Escapees Akash Modi, Grace Redi, Allie Maraqan & Matt O'Reilly Join ILM's Jedi Academy

Akash Modi, Grace Reid, Matt O'Reilly & Allie Maraqan

Many congratulations to Escapees Akash Modi, Grace Reid, Matt O'Reilly and Allie Maraqan who are all joining ILM's Jedi Academy as VFX "Padawans". 

Industrial Light & Magic's Jedi Academy is a six month paid internship at ILM, arguably the world's leading VFX house, responsible for multiple hit movies and series. 

ILM's "Jedi Academy" Now Open For Applications

Industrial Light & Magic's Jedi Academy is now open

Industrial Light & Magic's Jedi Academy, a six month paid internship at ILM, is now open for applications.

You can apply here, and the deadline is May 4th 2026.  We highly recommend that our students and Escapees apply. 

EscapeVerse Live Starts Today

Escapeverse Live, the in-person and online event hosted by Escape Studios, celebrating VFX, animation, games and tech art, starts today. 

Escapeverse Live  runs from today. Tuesday 24th February to Thursday 26th February 2026.  

We'll be sharing behind-the-scenes insights from the best of the screen industries, including which parts of the industry are growing, and where the opportunities lie for graduates.  

Today starts at 10.30am with "My Journey to a Career in Animation" with Rebecca Meilak.  

Later, at 12.30pm Charmaine Chan from Industrial Light & Magic will present "Jurassic World: Rebirth". 

Emmanuel Rahman Joins ILM's Jedi Academy

Emmanuel Rahman joins ILM

Congratulations to Escapee Emmanuel Rahman who has joined Industrial Light & Magic's Jedi Academy. 

Emmanuel Rahman studied the Art of Visual Effects at Escape Studios, specialising in 2D Digital Compositing.  While at Escape Studios, Emmanuel contributed to a number of award-winning films, including X-Terminate, In Depth, and Outpatient.   He also joined the Escape Studios team as a Studio Assistant.

George Keppy FX Artist at Framestore

Escapee George Keppy

Many congratulations to Escapee George Keppy who has joined Framestore as an FX Artist, or "FX TA", having first completed a successful internship at Framestore. 

Framestore is one of the UK's leading animation and VFX houses, responsible for multiple hit projects, including Paddington in Peru, Wicked, The Fantastic Four: First Steps and James Gunn's Superman.

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Escapee Jasmin Patel Joins ILM Jedi Academy

Many congratulations to Escapee Jasmine Patel who has started as a paint artist at Industrial Light & Magic ("ILM"), one of the world's leading animation and VFX houses, as part of their Jedi Academy programme.  

Jasmine Patel studied the Art of VFX at Escape Studios, specialising in 2D Digital Compositing. 

Jasmine Patel also worked on a number of award-winning short films at Escape Studios, including "Set in Stone" and Save Yourself, which she directed. 

Shannon Martin Facial Capture Artist at ILM

 Shannon Martin

Many congratulations to Escapee Shannon Martin, who is working as a Facial Capture Artist at Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).  

Shannon Martin studied the Art of VFX at Escape Studios, and contributed to a number of award-winning student animated short films, including "Street Ratz", and "Home Sweet Home".  Both films had successful festival runs and won multiple festival awards. 

ILM is one of the world's leading animation and VFX houses, pioneers in VFX work and also software development.  

Escapee Amanda Costa Animator at ILM

Amanda Costa Animator at Industrial Light & Magic

Many congratulations to Escapee Amanda Costa who has joined Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) as an animator.  

Amanda Costa took our short course in Computer Animation at Escape Studios, taught by veteran animator Lee Caller.  After graduation, Amanda became a Studio Assistant at Escape Studios.

Escapee Victoria Arraez Joins ILM

Victoria Arraez

Many congratulations to Escapee Victoria Arraez has joined ILM as a Production Runner. Working as a runner is a standard entry-level position in our industry which can - and often does - lead to a full time production role.  

Victoria Arraez studied The Art of Visual Effects at Escape Studios, and worked on a number of award-winning films, including Papercut and Curiosities of the Ruthless Roupell St.  

Escapee Daria Zadecka Animator at ILM

Daria Zadecka

Congratulations to Escapee Daria Zadecka who has joined Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) as an animator.

Daria Zadecka took our Master's Degree in Computer Animation at Escape Studios, taught by veteran animator Lee Caller.  During the course Daria put together a strong demo reel to apply for positions in the animation industry. 

ILM is one of the world's leading animation and VFX houses, responsible for ground-breaking work such as Star Wars and Jurassic Park. 

ILM Offers free Industry Advice for Graduates

ILM Education Series 2.0,

VFX powerhouse Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) is offering a series of free industry panels offering advice for recent graduates looking to break into the animation and visual effects industry.

Known as the ILM Education Series 2.0, ILM is offering two dates, Thursday 9 November at 5pm, and Wednesday 29 November at 5pm. The events are free.

