Learn Blender with Escape Animator Thomas Potter

Create Low Poly Characters in Blender with Thomas Potter

Many congratulations to Escape Studios' animation student Thomas Potter whose Blender Modeling Channel now has over 30,000 subscribers at YouTube. 

Thomas Potter has created his own YouTube channel which teaches students how to model low poly 3d characters step by step.  All of Thomas's Blender content is completely free. 

Free Webinar "Test Before You Invest" on 26 May 2026

Tuesday 26th May: webinar on creative entrepreneurship 

Join us on Tuesday 26th May at 6:00pm BST for a free webinar on creative entrepreneurship with Escape Studios tutor Glyn Fairweather. 

Find out how successful creative entrepreneurs minimise their risk and test their ideas before committing significant resources. 

Got an idea for a startup? Find out how to stress test your project. 

HaZ Dulull: "How to Set Up and Run an Indie Studio"

HaZ Dulull "How to Set Up and Run an Indie Studio"

At last week's EscapeVerse Live event, HaZ Dulull - founder and director at "Beyond The Pixels" - explained "How to Set Up and Run an Indie Studio with Your First Game".  

HaZ's journey into the games industry has been one of an independent entrepreneur, setting up his own company, his first game "AstroBurn" and figuring out the nuts and bolts of running a business. 

Yasin Tribak - Animation Entrepreneur

Yasin Tribak at BAFTA Piccadilly 

Congratulations to Escape Studios animation student Yasin Tribak who has already begun his career as a freelance animation artist and entrepreneur. 

Yasin Tribak is in his third year of studies at Escape Studios, studying the Art of Computer Animation.  He is also the founder of satorystudios.com, a start-up animation studio creating original content for international brands.  

What Are The Challenges of Running an Animation Studio? Blue Zoo's Tom Box Explains

Tom Box is the co-founder of Blue Zoo, one of the UK’s leading TV animation studios.  Blue Zoo does animation in a broad range of styles, both 2D and 3D, and is responsible for a number of successful TV series.

All their work is done in CG, and almost all of it is made in Maya.  They describe themselves as doing “CG character animation with a bold quirky style”, and at last week's Blue GFX Expo at London’s South Bank, Tom talked about The Eight Biggest Problems involved with running an animation studio, and how Blue Zoo goes about solving them.

Got a Great Idea for an Animated Feature Film? Pitch it Now at Cartoon Movie!

Cartoon Movie - pitch your project!

Do you have an idea for an animated feature film project you'd like to get off the ground?  If so, you should submit it to Cartoon Movie!

The Deadline to submit a feature film project to Cartoon Movie is 25 November 2015.  If your project gets selected, you will be able to pitch it to almost 1,000 animation and industry professionals from forty countries, including 120 distributors & sales agents.

But why should animation students want to pitch their feature film ideas? Well, why not? Perhaps you could be the next Walt Disney or Jeffrey Katzenberg? And you'll never find out if you don't try!

Blue Zoo and the Making of Q Pootle 5

Q Pootle 5 by Blue Zoo

Blue Zoo are one of the UK's leading animation companies, making world-beating TV series - sold and distributed around the globe.

So how do they do it? In a recent talk at Blue GFX, Adam Shaw (one of the co-founders of Blue Zoo) explained how he created the hit animated TV series Q Pootle 5. His lecture was a fully-fledged masterclass in how to put a TV series together.

So, if you have ever wondered - how do you get your own TV series off the ground? - here's how it works.

Who Are Blue Zoo?

Here at Escape Studios we want to nurture a generation of animators who understand not just the tools of their job but the skills necessary to become a successful entrepreneur. 

And why not? At a recent BlueGFX Expo event, Blue Zoo founders Tom Box and Adam Shaw explained how they went from being university graduates to owning and running the biggest TV animation co in the UK.  They also offered some excellent insights into the biggest question for our own animation graduates - how can aspiring animators get a job with Blue Zoo?

Peppa Pig Sells for £140m

Peppa Pig - global hit

The three animators who created Peppa Pig have sold a 70% stake in their company to Entertainment One (better known as "E1") for £140m.

Peppa Pig is a very British success story - a piece of home-grown animation that has been sold successfully all over the world.  The creators of Peppa, Mark Baker, Neville Astley and Phil Davies, are now very rich indeed.

The trio, who graduated from Middlesex Poly in the 1980s, are living proof that if an animator can create a hit character, and hang on to the rights for long enough - the world is their oyster.