Escape Studios Visits DNEG

Escape Studios visits DNEG

Many thanks to Andrew Schlussel and everyone at DNEG for the inspiring tour of the Great Portland St Studio yesterday. 

The visit was a great opportunity for our students to visit one of the UK's longest-established VFX and animation houses; responsible for multiple blockbuster hits.  

Animation Demo Reel Feedback with DNEG 21 March

Calling all current animation students and recent Escapees - we are hosting a new Demo Reel Review with DNEG Animation on 21st March 2023.

This event takes place at 5pm in person in Rooms 1.11 and 1.12 at our Central London campus at 190 High Holborn WC1 and is free for all our students.  

Alex Budulan Unreal Engine TD at DNEG

Alex Budulan

Many congratulations to Escapee Alex Budulan who has become an Unreal Engine Technical Director (TD) at DNEG, one of the UK's leading visual effects houses.

Unreal Engine is a growing part of the animation and VFX industry, one where new technology is driving opportunities for employment and growth.

Real time rendering is an area where the technology has shifted in the past few years, with animation and VFX houses abandoning traditional ray-tracers in favour of real time rendering.

Industry Feedback from DNEG

Santiago Colomo

Yesterday we were fortunate to welcome DNEG animation supervisor Santi Colomo and Dara McGarry, Artist Manager at Double Negative, for online industry feedback with our students.

Santiago Colomo is an animation supervisor at DNeg, with 16 years experience in the industry.  Santiago and Dara joined us online via Google Meet and Syncsketch to offer feedback to our animation students on their short film project "Moon Rockz", directed by Molly Babington, which is nearing completion.

Industry feedback is at the heart of what we do at Escape Studios; it helps our students to connect with the commercial world and make sure we're teaching industry-relevant skills.

Industry Feedback with DNeg on Monday

Dara McGarry

We're delighted to welcome back David Prescott, Senior Vice President of Creative Production at Double Negative, and Dara McGarry, Artist Manager at Double Negative, for some online feedback with our students on Monday 4 May.

David and Dara will be joining us online via Google Meet and Syncsketch to offer feedback to our second year animation students on their film projects.

Industry feedback is at the heart of what we do at Escape Studios; it helps our students to connect with the commercial world and make sure we're teaching industry-relevant skills.

David Prescott to visit Escape Studios

David Prescott

We're delighted to welcome David Prescott, Senior Vice President of Creative Production at Double Negative, to visit Escape Studios.

David will be visiting us on Thursday 12 March, offering feedback to our second year animation students on their projects.

Industry feedback is at the heart of what we do at Escape Studios; it helps our students to connect with the commercial world and make sure we're teaching industry-relevant skills.

DNeg Animator Oz Gani Mentors our Students

Oz Gani

We're excited to welcome back VFX animator Oz Gani to Escape Studios, helping to guide our second year animators, who are currentlystart work on their second group project, an animal or creature documentary.

Oz has been reviewing our students' work and helping us to make sure we're reaching for DNeg standards of animal and creature animation.

Oz Gani is a supervising animator at DNeg, and a veteran of VFX hits such as Edge of Tomorrow, The Amazing Spiderman, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Troy Saliba and the Making of Venom

Venom

Troy Saliba, animation director at Double Negative, came to visit us at Escape Studios on Friday, to talk about his work on the recent blockbuster release: Venom, whose global box-office gross has reached almost $550million.

Troy was in fact my animation director on "Monster House" back in 2005, a well-crafted film which was also my introduction to working with motion capture.  It's hard to think of an animator anywhere with a better understanding of how to create character-driven animation within a VFX environment.

The Venom live-action shoot was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia, but the bulk of the animation and post-production was done at DNeg in London.

Troy explained how, on Venom, animation and FX were heavily interlaced, requiring a great deal of collaboration between the departments, and lots of back-and-forth to get the right final result.

Reel Talk Live at Escape Studios on 12 Sept

We're hosting Reel Talk Live on Wednesday, September 12 at 6:30 pm.

For one night only we are welcoming professional artists from three of the biggest VFX, Animation and Games studios in England to review some of our Escapees' work.

Our guests are Jan Jinda from DNEG, Will Cook from Blue Zoo and Rob Watkins from Creative Assembly, who will join us to give live comments on showreels and portfolios.

Find Your Future on 9 August 2017

Want a career in creative media, but not sure what route to travel? Get yourself to "Find Your Future 2017", right here in London on 9 August.

If you're interested in working in the creative industries, then Find Your Future is the careers event for you.

Best of all, it's completely free!

Shanae Bedford Runner at DNeg

Many congratulations to Shanae Bedford, one of our first year undergraduate students, who has secured a position as a runner at London VFX powerhouse Double Negative.

Getting a summer placement so early in her studies is a great start to her career. We asked Shanae to tell us a little about how she got the position, and how other students might follow in her foosteps.

Double Negative's Chris Keller To Visit Escape

DNeg's Chris Keller is is coming to Escape Studios tomorrow, Wednesday September 14th, to talk about his compositing work on visual effects blockbusters like The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Man of Steel and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  Best of all for all our students - the evening is completely free.