Cintiq: New Hardware for Our 2D Animators

Wacom Cintiq tablets

Escape Studios has recently acquired new Wacom Cintiq tablets for our 2D animation students, enabling them to draw directly onto the screen rather than onto a traditional tablet. 

The new Wacom Cintiq drawing pads are available to our 2D animation students in the main 2D animation studio, "PalletTown", on the 11th floor at 6 Mitre Passage.

The Wacom Cintiq tablets enable our students to draw directly onto the screen, as is now standard practice across the industry.  

Tech, Hardware & Software at Escape Studios

Escape Studios VPN

What Hardware & Software do we use at Escape Studios? To get started, take a look at our official "What Hardware Do You Need" page, which you can find here.  We also have a handy page on tips for buying a laptop for home use.  

There is also a page on hardware in our classrooms, which you can find here.  You can also find out how to use the Escape Studios VPN (Virtual Private Network), which allows enrolled students to connect to our computers from home. 

Don't forget that a lot of theSoftware we use at Escape Studios can be downloaded at home for free.  For example, Autodesk Maya offers free licenses to enrolled students.  The open source software Blender is also free to download, and extremely versatile. 

Our 2D animation students can use Toonboom Harmony and TV Paint at Escape Studios, and also have access to discounted rates for home use. 

What Kind of Tablet Should I Buy?

What Kind of Tablet Should our Students Buy? This is a question we often get asked at Escape Studios, for those students looking to work from home. 

Nowadays there are many different kinds of tablets available, and cheaper versions than the traditional Wacom brand. 

Laptop Specifications for 2022

What kind of laptop?

"What kind of laptop should I buy?" is a question that is often asked at Escape Studios. 

Computer specifications change regularly and much depends on exactly what you want to use your laptop for.  But let's say you want to buy a laptop capable of running Autodesk Maya, for computer animation and to render out your shots.

What sort of laptop should you buy, and how much do you need to spend? Our animation tutor Amedeo Beretta offers some advice to our students.

What Kind of Laptop Should Our Students Buy?

"What kind of laptop should I buy?" is a question that we are often asked at Escape Studios, by students who want the flexibility to be able to work from home.

It's a tricky question to answer, because computer specifications change all the time and - of course - it all depends on exactly what you want to use your laptop for.

But, let's say you want to buy a decent laptop capable of running Autodesk Maya, for computer animation and to render out your shots.

What sort of laptop should you buy, and how much do you need to spend? Our animation tutor Amedeo Beretta offers some advice to our students.

Escape Studios Classroom Hardware

Oculus VR Headset at Escape Studios

What makes Escape Studios state-of-the-art? We pride ourselves on having the latest hardware and software for our undergraduate degrees, postgraduate degrees and short courses.

At Escape Studios, our workstations use HP Z640 / Z6 models with dual Xeon processors, Quadro class graphics and 32GB of memory.

Back Up Your Data!

Hard Drive - delicate moving parts

There are few things more depressing than being told by a student that their hard drive has died, and they have lost all their work.

This means essentially starting afresh, going back to the beginning to start again the long, slow slog of building up a demo reel.  It's hard to over-stress the importance of backing up your data. It's a pain in the neck, and it takes time, but never forget that a hard drive is a delicate piece of technology filled with vulnerable moving parts.

Hard drives don't last for ever and, like all tech, will (eventually) let you down. The secret is to back up your data. But how best to do this? We take a quick look at some of the options.

Which is Best for 3D Animation - a PC or a Mac?

 

Anyone thinking of embarking on a career in computer animation might be asking themselves - What platform is best for animation in Maya - a PC or a Mac?

The good news is - you can use both.  The bad news (for Mac users anyway) is - the PC is probably better.