Eric Goldberg Created a "Disney Legend"

Animation legend Eric Goldberg has been officially created a "Disney Legend" by the Walt Disney Company.

Becoming a Disney Legend means receiving the highest honor that The Walt Disney Company can give to an individual.

The award started in 1987. It celebrates people who have made a significant and lasting impact on the history and legacy of Disney animation. 

I worked under Eric's direction both on the feature film Pocahontas and later on the cartoony "Looney Tunes - Back in Action", animated in the snappy Warner Bros style.  

Beyond The Glass - Disney Animation Florida

Directed by Dane T. and recently uploaded to YouTube, Beyond The Glass: The WDW Animation Building is a new feature length documentary on the Orlando branch of the Walt Disney Animation Studios (known as Walt Disney Feature Animation at the time).  For me personally it's a trip down memory lane, as I started my animation career at Disney MGM Studios on "RollerCoaster Rabbit" back in the lat 1980s.  

Priya Shah Wins Disney/Blue Zoo Pitch Competition

Many congratulations to Escapee Priya Shah whose pitch to the Walt Disney/Blue Zoo Pitch Competition has been successful. 

Priya Shah, currently a Studio Assistant at Escape Studios, is one of the winners of the Success Story Competition by The Walt Disney Company and Blue Zoo Animation Studio.

Celine Davies Storyboard Artist at Disney

Celine Davies

Congratulations to Escapee Celine Davies who has joined Walt Disney Animation as a Storyboard Artist.

Celine took our MA in Storyboarding and Previsualisation at Escape Studios, learning the art and craft of storyboarding with industry veteran Iliana Franklin.

Our MA in Storyboarding and Previsualisation first ran in 2019, and was the first MA of its kind. 

In creating the course, we worked closely with industry to identify key skills shortages in the UK animation industry, aiming to supply our students with the necessary skills to work at a professional level. 

Escapee Evgenia Golubeva Writer at Disney

Evgenia Golubeva

Many congratulations to Escapee Evgenia Golubeva, an award-winning animator and director who is currently working as a writer at Walt Disney Animation in London.

Evgenia studied with us on our animation short course, and has since forged a career as a writer and independent film-maker, entering her animated films in festivals around the world and winning international prizes for her work.

Evgenia starting working in January 2019 as a writer at Blue Zoo Animation, bringing her talent as an animator and storyteller to the commercial world of TV cartoons, before making the leap to Disney.

Roger Rabbit Reunion at Disney

Doy, Alex, Nik Ranieri, Ross Anderson, Burny Mattinson, Max Howard, Charles Fleischer, Andreas Deja

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was released in the summer of 1988, making the movie 31 years old this year.  A couple of weeks ago at Disney in Los Angeles we had a brief informal reunion with some the people who worked at the film, hosted in the Rotunda Building by Disney marketing head Howard Green.  Lead animator Andreas Deja was there, as well as Burny Mattinson, officially the longest serving employee of The Walt Disney Company,  Producer Max Howard, Charles Fleischer, the voice of Roger Rabbit, Ross Anderson, who has written the history of the film, animator Nik Ranieri, and me.

Andreas Deja, Lion King and Animal Animation

Andreas Deja and Alex Williams outside the Disney Animation Building

Yesterday at Disney in Los Angeles I met up with Andreas Deja, Disney lead animator and the man responsible for bringing "Scar" to life.

I was lucky enough to work on Andreas' team on Lion King back in 1992, when he took me under his wing and helped train me as a Disney animator.

I got to animate a few memorable shots on Scar, but it was Andreas who designed the character and, working with actor Jeremy Irons, gave him life and personality, creating one Disney's most memorable villains.

An Evening with Gabriel Arnold: 30th Sept

Join us for one of our "Evening with..." events at Escape Studios on Monday 30th September as we welcome MPC artist Gabriel Arnold, to talk about the making of The Lion King.

Gabriel Arnold was Groom Lead at MPC, leading the team that created the breathtakingly realistic and believable muscle systems and fur on the creatures who made up the blockbuster Disney re-make. 

El Suliman Reveals the Secrets of Lion King

Escape Studios was proud to welcome MPC lead animator El Suliman to Escape Studios last night to talk about his work on the Disney blockbuster "The Lion King", now one of the top ten most successful films ever made.

El spoke at one of our regular "Evening With" events.  El Suliman was an animation lead on The Lion King, and he animated many of the key shots on the film.

El explained how the animators approached the animation on this hugely complex and ground-breaking movie, which raises the bar for creature animation. 

The Making of Who Framed Roger Rabbit

Canadian author and animation historian Ross Anderson's long-anticipated book - Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat - The Story Behind the Making of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is finally in print.

Ross was first interviewed by animation blog FLiP back in 2013, about writing of the book, which has taken six years to bring to fruition.

Ross was signing copies at this year's Annecy film festival; his book aims to be the definitive history of the making of the film, which changed the animation industry and launched dozens of animation careers (including my own).

Among the book's highlights are Tom Sito's hilarious sketches and scribbles that documented the making of the film.

