, Risen and Tatty. 

"Houdini Indie" License for Freelancers

Houdini Indie license - just $299 per annum

Software developers sidefx, makers of Houdini, offer a "Houdini Indie" license for independent film-makers looking to create industry-standard FX work on a modest budget.  This is great news for Escapees looking to take on small freelance gigs, but without studio-level financial resources. 

Escapee Ana Erbasu Joins Framestore

Many congratulations to Escapee Ana Erbasu who has joined Framestore, one of the UK's leading animation and VFX houses, responsible for multiple hit projects, including Paddington in Peru, Wicked, The Fantastic Four: First Steps and James Gunn's Superman.

Ana Erbasu studied the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios, graduating Master of Arts. She joins the many Escapees who have begun their careers at Framestore.

Film Soc is Back with "Ed Wood" on Oct 30th

Escape Studios' Film Society is back on Thursday 30th October with "Ed Wood", the 1994 film by Tim Burton celebrating the low budget "glorious failures" of director Ed Wood. 

The film stars Jonny Depp as Ed Wood, and Martin Landau as Bela Lugosi. 

The screening of Ed Wood takes place on the 10th Floor in the Breakout Space. 

"Skoll Aurora" Wins Best Anim at Makizhmithran Fest

Congratulations to the makers of Sköll Aurora, the animated short film created by our third year graduating class of 2D animation students at Escape Studios, which has won "Best Animated Short" at the Makizhmithran Film Festival. 

Sköll Aurora tells the story of light re-entering a dark and desolate world; it was written and directed by Mahamat Souleymane and produced by Amos Mathias. 

This is its second festival award. 

Nuke "Indie License" For VFX Freelancers

For all our VFX artists working on indie projects (which we strongly encourage), The Foundry have an indie version of their compositing package Nuke.  

The "Nuke Indie" is ideal for Escapees who do freelance gigs and work on small budgets.

Post-Graduate Open Event 27 Nov 2025

VFX Created at Escape Studios

Join us on Thursday 27 November at 5.30pm for our next Short Course and Post-Graduate Open Evening at Escape Studios, hosted online at Zoom. 

The event offers prospective students a chance to find out what it's like to study with us.   

Come along and meet our tutors, find out about our courses, and have your questions answered. 

How to Get Maya for Free

Autodesk, who make the software Maya, offer an education copy of Maya for free, which can be downloaded from the official Autodesk site.

Autodesk Maya has been the dominant software package in 3D animation for over 20 years. I first used Maya 1.0 on "The Iron Giant", back in 1998. And today it remains the most powerful package for the creation of 3D animation, still by far the most widely used in industry.

Cartoon Physics - Equal and Opposite Reaction

Monty sneeze - with top hat reaction

One of the quickest ways to give your animation weight and believability—even in the wildest, wackiest cartoon world—is to respect a core principle of physics: Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.

This doesn’t mean your characters need to obey Newton's laws with documentary accuracy. What it does mean is we should obey the laws of Cartoon Physics.  

Undergraduate Taster Day 1 November 2025

Join us on Saturday 1st November 2025 for our next Undergraduate (UG) Taster Day for an introduction to our undergraduate degrees in animation, games and vfx.  

The next Undergraduate Taster Day takes place on Saturday 1st November 2025 at 6 Mitre Passage, N Greenwich. https://bit.ly/43fTl8B.

Escape Studios' Taster Days are a chance to find out about our undergraduate degrees in Animation, Games & Visual Effects, and to get hands-on experience of how we teach.  Find out what the Escape Method is all about. 

VES Awards 2025 - Enter by October 31st

VES: Cat 25: Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project

The 24th Annual VES Awards are now taking student entries.  Here at Escape Studios we encourage all our students to enter Category 25: Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project. 

The VES awards are sponsored by Autodesk, who make Maya, the leading animation and VFX software.  The VES Awards deadline is midnight on 31st October 2025.

Escape Studios Demo Reel 2025

Congratulations to all our talented students studying the Art of Animation, VFX, Games, Motion Graphics, Character Creation and Concept Art who have contributed their skills to our 2025 combined demo reel. This latest reel represents just a small proportion of the excellent work created at Escape Studios over the last twelve months. 

Maya -v- Blender - Which is Best?

Should Animators Learn Blender, Maya, or Both? If you’re just starting out in animation, one of the first big questions is: Which software should I learn? For most students, that means choosing between Autodesk Maya and Blender. Both are powerful, both are widely used, and both have strengths — but the right choice depends on your goals. 

The Animator's Survival Kit - Still Relevant Today?

Richard Williams’ Animator's Survival Kit was first published over 20 years ago, before today’s digital workflows, AI-assisted tools, and real-time rendering.  

And yet, it remains one of the most essential resources for anyone learning animation. Why? Because the fundamental principles of animation don’t change. Great animation is still all about timing, spacing - and giving a memorable performance. 

"Socks To Be You" Wins "Best Short Film" Award

Congratulations to the makers of "Socks To Be You", which has won the award for "Best Super Short Film" at the International Gold Awards.  

Directed by Josh Popusoi , and produced by Erik Bocsor,  "Socks To Be You" was a collaboration between undergraduate animation students and VFX students at Escape Studios, working together to create an original story.   This is its fourth festival award. 

Character Creation Showreel 2025

Escape Studios is proud to present our 2025 Character Creation Showreel, featuring the best work created by our talented students over the past year.  Our courses in character creation teach students how to design and create their own characters, and bring them to life.  Students learn to design, model, texture, rig and animate their own character, enabling them to be creative artists working with a wide variety of digital tools.

