Festivus Returns Thursday 11th June

Calling all Escape Studios' animation students - Festivus is back in London on Thursday 11th June from 6pm at the Betjeman Arms on the Euston Road, N1C 4QL. 

London's regular animation networking event is an opportunity for our students and recent graduates to get to know people in the animation industry, find out who is hiring, and where the jobs are. 

Festivus is all about meeting people in our industry, networking, and - of course - enjoying a drink with friends.

Festivus is an opportunity to meet people from animation studios in the UK and overseas, see what job opportunities there are, and maybe even get some showreel feedback.

Julien Rashti To Teach Animation & VFX Students

Julien Rashti

Animator and 3D layout artist Julien Rashti is returning to Escape Studios this week to help teach our third year animation and vfx students as they join forces on a joint animation & vfx project, part of Studio Project Module PR6001.

Julien comes to us from MPC where he contributed to a number of animated films including as "Pinocchio", "Disenchanted" and Disney's "Snow White".

Double Bounce Walk Tutorial with Monty

Double Bounce Walk with Monty

Every animator needs to know how to animate a character walk.  In this tutorial, we show how to take a basic walk cycle using the marvellous "Monty" rig (free for download from Creative Crash) and give Monty a sunny, upbeat personality with just a few clicks.  

The video tutorial is recorded in Autodesk Maya, and is aimed at animation beginners.

BBC Children’s Animation Seeks Pitches

BBC Ignite wants your pitches

BBC Children’s Animation are seeking submissions for fresh, bold and innovative animation ideas. The scheme is called "Ignite" and the deadline is Midnight on 1st September 2021. 

For all our students who have been working on short films for the past couple of years - this is a perfect opportunity to pitch your materials to the UK's biggest broadcaster.

Successful pitches will be given a "fully funded development opportunity" to bring their project to the small screen.

You don't need to have created any finished animation for your project; more important is an idea of the stories you want to tell and who the main characters are.  To see more, follow this link.

Anim 12 Week Course Returns 27 Sept 2021

Escapee Chan Sagoo worked on Lion King (2019)

Our next animation short course - three months of intensive training in 3D animation - returns on 27th September 2021.

Our 12 week animation course is aimed at anyone who wants to learn the art and craft of 3D Animation in Maya, and aims to take students to a professional level of skill, making them studio-ready talent.

Taught by veteran animation tutor Lee Caller, our animation is designed to help our students find employment in the expanding animation and VFX industry.

12 Principles of Animation

We're recommending this introductory video outlining the 12 Principles of Animation.  If you're studying animation for the first time, and starting to learn the basics, then this video is a very helpful introduction to the medium.  Unlock the secrets of Squash and stretch, Anticipation, Staging, Straight ahead action & pose to pose, Follow through & overlapping action, Slow in and slow out, Arcs & Paths of Action, Secondary action, Timing, Exaggeration, Solid drawing and Appeal.  Sounds like a long list? You don't have to memorise them all. Just be aware of the principles, and then gradually start to apply them in your animation.

Daniel Baidoo Animator on "Hurricane"

Many congratulations to 3rd year animation undergraduate Daniel Baidoo, who recently finished work as a junior animator on the WW2 movie "Hurricane", currently in theatres in the UK.

Daniel did the work this summer with Lipsync Post in London.

Daniel started his animation career by interning at King Bee animation while he was still a first year undergraduate. Later he joined Lipsync and worked as a Junior animator on Showdogs.

We asked him how he got the position on "Hurricane", and what advice he might have for other students at Escape Studios looking to find internships and summer jobs.

Nesta Cites Animation as Top Digital Skill

Nesta - Innovation Foundation

Nesta, the innovation foundation, has produced a study of 41 million jobs, revealing the most important digital skills in today's economy.

Not all digital skills are born equal, and guess which one Nesta thinks will be the most valuable? Step up....Animation.

Animal & Creature Animation at Annecy

Annecy, France

Escape Studios will be heading over to the Annecy Animation Festival next week, checking out the latest developments in our industry at what has become the world's biggest animation festival.

I'll be on a panel tomorrow, Tuesday 12th June, talking about how to animate non-human characters, sitting alongside my fellow panelists Alonso Martinez from Pixar, Joeri Christiaen from Thuristar, and independent animator Nicolas Deveaux.

Animation Course Starts May 29th

The Niffler - animated at Framestore in London

We're currently taking applications for our next animation short course - three months of intensive training in 3D animation - starting on 29 May 2018.

We're excited to welcome Royce Wesley, a Pixar animator who will be visiting us in London to mentor our trainee animators. 