Feedback from ILM at Escape Studios

Feedback from ILM at Escape Studios

Last week ILM animators Juani Gueraldes and Felipe de Lanteuil visited Escape Studios to offer feedback on our third year animation students' projects. 

Juani Gueraldes and Felipe de Lanteuil are both Senior Animators at ILM, and kindly gave up their time to help our student animators develop their projects, and try to hit the highest possible standards. 

Simone Costa MoCap Animator at ILM

Simone Costa

Many congratulations to Escapee Simone Costa who has joined Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) as a Motion Capture Animator.  

Motion Capture is a growing part of the animation industry, increasingly embedded into our animation course at Escape Studios. 

At Escape Studios, Simone contributed to four award-winning animated shorts: Kiwi's Dream, Malloe, Animal Lover and Nefertiti. 

ILM is one of the world's leading animation and VFX houses, pioneers in VFX and also software development.  Simone will be using ILM's own proprietary software for facial capture animation.  

Careers Webinar with Blue Zoo ILM & Jellyfish

Last week on 5 August we hosted a free online Animation Careers Evening with animation industry leaders ILM, Blue Zoo and Jellyfish Pictures.  Blue Zoo recruiter Lauren Barnes, and animators Jamie Floodgate, Jack Bond and Joel Airebamen discussed the latest career opportunities in the expanding animation industry, offering their insights into how to get hired into the current animation boom. Who is hiring, and for what skills? What kind of demo reel do you need to get hired? How has Brexit affected the jobs environment? Watch this video to find out. 

Konrad Peczkowicz MoCap Artist at ILM

Konrad Peczkowicz

Congratulations to Escapee Konrad Peczkowicz who has recently started a new position as a Junior Facial Capture Artist at Industrial Light and Magic.  Motion Capture is a growing part of the animation industry, increasingly embedded into our animation course at Escape Studios. 

At Escape Studios, Konrad Peczkowicz was the lead animator on the award-winning short film "Slushy", and also contributed to other award-winning film projects. 

ILM is one of the world's leading animation and VFX houses, pioneers in VFX and also software development.  Konrad will be using ILM's own proprietary software for facial capture animation.  

Eilin Berrio Pena MoCap Artist at ILM

Eilin Berrio Pena

Many congratulations to Escapee Eilin Berrio Pena, who has recently started a new position as a Junior Facial Capture Artist at Industrial Light and Magic.  Motion Capture is a growing part of the animation industry, increasingly embedded into our animation course at Escape Studios. 

While at Escape Studios, Eilin directed the award-winning film "Malloe", and contributed to many other award-winning projects. 

ILM is one of the world's leading animation and VFX houses, pioneers in VFX and also software development.  Eilin will be using ILM's own proprietary software for facial capture animation.  

Piotr Noworyta Junior MoCap Animator at ILM

Piotr Noworyta

Many congratulations to Escapee Piotr Noworyta who has just started work as a junior facial capture artist at ILM. 

Piotr took our integrated MArt in the Art of 3D Animation, and has now joined one of the world's leading animation and visual effects houses, a global leader responsible for hits such as the Star Wars series and the ground-breaking dinosaur animation on Jurassic Park.

Piotr is now a facial capture animator at ILM.  Performance Capture is a growing part of the animation pipeline, of which we are doing more and more at Escape Studios. 

ILMxLAB Visits Escape Studios

Vikki Dobbs Beck at Escape Studios

Vikki Dobbs Beck from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) visited Escape Studios last week to introduce our students to ILMxLab, the virtual reality pioneer that "invites audiences to step inside the world of our stories".

ILMxLab is all about immersive experiences. Their challenge as a startup venture within ILM is to leverage their in-house talent and create new experiences, using VR to tell stories in a fresh, innovative way.

As Vikki put it, we are "entering an age of experiential storytelling". To create this new reality, ILMxLab needed to "take risks, to learn, explore and discover new ideas".

ILM, Star Wars, & Virtual Reality

Vikki Dobbs of ILMxLAB

At the Turin VIEW conference this week, Vikki Dobbs Beck from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) talked  about her company's newest venture - ILMxLab - a virtual reality pioneer that "invites audiences to step inside the world of our stories".

ILMxLab is all about "immersive experiences". Their challenge as a startup venture within ILM was to "leverage their in-house talent and create new experiences".

As Vikki put it, we are "entering an age of experiential storytelling". To create this new reality, ILMxLab needed to "take risks, to learn, explore and discover new ideas".

ILM's Mark Bakowski to Escape Studios on Thursday 16th March

Meet the man who made Avengers

This Thursday 16th ILM VFX Supervisor Mark Bakowski, the man who supervised "Age of Ultron" (among many other VFX box office blockbusters) will be giving a talk for our students at Escape Studios.

It's a bit like one of our  "Evening With" events, but in the afternoon. So, expect tea and cake instead of beer and pizza.

Mark has had a stellar career in the VFX industry; few individuals are better placed to shine a light on how the industry actually works, and - of course - how to break into it.

The event will take place tomorrow at our 190 High Holborn campus at 4pm, and is (of course) free for all our students. Prospective students and applicants are also very welcome.