Cinematography Workshop at Escape Studios

Understanding the language of cinematography is one of the key skills all our students learn in their first year at Escape Studios. Being able to compose an image, take a picture, and use a moving camera is part of the fundamental language of visual storytelling.  At Escape Studios, Animators and VFX artists learn how to tell stories with pictures.  Watch the video above to see our cinematography class in action, led by Head of VFX Clement Gharini. 

Introducing The 2D VFX Team at Escape Studios

Meet the 2D VFX Team at Escape Studios. 2D VFX is all about compositing, and is primarily taught in Nuke, by The Foundry.  

Our graduates in 2D Compositing have enjoyed considerable success in recent years, with a very high proportion of our students finding work in their chosen field. Compositing continues to be a vital part of the VFX Pipeline.   

Below are the talented tutors who teach the art and craft of 2D VFX at Escape Studios, helping to ensure we remain the UK's leading centre for the study of VFX.

We also have hundreds of tutorials in compositing in Nuke at our Tutorial Channel to support our students.

Clement Gharini Explains the Art of Cinematography

Clement Gharini, Escape Studios' Head of VFX, has released the first of a series of tutorials on the Art and Craft of Cinematography for students of VFX, Animation and Games.  Clement Gharini worked as a camera operator and compositor for more than 20 years in the film industry before joining us at Escape Studios; he teaches cinematography and compositing, as well as running our Green Screen and Motion Capture pipelines.  In this first cinematography episode Clem addresses two simple questions: What is Cinematography? And...Who Needs It?

Clem Gharini Head of VFX at Escape Studios

Clement Gharini - Head of VFX

Escape Studios has a new Head of VFX - we're proud to congratulate compositor and cinematographer Clement Gharini on being appointed to the new role this summer. 

Clem teaches Cinematography and Compositing to our undergraduate students.  

In addition, Clem also supplies Green Screen and Motion Capture training to our students at Escape Studios, helping to produce our award-winning VFX and MoCap films.

"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.  

Introducing "Luciferin"

Luciferin | VFX Short Film - Escape Studios from Bruno Urzì on Vimeo.

Meet Luciferin, the latest short film created at Escape Studios by our graduating class of VFX artists. 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.  In Luciferin, a scientist wakes up disoriented and confused following a mysterious accident; as he recovers his senses, he encounters a shocking entity - and must confront a horror of his own creation.

MoCap at Escape Studios with Clem Gharini

Wiktor Brodowski MoCap

This week our third year animation students have been experimenting with motion capture, led by Escape Studios cinematographer and MoCap expert Clem Gharini, operating the XSens Motion Capture System. 

Wiktor Brodowski (left) was acting out scenes from his new short film,  a third year Studio Project in which our students work together to create studio-quality work.

Once the acting performance is captured, the XSens data is edited and retargeted onto the production rigs, animated and cleaned up in Autodesk Maya. 

Wiktor described the experience as "an amazing opportunity to participate in mocap recordings for my current uni project. I have never "animated" so much so fast in my life.  Lots of fun! Really awesome to try this technique. Probably will be lots to fix about it anyway, but I'm eager to see how it looks in Maya".

Meet the 2D VFX Team at Escape Studios

Clement, Klaudija, Lorenzo and Sokratis

Meet the 2D VFX Team at Escape Studios. 2D VFX is all about compositing, and is primarily taught in Nuke, by The Foundry.  Our graduates in 2D Compositing have enjoyed spectacular success in recent years, with almost 100% of our students finding work in their chosen field.  Below are the talented tutors who teach the art and craft of 2D VFX at Escape Studios, helping to ensure we remain the UK's leading centre for the study of VFX.

Cinematography and Lighting with Clem Gharini

Cinematography and Lighting starts again on September 19th; one of a number of mini-modules taken by all our first year students.  Taught by our in-house Director of Photography Clement Gharini, Cinematography and Lighting module introduces students to the art of moving cameras and green screen photography.  Cinematography is one of the core skills that all our students must master; to find out more, watch the video above, and read Clem's post below.

"Shimmer" Wins Best VFX at CEFF

Shimmer wins Best VFX at the Cinematic Europe Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Shimmer", the short VFX film created by students at Escape Studios, which has won Best VFX at the Cinematic European Film Festival.

"Shimmer" was directed by Will Moss and produced by Aidan Callaghan, and tells the story of two glass figurines which come to life.   Shimmer has won many festival awards. 

Meet Your Tutors - Clement Gharini

Clement Gharini

Clement Gharini teaches Cinematography and Compositing on our Visual Effects courses, and also teaches our first year and third year undergraduate students. 

