Key Creative Roles on a Short Animated Film

 

What are the key creative roles on a short animated film? Or, simply put, what are the jobs that absolutely have to get done in order to finish the project?  In this short video we explore the key roles that we believe must be filled in order to achieve success.

Real-Time Rendering with Blue Zoo on Nov 10

The Escape Studios VFX Festival is back, this time online.  Join us on Tuesday 10 November at 2pm for a webinar with Phil Stewart, "Head of Real-Time" at Blue-Zoo Animation.  

Phil will explain the important of Real-Time rendering at Blue-Zoo. How does the new pipeline affect the production of short films, TV series and commercials? 

Why Animators Need Colour Grading

What is colour grading, and why do animators need it? In film-making, colour grading - sometimes called colour balancing, or colour timing - is the process of adjusting the colour of every shot in a film to harmonise the overall look and feel of the film, and make sure that each shot flows seamlessly into the next. Colour Grading is an essential final step in the post-production of a short film, ensuring that every shot has the right colour balance. We're recommending this short video above which shows how to do successful colour grading in Adobe Premiere.

Why Animators Must Test Their Pipeline Early

Test Render from "Animal Lover"

Part of the process of making an animated film is to test your pipeline thoroughly, so that you can rely on it to render out all your shots on time.

Rendering, as our head of Games, Simon Fenton, memorably puts it: "...is when everything starts to go wrong".  At Escape Studios, just like on production, we have deadlines, and those deadlines must be adhered to.

Why Animators Need "Rig Wrecking"

Rig concepts from "Jerich0"

What is "Rig Wrecking"? Rig Wrecking, more commonly known as rig testing, is the process of testing your character rigs to make sure they can do everything you need them to do.

Sometimes known as stress testing, this process involves testing out all the controls to make sure everything works as it should, and all the geometry deforms correctly.

Rig testing is a necessary production step; it involves letting animators loose on the rig to do test animation. Skip this step and you will almost certainly find many problems cropping up during the animation stage of the production.

Blue Zoo's Real Time Animation Pipeline

Blue Zoo's Tom Box at BlueGFX Expo

At the BlueGFX Expo event on Tuesday, Blue Zoo founder Tom Box explained how Blue Zoo are transitioning to a "real-time animation render pipeline" this year, exploring new ways to speed up the animation process.

Tom described Blue Zoo as a studio that, since its inception, has "refused to accept industry standards", and has forged its own path in the industry.

Recently Blue Zoo have been pioneering the use of real-time rendering using Unreal Engine, in much the same way that we have been doing at Escape Studios - finding ways to make the production process faster and more efficient.