Visual Storytelling with Buster Keaton

This week at Escape Studios our second year animators are completing a pantomime shot; creating a fun, entertaining piece of animation without words or dialogue. It's harder than it sounds. Without dialogue, you have to use camera, body language and facial expressions alone to communicate your story.  Of course, the masters of silent comedy faced the same problem, which is why animators can learn so much from the silent comedy stars like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton.  In the eight minute video above you can see why Keaton was a master of the visual gag.  Why should animators study this stuff? Because animators are actors, and we have to make our acting work on a visual level.  If your scene doesn't work with the sound turned off - it isn't working.

Festivus is Back! Thursday 13 July

Festivus is back!  – with special guests! The Festivus animation event is an opportunity to get to know people in the London animation industry, find out who is hiring, and where the jobs are.

The latest Festivus animation event takes place on Thursday 13th July at The Comedy Pub in London.

There is a guest speaker from Animation UK, and Blue Zoo will also be there.

How To Break Into Character Design

BoxTrolls - character design by Luis Grane

Character design is one of the most creative jobs on an animated film, allowing the artist to give free rein to their imagination, come up with great ideas and - best of all - get paid to do it.

But how do you break into this most competitive of fields?  We asked Luis Grane, an animator and character designer whose work can be seen on dozens of animated films including Prince of Eqypt,  Hotel Transylvania, Ratatouille, and Open Season, to talk about this work and how he broke into the industry. 

8 Steps To Find An Animation Internship

Cinesite is one of many Soho VFX houses which offer internships

Finding internships is not easy. And yet, in an increasingly competitive world for graduates trying to break into the creative industries, it is an important step on the ladder to a successful career.

A successful internship brings experience, contacts, and direct understanding of what is needed to get a job with an animation company. So how do you go about finding an internship in the animation industry?

London Mime Festival is Coming! 9 January - 4 February 2017

The London Mime Festival is about to launch its 40th anniversary season in our city.  Artists include acrobat-genius Mathurin Bolze (Cie MPTA), Charleroi Danses’ Kiss & Cry and Mossoux Bonté, German Mask-theatre experts Familie Flöz, and Gandini Juggling with a hugely expanded version of its glorious Pina Bausch tribute, Smashed.

But why watch mime? Because mime is the basis of great animation. If you can tell a story without words or dialogue, then you have the makings of great animation. Our animators at Escape Studios have to master the art of body language and facial expressions long before they learn lipsync and dialogue.

How to Record Voice Overs - An Animator's Guide

Frank Gladstone directs actors in a sound booth in Soho

Most animators eventually find themselves recording a voice for a film project.  Whether it’s a short film, a personal project, or a piece of animation for a client, you will eventually need your characters to speak.

And for this, unless someone else does it for you, you will need to direct actors. So how does an animator or director go about recording voices? And how do you get a decent performance?

A Chuck Jones Animation Tutorial

In this excellent 13 minute animation tutorial, actor and director Ron Howard introduces the work of animation legend Chuck Jones, the creative master behing the Road Runner and Bugs Bunny. There are other great voices here too - such as Disney animation stars Glen Keane and Eric Goldberg (the latter the author of the excellent "Character Animation Crash Course" - one of the books on our student reading list).  The video is a great introduction to the basic principles of animation, such as anticipation, squash and stretch, secondary action and overlapping action. We're recommending it to all our students.

Escape Studios Online Animation Taster Now Live

Our new online animation taster, showing students how to do some cool creature locomotion (a crow in flight) is now live. It's a really useful taster because it teaches you the basics of animals in motion and also a bunch of other important stuff, such as motion paths, set design, cameras, simple lighting, batch render, and final export as a movie file.  So, you get to learn the basic elements of the whole 3D animation pipeline in Maya in just one exercise. The taster is aimed at beginners and no prior knowledge of Maya or animation is needed.  You can find it here at our official site. 

Big Hero Six Animation Workflow Revealed

Shot Breakdown: Fred basketball test from trent correy on Vimeo.

Above is an excellent shot breakdown video by Disney animator Trent Correy - all about how he planned out one of his shots on Big Hero Six. How does an animator actually plan their shot? There is, of course, no single answer to this question - every animator has their own workflow that works for them.  That said, most animators approach a shot in fairly similar ways, thinking about it, planning it, thumbnailing it, making a kind of mental road map to guide them to their destination.

How Do Animation Students Enter Their Films and Win Prizes at Film Festivals?

Photo: Wikimedia

There is no better way for a student to launch their career in animation than to enter and win animated film festivals around the world.

However, as the competition gets tougher all the time, how does a student have a decent chance to enter their film, get noticed, and win prizes?

We asked veteran DreamWorks storyboard artist Nassos Vakalis, whose short film "Dinner for Few" has been winning festivals all over the world, to explain the secrets of success.