Cuchulahn O'Byrne Teaches Animation at B&S College

Cuchulahn O'Byrne

Many congratulations to Escapee Cuchulahn O'Byrne who has joined Barnet and Southgate College as an animation lecturer and tutor.

Cuchulahn O'Byrne studied the Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios, and contributed to a number of award-winning short films, including Golden Acorn, Offcut and Over Under.  

Barnet and Southgate College is a further education college in North London with around 14,000 enrolled students. 

Show Pointer Location Tool for Windows

Show Pointer Location Tool

A handy teaching tool that we recommend for all our tutors at Escape Studios is the "Show Pointer Location Tool" in Windows (see image left). 

The Show Pointer Location Tool creates a little animated target for your audience. When you press the control ("CTRL") button on your keyboard, the target shows your audience exactly where your pointer is and what you are clicking on. 

When you are demonstrating how to use software, this tool helps our students keep track of what you are doing.  To see how to activate Show Pointer Location Tool, follow the steps below.

The "Five Pillars" of "The Escape Method"

What is "The Escape Method"?  The Escape Method is the way we teach animation at Escape Studios.  It has five pillars: Intensive classroom teaching, online tutorials, constructive feedback, industry engagement, and group projects.  All our students at Escape Studios study intensively, with daily personal tuition from industry-trained tutors, combined with online tutorials, regular, intensive feedback, and engagement from industry.  Our BA and MA courses also have a strong focus on group work, known as "Studio Projects" in which students work together in teams, learning the "soft skills" of working in groups, mirroring the actual processes of a live studio project. Watch the short video above to find out more about "The Escape Method".

What is "The Escape Method"?

Framestore's Oz Gani reviews student work

What is the Escape Method? The Escape Method is the way we teach animation at Escape Studios. It has five main pillars: Intensive classroom teaching, online tutorials, constructive feedback, industry engagement, and group projects.

All our students at Escape Studios study intensively, with daily personal tuition from industry-trained tutors, combined with online tutorials, regular, intensive feedback, and engagement from industry.

Our BA and MA courses also have a strong focus on group work, known as "Studio Projects" in which students work together in teams, learning the "soft skills" of working in groups, mirroring the actual processes of a live studio project.

Advanced Animation Starts on 5th July

Advanced Animation is back - starting on 5th July.  Advanced animation is a new course, an extension of the existing 12 week course in animation, and is aimed at students who want to polish and further develop their 3D animation skills.

This 6 week intensive class builds on the lessons learned in the 12 Week Animation Short Course,  developing and enhancing existing skills and making sure that all our students are job-ready by the end of the course.

Lee Caller Teaching at Escape Studios

This week Escape Studios welcomed animation tutor Lee Caller, who is teaching our second year students character and creature animation. Lee is an animator who combines technical skill with a strong story-telling element - the perfect ingredients for a great animation performance. You can see his excellent dinosaur animation - "Tokyo Rex" - above. Lee is at Escape this week helping our second year students complete their first assessed animation exercise - an entry into this month's Eleven Second Club.

Who's Teaching Character Design?

Vince Woodcock

We're delighted to confirm that the very talented Vincent Woodcock will be the principal tutor at our character design evening class, starting this October at Escape Studios.

Vince studyed music and theatre at Brighton University, and then became an apprentice animator at the Richard Williams studio in London's Soho Square, learning his craft from Richard Williams and the other animators there including the veteran Disney animator Art Babbitt.

Escape Studios Wins HEA Teaching Award

Here at Escape Studios we're proud to have been awarded a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence by the Higher Education Academy.

The HEA shortlisted us from a list of around 70 courses around the UK that had been put forward for the award.

We're delighted to have been shortlisted, an encouraging pat on the back for all the hard work that has gone into developing the new undergraduate courses here at Escape Studios.

Part of what makes our courses special is the focus on collaborative projects. These can be a lot of work to organise but it's what industry keeps telling us they need. Animation is a team sport - not a solo undertaking.

Congratulations to all our staff and students who made this award possible. You can read more about it here.