Melissa Coarezza Lead Animator at Hexworks

Escapee Melissa Coarezza

Congratulations to Escapee Melissa Coarezza, who has been promoted to Lead Technical Animator at Hexworks, a games studio based in Barcelona and Bucharest.

Melissa took our 12 week course in 3D Animation taught by veteran animator Lee Caller.  Technical animation is a growing area of the animation industry, a field where opportunities and jobs are expanding. 

Ragdoll Dynamics for Maya

We're recommending Ragdoll Dynamics to all our animation students. Ragdoll Dynamics provides Maya animators with real-time physics for fast, automatic overlapping motion. 

Ragdoll is a real-time physics solver for Maya, similar the native nCloth and nHair solvers except that it works on transforms rather than points.

 

Paolo Amadini Animation TD at MPC

Paolo Amadini

Many congratulations to Paolo Amadini, who is currently working as an Animation TD at MPC, joining many other Escapees at the fast-growing animation and VFX studio.

Paolo took our MA in 3D Animation at Escape Studios, where he directed the short film "Palindromo", which has won many festival awards.

MPC is one of the UK's largest and most successful animation and VFX houses, responsible for blockbuster hits such as The Jungle Book and the 2019 re-make of The Lion King. 

Haydn Roff Technical Artist at The Mill

Haydn Roff

Many congratulations to Escapee Haydn Roff, who has recently been promoted to Technical Artist at The Mill. Technical artists work across teams, managing pipelines and helping to bridge the gap between creative and technical talent.

Haydn's role at The Mill is to work across the Creative Tech team, and the VFX team, essentially to help fill the gap between the developers and the artists, a job he describes as "a little bit of everything".

The Mill is one of the UK's leading VFX houses, whose work includes hits such as Gladiator,  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

Ash Ellis Technical Animator at MPC

Ash Ellis

Many congratulations to Ash Ellis, who has recently landed a job as a Technical Animator at MPC.

Ash studied animation and VFX at Escape Studios, and then became a Studio Assistant, helping to teach new students at Escape Studios.

Ash was a also a regular tutor in the animation classroom, teaching animation "taster days" for prospective students, and also teaching "lighting for animators" for our 2nd year animation undergraduates.

We're delighted to congratulate Ash on his new job at one of the UK's leading animation houses.

An "Evening With..." Tim Stam, Houdini Expert

Come along tonight to our latest "Evening With..." event with Tim Stam, Houdini Expert at Goodbye Kansas Studios in London.

Animation with Houdini is a growing part of the business, and we strongly recommend that anyone interested in animation should come along.

Anim TD in Maya & Houdini Starts 9 Jan 2019

Dan Shutt

Our newest animation evening class, Animation Technical Direction with Maya and Houdini, starts on 9 January 2019. The tutor is one of our most long-standing and experienced staff members, Dan Shutt, who will be introducing students to the fast-growing field of technical animation.

That is to say, all the physics-based stuff that traditional keyframe animators tend not to have to deal with - such as fur, hair, cloth and muscle systems. This is a part-time course, running on Wednesday evenings from 7-10pm, for 8 evenings, designed to fit around jobs and families.