HaZ Dulull: "How to Set Up and Run an Indie Studio"

HaZ Dulull "How to Set Up and Run an Indie Studio"

At last week's EscapeVerse Live event, HaZ Dulull - founder and director at "Beyond The Pixels" - explained "How to Set Up and Run an Indie Studio with Your First Game".  

HaZ's journey into the games industry has been one of an independent entrepreneur, setting up his own company, his first game "AstroBurn" and figuring out the nuts and bolts of running a business. 

Nuke "Indie License" For VFX Freelancers

For all our VFX artists working on indie projects (which we strongly encourage), The Foundry have an indie version of their compositing package Nuke.  

The "Nuke Indie" is ideal for Escapees who do freelance gigs and work on small budgets.

Creative Business for MArt Students with Chris Jones

Entrepreneur Tutor Chris Jones

This week our students studying on our Integrated Masters' Degree Course have been getting their first taste of the business side of the Creative Industries. 

The Integrated MArt  covers not only the craft of animation and vfx, and also the practical side of successfully working as a team to complete a project that creates value in the business world.

In this guest blog post, Escape Studios' business lecturer Chris Jones explains what students need to know about the business side of the creative industries.

Yasin Tribak - Animation Entrepreneur

Yasin Tribak at BAFTA Piccadilly 

Congratulations to Escape Studios animation student Yasin Tribak who has already begun his career as a freelance animation artist and entrepreneur. 

Yasin Tribak is in his third year of studies at Escape Studios, studying the Art of Computer Animation.  He is also the founder of satorystudios.com, a start-up animation studio creating original content for international brands.  

How to Make Guerilla Business Cards

Business cards might sound old-fashioned, but they are still an important part of the animator's  toolkit.

Making business cards should be on your jobs checklist, along with cutting your demo reel, hosting it online at your blog or website, and updating and curating your LinkedIn profile (animation recruiters live on LinkedIn).

Business cards are still the simplest and most efficient way to give your contact details to someone you have just met.

But what if, like many of our students, you are short on cash? The answer is, print your own. Here's how to do it. 

Do Animators Still Need Business Cards?

At the recent VFX Festival in London's Shoreditch a number of our students were meeting with recruiters from some of the big VFX houses such as MPC and Framestore. I asked the students - have you brought business cards?

Almost none had. In this digital age, you might think that business cards might be a little old-fashioned, but actually, they're still an important part of the jobs toolkit.

7 Rules to Start Your Own Animation Business

How do you start a small animation business? At Escape Studios we don't just train animators to do excellent work, we help them to turn that knowledge into a successful career. And one way of dealing with the uncertainty of being an employee in the creative industries is to start up your own business.

Don't forget that today's big companies like Pixar and Blue Zoo all began life as small start-ups. But how, exactly, might you go about starting one up from scratch?  Below are the 7 Key Rules to start your own animation business.

16 Rules of Animation Freelancing

If you work in the animation industry, the chances are that at some point you will be self-employed, either running your own small business or working as a freelancer. 

Even if you do land a job as an employee of a company, our industry tends to be project-driven, and most companies tend to expand and contract according to the size of their order book. 

So what’s an animator to do to stay afloat? First, you must understand the 16 Rules of Animation Freelancing. 

How Do You Finance Animation at Kickstarter?

Kickstarter

How do you finance an animation project at Kickstarter? The world of finance is changing, and crowd-funding is now one of the key means of getting a project off the ground. Even students with modest resources can now make their dreams real.

As we get ready for our evening class in Producing Animation, starting in September, we're taking a close look at how Kickstarter works.  Writer and film-maker Allen Stroud, author of Elite: Lave Revolution, explained in a recent talk how to get a Kickstarter project off the ground.

Business Skills For Animators - How To Invoice a Client

One of the essential business skills that animators and digital artists need to learn is the ability to get paid.  When you are first starting out, cash flow is likely to be one of your biggest challenges.  So, as a freelancer, you need to know how to invoice a client.

Invoicing, like many life skills, may seem obvious to those of us who have been doing it for years.  But it's only obvious when you know how.  So how do you draft your very first invoice, and what should go in it?

Meet Seed Animation!

At this year's Escape Studios VFX festival, one of the most interesting talks was given by Neil Kidney, founder of Seed Animation, a small animation company in the heart of London's Soho.

Neil's lecture was a fascinating insight into the workings of a small studio, illustrating both the benefits and the burdens of being small and nimble, but vulnerable to stiff competition and unexpected pitfalls.

So, what makes a small animation company like Seed really tick, and how can animation graduates hope to get hired by companies like Seed?

How To Be a Freelance Animator - Top Eight Rules For Survival

Lots of animators do freelance jobs. Even if you are working at a studio, you still have your evenings and weekends free, so why not expand your skillset by taking on freelance work?  Working with clients is not like working for an employer.  Things tend to be much less clearly defined, and you have to be much more proactive about giving the client what they want. Often, clients don't know themselves what they want. You have to lead, and also be led, which can be a tricky balance to strike.

But, when you're starting out on your animation career, taking on small freelance jobs can be a great way to get experience, build a client base, and earn some money doing what you love. Below are our Eight Rules for Freelance Success.

Can Our Students at Escape Studios Make You a Short Animated Film?

Here at Escape Studios we often get asked this question: Can your students make me a short animated film? The answer is a loud and enthusiastic yes.

We love making animated films, and we love doing live briefs for clients.

We have even set up a small film co-operative at www.nano-films.com especially to create short films. So, how does it work in practice?

Got a Great Idea for an Animated Feature Film? Pitch it Now at Cartoon Movie!

Cartoon Movie - pitch your project!

Do you have an idea for an animated feature film project you'd like to get off the ground?  If so, you should submit it to Cartoon Movie!

The Deadline to submit a feature film project to Cartoon Movie is 25 November 2015.  If your project gets selected, you will be able to pitch it to almost 1,000 animation and industry professionals from forty countries, including 120 distributors & sales agents.

But why should animation students want to pitch their feature film ideas? Well, why not? Perhaps you could be the next Walt Disney or Jeffrey Katzenberg? And you'll never find out if you don't try!

Your First Freelance Job - What Questions Should You Ask The Client?

Here at Escape Studios we want all our animators to be fully prepared not just for employment but also to be able to create their own companies in digital media: in other words, to be successful entrepreneurs. 

Big companies like Frame Store, MPC, Blue Zoo and Double Negative all began as tiny start-ups - why can't our students do the same?

So, as part of a series of posts on new media entrepreneurship, we ask - what questions should you ask the client when you start work on your very first animation freelance job?