Creature Animation Workshop: VIEW 19 Oct

I'll be hosting a creature animation workshop at this year's VIEW Conference again this year.  The two-hour animation workshop takes place online on Monday, 19 October from 11am to 1pm Italian time.

I'll be teaching students how to tackle some creature animation using Autodesk Maya.  We'll be animating spiders - demonstrating how to break down an apparently complex motion - an eight-legged walk - into simple parts to get a sophisticated result.

So if you fancy animating some creepy crawlies, join me on Monday, 19th October from 11am to 1pm Italian Time.  To sign up, follow this link.

"Seeker" Wins Best Low Budget Film in Milan

Many congratulations to Escapee Rassoul Edji, whose short film "Seeker" has won Best Low Budget Film at the Assurdo Film Festival in Milan, and was also nominated for "Best Trailer".

This is the latest award for "Seeker", which recently won "Best Short" at Lisbon Film Fest, "Best Cinematography" at the European Film Festival, and "Best Super Short" at the Lisbon Film Festival.  The film was also selected as a finalist in this year's Rookies competition, and was nominated for Best Director at the Prague Film Festival.

Daniel Baidoo Animator at Maga Animation

Daniel Baidoo

Many congratulations to Escapee Daniel Baidoo, who has found work as an animator at Maga Animation, an animation company based in Monza, Italy.

Daniel is currently working remotely for Maga, animating "4-5 seconds of animation a day" on Ricky Zoom 2, a British CGI preschool series about a red motorbike named Ricky.

Prior to Ricky Zoom, Daniel worked at Animal Logic animation studio in Sydney, Australia.

Melissa Coarezza Animator at Milestone s.r.l.

Melissa Coarezza

Many congratulations to Escapee Melissa Coarezza, who has secured a position as a technical animator at the Italian video game company Milestone s.r.l.

After a year at MPC film in London working on the production of Maleficent 2 - Mistress of Evil, Melissa, who took our 12 week course in 3D Animation, has joined the TechArt team at Milestone, in her home town of Milan.

Technical animation is a growing area of the animation industry, one where opportunities and jobs are rapidly expanding. 

We're Going to VIEW 21-25 October

We're going to VIEW, the 20th International VFX & Computer Graphics Conference that takes place every year in Turin.

This year the VIEW conference runs from Monday 21st October until Friday 25th October.

On Wednesday October 23 at 2.30pm I'll be on a panel with SVA titled "Starting Your Animation Career: How to Get Noticed and Get Hired".

And on Thursday October 24th I'll be teaching a one-day masterclass in Maya demonstrating how to animate dinosaurs, from 9.30am at Piazza Mestiere.

The class is aimed at complete beginners and requires no prior experience with Maya.

Escape Studios at VIEW Wed 25th October

Escape Studios is going to VIEW, the 18th International VFX & Computer Graphics Conference that takes place every year in the beautiful Italian town of Torino (Turin).

We'll be there running a one-day workshop in Maya on Wednesday 25th October, demonstrating some cool creature animation techniques. The class is aimed at complete beginners and requires no prior experience with Maya.