BA Hons Computer Animation & VFX Sept 2027

BA(Hons) M/Art in Computer Animation & VFX

We're delighted to announce our new undergraduate degree - BA(Hons)/MArt in Computer Animation & VFX, launching in September 2027.

This new degree combines the Art of Animation and the Art of Visual Effects, and is a response to the recent trend away from industry specialism, as new technologies are disrupting the digital landscape.

Students will learn both the art of visual effects and animation, with the opportunity to pursue specialist modules with the broader scope of this degree. 

Classes will be taught by our existing animation and visual effects team and, as with our other BA/MArt courses, there will be a significant focus on group project work to prepare students for the realities of working in industry. 

"The VFX Life" With Brooke McGowan 3 Feb 2026

Join us on Tuesday 3 February at 6pm for our next VFX Event, "The VFX Life Blueprint" with vfx compositor (and Escapee) Brooke McGowan.  

Brooke McGowan is a VFX artist and professional life coach whose goal is to "empower the VFX, Film & TV Industry to learn the skills they need to build multiple streams of income".   To sign up for this free event, follow this link. 

VFX Core Skills Handbook 2025 Launched

The updated Core Skills of VFX Handbook 2025 has been launched at an event at Cinesite in London. 

Collated by Escapee Saint John Walker and funded by UK Screen Alliance and BFI Metro London Skills Cluster, the Handbook serves as both a blueprint for course curricula in higher education and a practical guide for students learning VFX.  You can download it here. 

2024 Escape Studios' VFX Showreel

We're proud to present our 2024 VFX demo reel from Escape Studios, featuring the best work created by our students over the past year.  Visual Effects is at the heart of what we do; it's where we began over twenty years ago when Escape Studios was first founded to bridge the gap between the needs of industry for studio ready talent, and the ability of schools and HE institutions to teach the necessary skills. Enjoy our students' latest VFX fabulousness.

2nd Yr Undergraduate VFX

VFX shots by our 2nd Yr Students

Escape Studios presents more excellent work created by our talented students.

This group project was created by our second-year VFX students at Escape Studios, completed as part of Studio Module PR5001. 

Module PR5001 is a collaborative module in which second-year VFX students work together on short film projects, simulating as closely as possible the environment and pipeline of a real animation studio.

Catching Up With Escapees at ETC

Recently Escape Studios' Head of VFX Clement Gharini caught up with three Escapees - former Art of VFX students who have been working in the industry for a little more than a year now.  Clem was curious to hear about their experience in the professional world so far, about their time at Escape Studios, and how their studies with us supported their work in industry.  The video interview was held at their workplace ETC (Electric Theatre Collective), one of the UK's leading Visual Effects houses.

"VFX EDU" Comes to Escape on 21 February 2023

The VFX Festival 2023 "EDU", part of The VFX Festival 2023, takes place on Tuesday 21 February 2023 at our central London campus at 190 High Holborn, starting at 10am. 

VFX Festival EDU 2023 is aimed at school and college students under 18 years old who are interested in learning about a career in visual effects, animation, game art and motion graphics.

2022 VFX Showreel

Escape Studios was founded 20 years ago to teach the skills needed to service the rapidly growing visual effects industry, in which there was a desperate shortage of talent.  This we still do, and VFX remains at the heart of everything we do at Escape Studios.  To see some of the latest work done by our talented VFX students, check out the 2022 VFX Showreel above.

Meet the VFX Team at Escape Studios

VFX Team at Escape Studios

Meet the VFX Team at Escape Studios! VFX is the jewel in the crown at Escape Studios, it's at the very root of what we do, where we began 20 years ago when the VFX Industry was just starting to boom.

Back in the early 2000s there were few places in the UK where students could learn the necessary skills to land that crucial first job in the industry. 

Today, Escape Studios is ranked No 1 in the UK by The Rookies for VFX Production.

Below, in no particular order, are our talented tutors who teach the art and craft of VFX at Escape Studios, helping to ensure we remain the UK's leading centre for the study of VFX.

Free Houdini Tutorials from Mark Spevick

Free Houdini tutorials from Mark Spevick

Mark Spevick, our Head of Industry Training (and in-house Houdini expert) has created a series of free tutorials in Houdini, hosted at the official SideFX website.

Mark's Houdini tutorials include beginner tutorials such as the destruction of a brick wall, and how to create fire and smoke, progressing to more advanced subjects such as how to create a crashing wave effect.

