Escapee Jack Thompson Rigger at Flying Bark

Jack Thompson joins Flying Bark Productions

Many congratulations to Escapee Jack Thompson, who has joined Flying Bark Productions in Australia as a rigging artist. 

Jack Thompson studied the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios, and contributed to a number of successful animated projects, including two award-winning short films: "Joe" and "Over Under".

Jordan Coles to Teach Rigging at Escape Studios

Jordan Coles

Escape Studios is delighted to welcome back Escapee Jordan Coles to teach rigging at Escape Studios in January.

Jordan will be teaching our second year animation students the art of rigging on Tuesday January 10 and Thursday January 12th, giving our students an introduction to rigging, as part of Specialism Module CR5001.  

Jordan Coles has been working as a rigger at MPC in London.  MPC is one of the UK's leading animation and VFX houses, responsible for hits such as the 2019 remake of The Lion King and The Jungle Book.

Aidan Lonergan Rigger at MPC

Aidan Lonergan

Many congratulations to animation Escapee Aidan Lonergan for starting a new position as Rigger at MPC.

MPC is one of the UK's longest-established VFX and animation houses; responsible for blockbuster hits such as The Lion King and The Jungle Book.

Aidan studied animation at Escape Studios, broadening his animation skillset to include producing, modelling and rigging.   While at Escape Studios, Aidan contributed to a number of successful film projects, including producing the award-winning film "Joe".

Jack Thompson Rigger at Aardman

Jack Thompson

Many congratulations to Escapee Jack Thompson, who has been promoted to "rigger" at Aardman Animation.

Aardman Animation, based in Bristol, is one of the UK's leading animation companies, responsible for many animated hits including the "Wallace and Gromit" series of shorts.

Jack Thompson studied the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios, and made significant contributions to a number of successful animated projects, including two award-winning short films: "Joe" and "Over Under".

Aidan Lonergan Junior Rigger at Factory 42

Aidan Lonergan

Many congratulations to animation Escapee Aidan Lonergan for starting a new position as Junior Rigger at Factory 42, an immersive and television content production studio based at Somerset House on the Strand.

Factory 42 specialises in virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, creating "unique multi-sensory experiences for broadcasters, brands, destinations and artists."

Aidan studied animation at Escape Studios, broadening his animation skillset to include producing, modelling and rigging.  Aidan got the job at Factory 42 based on his excellent demo reel, and then a follow-up interview.

Jack Thompson Junior Rigger at Aardman

Jack Thompson

Many congratulations to Escapee Jack Thompson, who has recently begun a new position with Aardman Animation as a Junior Rigger.

Aardman Animation, based in Bristol, is one of the UK's leading animation companies, responsible for many animated hits including the "Wallace and Gromit" series of shorts.

Jack Thompson studied the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios, and made significant contributions to a number of successful animated projects, including two award-winning short films: "Joe" and "Over Under".

Rigging with Michael Davies Returns 11-14 Jan

Michael Davies teaches at Escape Studios

3D artist and undergraduate program leader Michael Davies will return on 11 January to teach our second year animation students a master class in "Character Rigging for Animators". 

For three days Michael will take our 2nd year animation students through the fundamentals of rigging their own characters.

The class is part of Module CR5001, a specialism module in which students begin to focus on a chosen specialism of their choice.

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.

Rigging with Michael Davies on Jan 20th

Michael Davies teaches at Escape Studios

3D artist and undergraduate program leader Michael Davies will teach our second year animation students a class in "Character Rigging for Animators", starting Monday 20th January 2020.

For three days Michael will take our 2nd year animation students through the fundamentals of rigging their own characters.

The class is part of Module CR5001, a specialism module in which students begin to focus on a chosen specialism of their choice.

Rigging Tutorials at our Vimeo Channel

To support our students who want to get to grips with the art of rigging, Escape Studios tutor Michael Davies has recorded a series of videos on facial rigging for our Vimeo channel.

The Facial Rigging tutorial builds on the existing character rigging tutorials, and is designed to help students develop their skills in character rigging.

You can find the facial rigging tutorial here, along with hundreds of other video tutorials, available to our students and Escapees.

Free Rigging Tutorial from Michael Davies

Escape Studios' rigging expert Michael Davies has recorded this free tutorial; an introduction to rigging human and humanoid characters.  Mike's impressive film credits include The Hobbit, where he rigged Smaug, and also Despicable Me, where he rigged The Minions.  Mike gets great reviews from our students for his well-paced methodical style of delivery, breaking down complex processes into simple parts in a clear and transparent way. To find out more about Mike's evening class at Escape in rigging, follow this link. And to find out about his summer class in character creation, click here.

