Rise of Skywalker on 20 Dec at Rich Mix

Star Wars is back! We have a special private screening of The Rise of Skywalker on 20 December, just for our students. The screening takes place at 2pm at Rich Mix in Shoreditch.

We will also be welcoming a special guest speaker to talk about the making of the film. We hope all our students agree that this is a great way to end what has been a stellar year for our talented and hard-working students at Escape Studios.

Star Wars Escape by Sebastian Kuder

Star Wars Escape by Sebastian Kuder

"Star Wars Escape" is a short fan film created by second year undergraduate animation student Sebastian Kuder. It's a sophisticated piece of work, almost 5 minutes long and involving a high level of skill in both animation and visual effects. We asked him to talk a little about the project, and how he managed to complete it with little time and less budget.

Star Wars - The Last Jedi - 14 December

Our Star Wars Student Event is happening again this year; Student Experience at Escape Studios are  hosting a screening of Star Wars - The Last Jedi at the Rich Mix cinema in Shoreditch, on Thursday 14th December.

All our students; short course, post-graduate and undergraduate, are invited, and our staff will be there too.  We're excited to welcome our students to this event - a great opportunity to see the latest VFX blockbuster, and also a chance for our students to find out about how the movie got put together.

Lucasfilm Summer Internship - Apply Now!

Possibly the most sought-after summer animation internship in London this year may be this one at Lucasfilm.

The competition will be tough but who wouldn't want to work on the next Star Wars movie? Details are at the official site.

Star Wars Rogue One at the VFX Festival

The making of "Star Wars Rogue One" was - for obvious reasons - one of the most popular events at the Escape Studios VFX Festival yesterday.

John Galloway - compositing supervisor, and Steve Ellis, CG Supervisor, were there to introduce the "Star Wars Rogue One" story, one of 2016's most successful VFX movies.

So, how did the London ILM team help to create such an impressive film, and how did they meet the expectations of the legions of Star Wars fans?

Star Wars Rogue One - Free Escape Studios Tutorial!

Did you know that Escape Studios offers tons of free tutorials at our YouTube Channel?  Tutorials like this new Star Wars - Rogue One tutorial above are a great way to learn new skills, and also find out what it's like to work in the animation and VFX industry.  Above is a tutorial by one of our talented studio assistants, Federico Guzzardo, who has created an awesome tutorial showing you how to create a Star Wars TIE Fighter, and comp in into a VFX plate.  Tutorials like this one are highly recommended - it's a great way to improve your knowledge base and raise your game. To find our YouTube channel, follow this link.

Star Wars Rogue One Screening Today!

Our Star Wars Student Event is happening today! We're hosting a screening of Star Wars Rogue One at 3pm at the Rich Mix cinema in Shoreditch, at 35-47 Bethnal Green Rd, London E1 6LA.

All our students, short course, post-graduate and undergraduate, are invited,  and our staff will be there too. Best of all, John Galloway, VFX Supervisor at ILM (who did the FX on the movie) will be doing a Q&A after the show.

We're excited to welcome our students to this event - not just a great opportunity to see the latest VFX blockbuster, but also a chance for our students to find out about how the movie got put together.

BB-8 From Star Wars - Now Available for Maya Animators!

BB-8. Copyright Walt Disney

We're excited to see what our students will do with this new Star Wars BB-8 rig - just recently released at Creative Crash.

Like any fan art, the creator of this rig obviously doesn't own the copyright - that is owned by the Disney corporation, who now own the Star Wars franchise. But that doesn't mean we can't use BB8 to do some great animation - it just means we have to respect the owners and not do anything silly with it (like, say, try to make a profit from it).

There are in fact two versions of this rig. The image to the left is an improved and updated version 3 (with extra lights and stuff) - which you can download here. 

Below are some tips on how to use the BB-8 rig: