Creating Content Webinar with British Council

"Garbage Boy and Trash Can"

Escape Studios, Animation UK, and the British Council are teaming up for an "Introduction to Content Development" webinar on Monday 24 January at 10am, discussing ways in which animation studios in Nigeria can create their own unique content and characters.

In the past two decades the animation industry has gone from being a small cottage industry to a global powerhouse, driven by advances in technology and also a huge increase in content creation.  The Nigerian animation business is a growing part of this landscape. 

In this webinar, made possible by the British Council, we'll be looking at the ways in which African startup studios can create their own unique content and characters and turn these into business opportunities. 

Why Animators Need Mood Boards

Mood Board for "Animal Lover" 

Mood Boards are an important part of the process of making an animated film.

Mood Boards, such as the one on the left for the award-winning short film "Animal Lover", allow the director and art director to get a feel for what a film will look like, long before the animation and lighting is complete.

An Evening With… Kevin McDowell on 16 April

Kevin McDowell

Our doors may be closed for now, but teaching continues, and our "Evening With..." events are still carrying on - now as online webinars. We can't serve beer and pizza, but we can still host events with the most talented and interesting stars of our industry.

On April 16th Escape Studios is proud to host an "Evening With... Kevin McDowell".

Kevin McDowell has been the Art Director for SEGA’s Massive PC strategy game series “Total War” for the past 20 years and has been working in video games for 23 years.

Kevin's games have sold over 27 million copies, and in 2012 he won a BAFTA for Total War: Shogun 2.

Concept Art Returns on 28th August

Concept Art Student Work

Last call for Concept Art, our evening class in visual development which is returning to Escape Studios on Wednesday 28th August 2019, taught by industry veteran Cenay Oekmen.

Concept Art is a part-time evening class, taught one night a week, running for eight weeks.

Concept Art introduces students to the many techniques and skills that go up to make a well-rounded concept artist, including 3D and 2D software.

What Goes in an Animation Bible?

Our animation students at Escape Studios don't just learn technical skills, they also learn to be creative artists, imagining new characters and stories, and pitching their ideas. 

A good animation pitch includes an animation bible, a vital part of the process of developing an animation film or TV series.

Shorescripts.com is an excellent resource for aspiring writers and creators, not just for traditional scriptwriters but also for anyone interested in pitching their own ideas.

Framestore & the Making of Detective Pikachu

Detective Pikachu

At the Escape Studios VFX festival yesterday, Framestore's Jonathan Fawkner gave an excellent talk on the Making of Detective Pikachu, a movie which was filmed in London and which used the talents of two of the UK's top VFX houses, Framestore and MPC.

One of the big challenges on the film was the take the original Pokemon 2D artwork, and create characters which could be fitted into a photoreal VFX environment.

If you think that's an easy task, consider the trouble caused by the recent release of the trailer for the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, in which a fan rebellion against the look and feel of Sonic led to a bottom-up re-design of the character.

Taking the original Pokemon characters to the big screen wasn't simple, and took a lot of careful development.

Cenay Oekmen Talks Concept Art

Creature Concept Art by Cenay Oekmen

Cenay Oekmen is leading a new evening class in Concept Art, starting in March 2018 and digging into the skillset that allows digital artists to create stunning artwork and help shape the style and design of a project.

Concept Art sits alongside a number of other evening classes that we are now running, such as Storyboarding and Character Design, where we teach the skills that make up the pre-production part of our industry.

Production may get shipped to cheaper shores, but pre-production work tends to stay at home, and producers regularly complain of skills shortages in this area. We asked Cenay to talk a little about how he got into Concept Art, and how students can follow in his footsteps, and break into the industry.

Concept Art Comes to Escape 7 March 2018

Concept Art by Cenay Oekmen

Concept Art is coming to Escape Studios on wednesday 7th March 2018, taught by the amazingly talented Cenay Oekmen. 

It's an evening class, designed to fit around careers and families, running for 8 weeks from Wednesday 7th March 2018.

The idea is to introduce students to the many techniques and skills that go up to make a well-rounded concept artist, including 3d and 2d software.

How To Break Into Character Design

BoxTrolls - character design by Luis Grane

Character design is one of the most creative jobs on an animated film, allowing the artist to give free rein to their imagination, come up with great ideas and - best of all - get paid to do it.

But how do you break into this most competitive of fields?  We asked Luis Grane, an animator and character designer whose work can be seen on dozens of animated films including Prince of Eqypt,  Hotel Transylvania, Ratatouille, and Open Season, to talk about this work and how he broke into the industry. 

Time to Enter the Character Design Challenge!

Character Design Challenge!

Calling All Character Designers! There are just two days left to enter this month's Character Design Challenge!

The CDC is a bit like the Eleven Second Club, but for character designers. It launched in 2015 and already has over 25,000 thousand members.

This month's design challenge is .....Carnival of Venice! So what are you waiting for? Let's get designing!

Escape Studios to Host An Evening with Jenny Harder on Thursday January 12th

Escape Studios is proud to host another "Evening with..." event, this time with super-talented concept artist Jenny Harder,  on Thursday January 12th.

Jenny is a concept & storyboard artist at Studio Gobo, where she has recently been working on Disney Infinity, Guardians of the Galaxy, Rise Against the Empire and the Moana playset.

Concept art is an area of film, games and animation production that is very popular with our students and - of course - highly competitive.

So come along on thursday and bring your questions. This is a chance to meet a successful industry professional and ask her - how does a student artist break into this field?

As ever, we'll be offering free beer and pizza!