MA Character & Creature Creation Sept 2021

Creature created by Escapee Tom Barton

We're delighted to announce the launch of our new MA in Character and Creature Creation, which will debut in September 2021 (subject to final validation by the University of Kent, who formally award our degrees).

The new MA in Character & Creature Creation is all about designing, modeling, and rigging your own characters.  

In this year long Master's Degree, students will learn all the stages of character creation from design through to final render.  The MA course, which is now recruiting, starts in September 2021.  To apply, visit the official course page here.  You can read about it at AWN.com here.

Sign Up Now For The Summer of Animation

The Summer of Animation has just been launched; it is a programme of free activities for 13 to 18-year olds in the UK, all about creating your own animation, hosted by Access VFX and supported by Escape Studios.

Over the summer students can access a series of free videos to show how to create each step of the 3D animation film making process. Each video has an exercise linked to it, where you can download templates to give it a go yourself.  https://summerofanimation.com/

Character Design: Student Showcase

Cat by Aimee-Rose Schiele

Last year we ran our first four week character design class, taught by London-based character designer Sam Nassour.

Sam taught our intensive four week character design class, which ran for one month in September 2019, with excellent results.

Sam is an experienced visual development artist and character designer, lately working at Blue Zoo animation in London. Sam's work exhibits a range of styles with great versatility, and he passed on these skills to our students at Escape Studios.

Character Design is Back on 24 August

Sam Nassour

Our full-time Character Design class is returning to Escape Studios on 24 August, taught by leading character designer Sam Nassour.

Sam will be teaching our full-time intensive four week character design class, starting on Monday 24th August.

Sam is an experienced visual development artist and character designer, lately working at Blue Zoo animation in London. Sam's work exhibits a range of design styles with great versatility. 

Character Creation Student Showcase

Lizard Character created by Max Brazier-Jones

One of the most exciting courses at Escape Studios is our class in Character Creation, where students design, model, rig and - if time permits - animate their own characters.

The most recent four week class was taught Michael Davies, the artist who rigged Smaug for The Hobbit) and also rigged  The Minions.

Michael's students created some amazing work - feast your eyes on the beautiful characters below.

Character Design with Sam Nassour 2 Sept

Sam Nassour

Our Character Design class is returning to Escape Studios on September 2nd, taught by leading character designer Sam Nassour.

Sam will be teaching our full-time intensive four week character design class, starting on Monday 2nd September and running until Friday 27th September.

Sam is an experienced visual development artist and character designer, lately working at Blue Zoo animation in London. Sam's work exhibits a beautiful range of styles with great versatility. 

Last Call for Character Design on 2 September

Designs by Josh O'Brien

Last Call for our 4 week Character Design class with Blue Zoo designer Josh O'Brien, starting on 2nd September.

Josh will be the lead tutor for this full-time intensive four week character design class, starting on Monday 2nd September and running until Friday 27th September.

Josh is an experienced visual development artist and character designer, currently working at Blue Zoo animation in London.

Last Call for Storyboarding on 5th July

Iliana Franklin teaching at Escape Studios

Last Call for our brand-new 4 week storyboarding summer school with Iliana Franklin, which starts on 5th July.  

This is the first time we have run this four week intensive storyboarding class at Escape Studios.

Story board veteran Iliana Franklin, whose extensive production credits include The Tale of Despereaux, is returning to Escape Studios to teach the art and craft of storyboarding, a vital part of the pre-production process, and one which has historically experienced a severe skills shortage.

Storyboard Summer School Starts 5 July 2019

Iliana Franklin - Storyboarding at Escape Studios

Mark your calendars - we're running a four week intensive storyboarding class at Escape Studios next summer, starting on Friday 5th July 2019.

Story board artist Iliana Franklin, whose production credits include The Tale of Despereaux, is returning to Escape Studios to teach the art and craft of storyboarding, a vital part of the pre-production process.

Character Creation Summer School 2 August

Michael Davies - rigged Smaug

Want to learn how to design, model, rig and animate your own characters?

Why not learn the art of character creation from the artist who rigged Smaug (The Hobbit) and The Minions?

Escape Studios Animation tutor Michael Davies is a 3D generalist who has worked on VFX blockbusters such as Batman vs Superman, Doctor Strange and Thor Ragnarok.

Character Design is Back - 2 September 2019

Josh O'Brien

Save the date! Our Character Design class is returning to Escape Studios next September, taught by leading character designer Josh O'Brien.

Josh will be teaching our full-time intensive four week character design class, starting on Monday 2nd September and running until Friday 27th September.

Josh is an experienced visual development artist and character designer, currently working at Blue Zoo animation in London. Past clients include Ash Gaming, Oxford University Press, Capstone publishing, Melwood Pictures and Zondervan Publishing.

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.

Storyboard Summer Course 18 June - 13 July

Iliana Franklin teaches Storyboarding at Escape Studios

We're running an intensive four week storyboarding at Escape Studios over the summer. Story board artist Iliana Franklin, whose production credits include The Tale of Despereaux, is returning to Escape Studios to teach the art and craft of storyboarding, a vital part of the pre-production process that is currently experiencing a skills shortage here in the UK. The course is aimed at anyone who wants to learn storyboarding, whether for animation, live action, commercials, or your own personal projects, and runs from 18 June - 13 July.