Mike Davies Character Creation Starts 16 July

Michael Davies

3D Artist and rigging specialist Michael Davies, who has worked on VFX blockbusters such as Batman vs Superman, Doctor Strange and Thor Ragnarok, is teaching our new character creation course this summer.

Character Creation is part of our new Summer School, and is an intensive 6 week course that starts on Monday 16 July and runs for six weeks until Friday 24 August.

Character creation is all about designing, modeling, rigging and breathing life into your own characters.

Mike Davies Rigging Class Starts on 14 May

Michael Davies

3D Artist and rigging specialist Michael Davies starts a new evening class in rigging at our Shepherd's Bush campus.

Mike has worked on many VFX blockbusters such as Batman vs Superman, Doctor Strange and Thor Ragnarok.

There are still a couple of seats available, and you can sign up by following the link here.

Michael Davies Rigging Webinar 8 March

Mike Davies - the man who rigged Smaug

Rigging Supremo Mike Davies, veteran rigger whose film credits include The Hobbit and The Minions, is hosting a free webinar on the art of rigging on Thursday 8 March at 7pm.

Mike will be teaching our evening class in rigging, so if you're interested in studying with Mike, be sure to sign up so you can a feeling for what the course is like.

If you'd like to register (it's completely free), follow the link here to sign up.

Michael Davies Teaches Rigging at Escape

Michael Davies

This past week our animation guest tutor was 3D Artist and rigging specialist Michael Davies, who has worked on many VFX blockbusters such as Batman vs Superman, Doctor Strange and Thor Ragnarok.

Michael came in to visit us at our High Holborn campus for two days and gave our undergraduate animators a fast-paced introduction to the art of rigging

Rigging with Michael Davies - Course Outline

Learn rigging from the man who rigged Smaug

We're getting ready for our newest evening class, starting on 14 May and running for 8 weeks until 9 July, all about the dark art of character rigging, and taught by the very talented industry veteran Mike Davies.

Mike's rigging credits include the Minions (for Illumination) and even Smaug (for The Hobbit), so we can't think of anyone better qualified to teach this class.

We've been working on a rough outline of this 8 week class, so that our students will have a better idea of what to expect on the course.

Mike Davies - Rigging Smaug and The Minions

Minion by Mike Davies

Mike Davies is one of our newest tutors here at Escape Studios, leading an 8 week evening class introduction to rigging starting on 14 May 2018. Mike has a stellar industry track record, helping to rig Smaug from The Hobbit and the Minions from Despicable Me.

Rigging is a skill that every animator should know at least something about. Being able to open up a rig and tweak it, make adjustments and minor fixes, is an increasingly important part of the animator's toolkit.

We asked Mike to talk a little about how we got started in the industry, and what advice he might offer to students hoping to break into this most specialised of areas of the animation pipeline.

Rigging Starts at Escape 14th May 2018

Learn from the man who rigged Smaug

We're excited to launch a new evening class in character rigging, starting at Escape Studios on 14th May 2018.

Come and learn rigging from Michael Davies, the man who rigged Smaug and also The Minions. As well as his industry work, Michael also has plenty of teaching experience teaching; so we can't think of anyone better qualified to lead this class. 

This 8 week course is designed as an introduction to rigging, to help 3D artists broaden their skillset, and also to introduce students to some of the automated rigging systems currently available.

You’ll learn all the basics of rigging in Autodesk Maya (an understanding of Maya basics will be helpful) and what character riggers do in the animation and VFX industry.

Faster, Better, Rigging in Maya with Rapid Rig

"Rapid Rig: Modular" is a powerful automated rigging tool developed by Dustin Nelson and available for $90 at Highend3D.com.

Rapid Rigdoes what the name suggests - it allows you to build rigs rapidly, with speed and efficiency.

And it doesn't just rig bipeds. Rapid Rig will allow to rig characters with "four arms, two heads, twenty eyes, fourteen fingers, eight legs" - you get the picture. And all without having to understand anything much about rigging.

Instant Rigging at Mixamo

Mixamo.com. Instant rigging!

Rigging is one of the more complex and technical parts of the animation pipeline. In brief, rigging is the process of putting skeletons into our digital models.

It is the way we bring them to life with controls that can be used to give a performance. The rig in a CG model is a bit like the armature that goes into a puppet.

But what if we could automate the process, and speed it up? This would eliminate (at least in theory) hours of labour. One company that is leading the field is Mixamo, creating automated rigs through their Auto-Rigger tool.