VR returns to Escape Studios

Escape VR Experience

Virtual Reality recently returned to Escape Studios: Studio Assistant Catarina Da Silva has been working at Escape on a VR project, collaborating with Zuquiel Abrahams and William Bradley.

Catarina served as the Director and Lighting Artist on The "Escape VR Experience".

Evening With...Dave Ranyard 19 February

Join us on Wednesday night for one of our regular "Evening with..." events at Escape Studios.

The event takes place on Wednesday 19 February as we welcome Dave Ranyard from Dream Reality Interactive on the subject of VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality).

ILMxLAB Visits Escape Studios

Vikki Dobbs Beck at Escape Studios

Vikki Dobbs Beck from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) visited Escape Studios last week to introduce our students to ILMxLab, the virtual reality pioneer that "invites audiences to step inside the world of our stories".

ILMxLab is all about immersive experiences. Their challenge as a startup venture within ILM is to leverage their in-house talent and create new experiences, using VR to tell stories in a fresh, innovative way.

As Vikki put it, we are "entering an age of experiential storytelling". To create this new reality, ILMxLab needed to "take risks, to learn, explore and discover new ideas".

Harry Pearson Junior Rigger at Factory 42

Harry Pearson

Many congratulations to animation Escapee Harry Pearson for starting a new position as Junior Rigger at Factory 42, an immersive and television content production studio based at Somerset House on the Strand.

Factory 42 specialises in virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality, creating "unique multi-sensory experiences for broadcasters, brands, destinations and artists."

Harry studied animation at Escape Studios, broadening his animation skillset to include modelling and rigging, and will graduate this summer, part of our first cohort of students to win their BA at Escape Studios. 

The Order of Quadrivium - VR Escape Room

There is so much excellent work coming out the undergraduate games course at Escape Studios that it's hard to keep up.  We have had many entries to The Rookies this year, and one of the most imaginative is The Order of Quadrivium; a VR Escape Room created by our third year undergraduate games artists.

"The Lost City" Enters The Rookies

The Lost City - Trailer from Mitchell Searle on Vimeo.
https://www.therookies.co/entries/239

Congratulations to Gioia Varago, Fabrizio Bergamo, Bjarke Frimand Frid, Abigail Bevilacqua, Cameron Tempest-Hay, Erin Harrison on their superb virtual reality entry "The Lost City" in this year's Rookies competition (deadline May 31st). The third year undergraduate games students set out to create a VR project set in a lost pre-Columbian world, in which an adventurer must find the Aztec homeland, Aztlan, but ends up getting trapped instead in an ancient hellscape. Players must solve the puzzles of the Lost Gods to escape.

Challenges of VR - by Rewind

At the Blue GFX Expo this year we heard about some of the Challenges of Virtual Reality in an excellent talk by Oliver Kibblewhite, Head of Special Projects at Rewind, a creative agency based in LondonOliver Kibblewhite, Head of Special Projects at Rewind, a creative agency based in London.

VR is something of a "Wild West" right now, a potentially huge field that has yet to be explored. It's not yet clear how VR will become commercially viable, or even in what medium. But it is surely clear that, at some point in the (not so distant) future, VR will be a huge part of the entertainment industry. So, what (according to Rewind) are the challenges of VR?

ILM, Star Wars, & Virtual Reality

Vikki Dobbs of ILMxLAB

At the Turin VIEW conference this week, Vikki Dobbs Beck from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) talked  about her company's newest venture - ILMxLab - a virtual reality pioneer that "invites audiences to step inside the world of our stories".

ILMxLab is all about "immersive experiences". Their challenge as a startup venture within ILM was to "leverage their in-house talent and create new experiences".

As Vikki put it, we are "entering an age of experiential storytelling". To create this new reality, ILMxLab needed to "take risks, to learn, explore and discover new ideas".

Virtual Reality Show in London this Weekend

Virtual Reality Show

The Virtual Reality Show is coming to Islington, North London, this weekend. With an impressive array of attendees and speakers, this could be the perfect event to find out the future of VR and - crucially for our students - who is hiring talent, and what skills are in demand. What software will you need to learn to join the VR Revolution?

News from GDC - Real Time Rendering is Here

Head of Escape Studios Ian Palmer recently attended the Games Development Conference ("GDC") in San Francisco, checking out the latest developments in the Games Industry, part of our industry outreach to make sure we're always teaching the latest technology.

So what's new in Games? The answer - d'oh! - is Virtual Reality, which continues to be the most promising emerging technology in our industry. And, of course, the awesome power of real-time rendering.

Brynley Gibson from Curve Digital on Virtual Reality

At last week's BlueGFX Expo, one of the most interesting presentations was by Brynley Gibson from indie games developer Curve Digital on the subject of Virtual Reality.

Gibson posed a number of questions to the audience about what exactly VR is about, and how digital artists should approach VR projects.

And the first question anyone attempting a VR project should ask is a simple one: why does this need to be VR?

Hamilton and Kidd Bring Virtual Reality to Escape Studios

Hamilton & Kidd

Hamilton and Kidd are experts in Virtual Reality, part of a growing number of tech and creative companies that are thriving right here in Shepherd's Bush.

At Escape Studios we are always looking for ways to make our classroom content as cutting edge as possible. And why can't our students engage with the recent leaps in VR technology, which are at last bringing to life the long-overdue promise of VR?

This past week the guys from Hamilton Kidd came to Escape to give us some training in the very latest in VR tech.

Free Virtual Reality Showcase at BFI IMAX until 18 October

"Virtual Stories" is a Virtual Reality Showcase currently exhibiting at London's BFI IMAX until 18 October.  Sixteen projects from some of the world’s greatest VR creators are on display.

Is VR the next big thing? It's been around for a while, but the technology has never quite been there to make the dream a reality. Now, perhaps, things are changing.  Come and see the very latest in virtual reality and immersive storytelling at this free exhibition at BFI IMAX.