Clement teaches CR4001 Craft Foundations - Cinematography in which our undergraduate students first get to grips with live action cameras, offering a foundation for the study of cinematography.  

Meet the VFX Team at Escape Studios

VFX Team at Escape Studios

Meet the VFX Team at Escape Studios! VFX is the jewel in the crown at Escape Studios, it's at the very root of what we do, where we began 20 years ago when the VFX Industry was just starting to boom.

Back in the early 2000s there were few places in the UK where students could learn the necessary skills to land that crucial first job in the industry. 

Today, Escape Studios is ranked No 1 in the UK by The Rookies for VFX Production.

Below, in no particular order, are our talented tutors who teach the art and craft of VFX at Escape Studios, helping to ensure we remain the UK's leading centre for the study of VFX.

Shimmer Wins Best VFX at Athens Film Fest

Shimmer wins Best VFX in Athens

Congratulations to the makers of "Shimmer", a vfx short film created by students at Escape Studios, which has won "Best VFX" at the Athens International Film Festival (AIMFF)

"Shimmer" was directed by Will Moss and produced by Aidan Callaghan, and tells the story of two glass figurines which come to life.  

Cinematography was by DOP Clement Gharini.  The 3D Lead was Toby Haslam, and the 2D lead was Lily Barber.

This is Shimmer's first festival award. 

Meet "Russell"

Russell | Student Short Film - Escape Studios from Russell - Short Film on Vimeo.

Meet Russell, a new short VFX film created by students at Escape Studios.  Russell was written by Scott Middleton and Liam Martin, directed by Scott Middleton and produced by Gary Roche.  Russell tells the story of a curious hedgehog who dreams of taking to the skies. Russell is currently being entered into film festivals. 

Introducing "Shimmer"

 

Introducing "Shimmer", a new vfx short film created by students at Escape Studios. "Shimmer" was directed by Will Moss and produced by Aidan Callaghan, and tells the story of two glass figurines which come to life.  Cinematography was by DOP Clement Gharini.   It was created by our 3rd year animation and VFX students as part of a studio project, in which students collaborate to produce a short film. 

"Potguins" Best Micro Anim at Discover Awards

Potguins wins Best Micro Anim at Discover Fest

Congratulations to the makers of March of the Potguins, directed by Michael Vodden and produced by Daniel Brooks, which has won Best Micro Animation at the Discover Film Awards in London. 

March of the Potguins is about two penguin salt & pepper pots who embark on an epic journey across the kitchen counter top. 

Kiwi's Dream Wins Best VFX in Tokyo Fest

Best VFX at the TIMFF

Congratulations to the makers of "Kiwi's Dream", which has won Best VFX at the Tokyo International Film Festival.  

Directed by Paloma Zhu and produced by Daniel Rowe, Kiwi's Dream was based on an original concept by Freddie Belsom about an origami kiwi who dreams of flying in the clouds.

Kiwi's Dream was filmed on location in London, with cinematography by DOP Clement Gharini. The project was overseen by Animation Programme Leader Michael Davies. 

You can find the list of winners at the official Instagram page.

Cinematography in Unreal Engine with Clem

Clement Gharini

Cinematographer Clement Gharini is currently leading classes in cinematography in Unreal Engine to all our MA students at Escape Studios.  These classes will be of special interest to students studying our MA in Storyboarding & Previsualisation. 

As Unreal Engine becomes an increasingly important visualisation tool,  not just in Games but in Animation & VFX, Clem is introducing our students to the use of cameras in Unreal Engine, demonstrating how to integrate different tools across multiple platforms. 

Meet the "BoxBots"

Meet "BoxBots", the latest short film produced by our students at Escape Studios. 

Directed by Jordan Coles and Ross Green, and produced by Priya Shah, "BoxBots" is a short animated comedy about a boxing match between two plastic figurines, who must fight for the "World Plasticweight Championship".

"BoxBots" was completed as part of the third year animation Module PR6001, a Studio Project worth 60 Credits.

In this module our animation students and VFX students combine forces to produce a short visual effects film, learning how to produce animation within the VFX pipeline.  "BoxBots" (which you can find at Instagram here) is currently being entered into film festivals. 

"Joe" Wins "Best Genre Film" at Heroes Fest

Many congratulations to the makers of Joe, which has won the "Best Genre Short Film" Award at the Heroes International Film Festival.

 "Joe" is a short film directed by Callum Reeve and produced by Aidan Lonergan, completed as part of animation Module PR6001,  a Studio Project worth 60 Credits. 

This is the third festival award for Joe, which won the "Director's Choice" award at the Sci-On film festival and a "Four Stars Award" at the British International Amateur Film Festival.