"For Better or Worse" Wins Best Animation Award

Congratulations to the makers of the short film For Better or Worse, which has won the "Best Animation" award at the Milan Gold Awards.

For Better or Worse was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001 in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects.  It was directed by Danielus Sileikis and produced by Amelia Chwesiuk. This is its third festival award. 

Escape Studios' "Portfolio Power Up" 30 Oct at 6pm

Join us on 30th October at 6pm for a "Portfolio Power Up" with Head of Animation Marc Stevenson and Escape Studios' Principal Ian Palmer at 6pm UK time. 

Preparing an industry-ready portfolio is at the heart of what we do at Escape Studios; it's how we prepare "Studio Ready Talent" for the world of employment in the creative industries. 

Join us on October 30th for demo reel advice, insider tips, and a live Q&A. 

To sign up for this free event, follow this link.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects.  To apply for one of our courses, follow this link.

Sköll Aurora Wins Best Animation in New York

Congratulations to the makers of Sköll Aurora, the animated short film created by our third year graduating class of 2D animation students at Escape Studios, which has won "Best Animated Short" at the New York Movie Awards.

Sköll Aurora tells the story of light re-entering a dark and desolate world; it was written and directed by Mahamat Souleymane and produced by Amos Mathias.  This is its first festival award. 

Anand Shukla Wins Emmy Award for Graphic Design

Many congratulations to Escapee and Studio Assistant Anand Shukla who has won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Graphic Design for his work on "For Mexico, For All Time", broadcast on ESPN. 

Anand studied the Art of Video Games at Escape Studios, and has been working at Escape Studios as a Studio Assistant since November 2023. 

In addition to his work at Escape, Anand tackles freelance projects outside Escape Studios, such as the Emmy award-winning "For Mexico, For All Time". 

Anand said "I’m so happy to have received an Emmy Award! Huge thanks to Krygon Studios' Bradley Harris for bringing me on board for this incredible project and giving me the chance to be part of something so special". 

Jack Wright Network Specialist at J C Decaux UK

Escapee Jack Wright

Many congratulations to Escapee Jack Wright who has joined  JCDecaux UK in a specialist network role. 

Jack Wright graduated from Escape Studios after studying The Art of Visual Effects; while at Escape Studios Jack also contributed to a number of award-winning short films, including the vfx short Reece, and Street Ratz, which has won many festival awards.

JCDecaux UK is the world's leading outdoor advertising company. 

Introducing "Held Back"

Introducing Held Back, the latest short animated film from Escape Studios.  Held Back was completed as part of Studio Module PR5001, a collaborative module in which second-year animation students work together on short film projects.   Held Back was directed by Lewis Sims and produced by Hassan Mahdi. 

Escape Studios' Film Society Starts 9 October

Join Film Soc Today

Escape Studios' Film Society is a new student society created to organise film screenings.  Film Society aims to introduce students to a wide array of films to be inspired by and to draw upon on creatively during the course of their studies.  

Screenings take three different forms: in campus screenings, online screenings and out of campus screenings. The first screening is "Flow" on 9th October at 5pm. 

Why The Animation Industry Still Needs Animators

Will AI Replace Animators?

There is a lot of doom and gloom about AI right now in the creative industries, a general assumption that we are living on borrowed time and that AI is coming for our jobs. 

But is it really? Early this year I took a break from teaching at Escape Studios to work as Animation Director on a new feature film.  And right now, I’m reminded every day that while AI tools are making waves, animation is still — at its heart — a craft driven by human creativity.  

Undergraduate Open Day 25 October 2025

Escape Studios is hosting a new undergraduate open day on Saturday 25 October 2025.

Escape Studios' Open Days are a chance to find out about our undergraduate degrees in Animation, The Art of Games and Visual Effects.

An Open Day is an opportunity for potential students to find out how they can follow in the footsteps of our award-winning alumni, and also to check out our North Greenwich Campus.

Looking for advice on what to put in your portfolio? Our tutors are available to help. You can also see what our classrooms look like, what kind of software and hardware we're running, and also find out about current job opportunities in the animation and VFX industries. 

Escape Studios Gets TV Paint - and a Student Discount

We’re excited to announce that Escape Studios has added TV Paint to our software toolkit, giving our 2D animation students even more opportunities to develop professional 2D animation skills. 

Our 2D animation programmes have been running Toonboom Harmony as our principal animation platform, but we've decided to go for broke and add TV Paint as well.  So, from the start of this academic year (2025), our animation students will have a choice of 2D animation platforms to work on.  Plus, we've secured a special deal for our students to get themselves a license for home use if they need the extra flexibility.

"Shapla" Wins Best Animation at Makizhmithran Fest

Many congratulations to the makers of "Shapla", which has won "Best Animation" at the Makizhmithran Film Awards.

"Shapla" was created by our graduating class of animation students. "Shapla" was directed by Ruksar Rowza Aziz and produced by Charlie Seeviour.  Erica Sanches was the art director and Tom Price composed the original score.  

This is its third festival award. 

"Socks To Be You" Wins "Best Animation" in Florence

"Socks To Be You" wins "Best Animation" in Florence

Congratulations to the makers of "Socks To Be You", which has won "Best Animation" at the Florence Film Awards.  

Directed by Josh Popusoi , and produced by Erik Bocsor,  "Socks To Be You" was a collaboration between undergraduate animation students and VFX students at Escape Studios, working together to create an original story.   This is its third festival award.