Meet Your Tutors - Klaudija Cermak

Meet Your Tutors - Klaudija Cermak teaches the Art of Compositing for VFX at Escape Studios; she teaches the short course (12 weeks) in VFX Compositing as well as teaching undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Klaudija has over 20 years experience on commercials, broadcast TV and feature films.  Klaudija has worked at most of the major post-production houses in London including MPC, Mill, Millfilm, Framestore, Double Negative and Glassworks.

To sign up for our MA and Short Course (12 weeks) in VFX Compositing, follow this link to the official site.  To sign up for our Evening Class in 2D Compositing, read this blog post.

Introducing "Little Gestures"

Meet "Little Gestures", the latest short film created by our students at Escape Studios, as part of the VFX project PR6001, in which our animation students and VFX students combine forces to produce a short film combining live action and animation.

"Little Gestures", directed by Richard O'Hanlon and Daniel Brand-Sinyinza, and produced by Nickoel Izharudin and Dominic Strachan, is a short story about an artist's maquette which comes to life, acting as a muse for the artist's canvas. 

Angie Cajigas VFX Coordinator at Cinesite

Congratulations to Escapee Angie Piedrahita Cajigas who is currently working as a Visual Effects Coordinator at Cinesite in London.

Angie was one of our first undergraduate students at Escape Studios, and we are delighted that she has joined one of London's leading visual effects houses.

Cinesite's work includes many VFX blockbusters such as the Harry Potter Series, His Dark Materials, and World War Z.

The production co-ordinator role is an entry level position which often leads to opportunities for producing. 

Introducing "Kiwi's Dream"

Meet "Kiwi's Dream", a new short animated film completed by students at Escape Studios.

Directed by Paloma Zhu and produced by Daniel Rowe, "Kiwi's Dream" is a short story about a group of origami animals dreaming of the world outside.  

"Kiwi's Dream" was completed as part of the third year animation Module PR6001,  a Studio Project worth 60 Credits, and has recently been selected for its first film festival. 

Real-Time Rendering with Blue Zoo on Nov 10

The Escape Studios VFX Festival is back, this time online.  Join us on Tuesday 10 November at 2pm for a webinar with Phil Stewart, "Head of Real-Time" at Blue-Zoo Animation.  

Phil will explain the important of Real-Time rendering at Blue-Zoo. How does the new pipeline affect the production of short films, TV series and commercials? 

VFX Pipeline with ILM Andrew Whitehurst Oct 2

We're excited to welcome all our current students to a webinar on the visual effects pipeline with ILM's Andrew Whitehurst.

The webinar takes place online at Zoom on Friday October 2nd at 12:00 PM.

Andrew Whitehurst is an Academy Award-winning VFX Supervisor, having won an Oscar for his work on the VFX blockbuster Ex Machina.

Andrew Whitehurst will talk us through the details of a major studio VFX pipeline and explain how VFX studios set up their projects, with a special focus on the post-Covid remote working pipeline. 

"Draw" Wins Best Fight Choreography at Flicks

Best Fight Choreography at Flicks

Escape Studios is proud to announce that the short film "Draw", directed by Martin Kamminga, has won "Best Fight Choreography" at the Flicks Film Festival.

"Draw" was completed as part of the third year animation Module PR6001, a Studio Project worth 60 Credits. 

"Draw" has already won two awards: "Highest Commendation" at the London Seasonal Short Film Festival in May, and a "Four Stars Award" at the British International Amateur Film Festival. 

An Evening With...Hasraf "Haz" Dulull 25 March

Join us on Wednesday 25th March for one of our regular "Evening with..." events at Escape Studios.

The event takes place on Wednesday 25 March as we welcome Hasraf "Haz" Dulull to talk about making the transition from award-winning visual effects to directing and producing his own independent sci-fi feature films. 

3D Online VFX Taster Now Live

Online 3D VFX Taster Course

Escape Studios is proud to launch our new online 3D VFX taster course.

This online taster has been developed by our Head of 3D, Mark Spevick.

The course is delivered through the Smashcut platform, costs just £25, and takes under 6 hours to complete. What are you doing between now and New Year's Eve? Watching movies? Why not spend a day learning the fundamentals of VFX instead?

Introducing "Vivi Ossa"

Vivi Ossa from piraveen satkunam on Vimeo.

Many congratulations to our third year VFX students on creating the excellent short film "Vivi Ossa". Vivi Ossa (Latin for "living bones") is a story about a museum visitor who brings ancient bones to life through the power of music. It's a very short film - only two shots - but as you watch it, note that the entire environment is digital; the students created the museum and all the objects inside it from scratch. Directed by Callum Walters and produced by Matthew Wight, Vivi Ossa brought together many craft disciplines, including CG, compositing, roto, prep, keying, integrating a live action character into a digital set and, of course, animation.