Lion King Raises The Bar for Animal Animation

Lion King (2019)

MPC have raised the bar for animal and creature animation with Disney's release of The Lion King, the re-make of the Disney classic which I was fortunate enough to work on back in 1993.

I went to a preview of the film last night fully prepared to dislike it - how could anyone top the original? And why bother with a re-make, other than to please the shareholders?

But the Lion King is a triumph not just of technology but of great storytelling, as the film-makers kept most of the original film but wove in new elements to keep the story fresh.

Pitching to Disney at Annecy Animation Festival

Orion Ross and Lucy Pryke

At last week's Annecy film festival Orion Ross and Lucy Pryke talked about pitching animation to the Disney Studio, to an eager audience at the Imperial Hotel.

Pitching projects is one of the most fun and challenging parts of our industry. After all, every project begins with an idea, a great pitch, and develops from there.

Our students at Escape Studios aren't just technicians, they are creators, and their ideas could lead to the next generation of hit shows. 

So, what sort of projects are Disney interested in, and how do you pitch to Disney?

MPC and the Making of "Dumbo"

At yesterday's VFX festival at Escape Studios, MPC lead animator Oliver Dale talked about the Making of Dumbo, the 2019 re-make of the 1940s animated classic, and in particular how MPC managed to make an elephant fly.

The starting point for the animators, as is almost always the case, was to begin with live action reference. Dumbo is a baby elephant, so his motion has been based on real footage, and he has to fit into the real world of live action photography.

The animators began the process by animating walk and run cycles, and then added their own embellishments, to make the process "as efficient and as refined as possible".

Bringing Dumbo to life was a big challenge, in part because of the high expectations of this re-make of a much-loved film.

Wreck-It Ralph Storyboards

Ralph Breaks The Internet is hitting our screens tomorrow, and this latest Disney animated film will have deployed many of the latest digital film-making tools. But, in one respect, the making of the film was very traditional - in its use of storyboards to hone and perfect the story process. One of the most important parts of making a film like Wreck-It Ralph is still the old-fashioned storyboarding process or, as Pixar often call it, the story re-boarding process, because of the seemingly endless revisions involved in making the story work. Good board artists are hugely in demand, and storyboarding is a career path that can (and often does) lead to becoming a director.

Kevin Hudson Presents "Weeds" July 2nd

"Weeds" by Kevin Hudson

Kevin Hudson, asset artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios, is visiting Escape Studios on July 2nd at 4.30pm to talk about his multi-award-winning short film "Weeds".   

“Weeds” is the story of a dandelion, rooted on the wrong side of the driveway in a barren yard surrounded by dry dirt and dead grass.

Tom Sito to visit Escape Studios Tuesday 3 Oct

Tom Sito

We're excited to welcome animator, director, and animation historian Tom Sito to Escape Studios next week, to talk to our students. Tom has had a stellar career in Hollywood animation, and is now a member of the Academy Board of Governors (that's the Oscars to you).

In 1998 Tom was included by Animation Magazine in their list of the One Hundred Most Important People in Animation, and he continues to be a major influence on our industry, teaching animation at the University of Southern California, writing books and lecturing.

We're lucky to have him come and visit, and sprinkle some Hollywood pixie dust on our studios.

Re-Makes! Love 'Em or Hate 'em?

I was asked by Digital Arts magazine to do a piece on the new trend for live action re-makes of the Disney back catalogue, like "Jungle Book" and "Beauty and The Beast".

On balance, I'm in favour, in part because I don't think the re-makes detract from the original movies, but also (of course!) because big new animation projects create plenty of new jobs for animation graduates from Escape Studios - which can only be a good thing.  To read the full article, follow this link.  ----Alex

Secrets of The Jungle Book Revealed by MPC

The Secrets of The Jungle Book were revealed at the Escape Studios VFX Festival, with MPC's Ben Jones (CG Supervisor) explaining how the London VFX house brought the characters and creatures of this classic tale to life, re-imagining one of the best-loved of the Walt Disney Studio's animated films.

A Chuck Jones Animation Tutorial

In this excellent 13 minute animation tutorial, actor and director Ron Howard introduces the work of animation legend Chuck Jones, the creative master behing the Road Runner and Bugs Bunny. There are other great voices here too - such as Disney animation stars Glen Keane and Eric Goldberg (the latter the author of the excellent "Character Animation Crash Course" - one of the books on our student reading list).  The video is a great introduction to the basic principles of animation, such as anticipation, squash and stretch, secondary action and overlapping action. We're recommending it to all our students.

BB-8 From Star Wars - Now Available for Maya Animators!

BB-8. Copyright Walt Disney

We're excited to see what our students will do with this new Star Wars BB-8 rig - just recently released at Creative Crash.

Like any fan art, the creator of this rig obviously doesn't own the copyright - that is owned by the Disney corporation, who now own the Star Wars franchise. But that doesn't mean we can't use BB8 to do some great animation - it just means we have to respect the owners and not do anything silly with it (like, say, try to make a profit from it).

There are in fact two versions of this rig. The image to the left is an improved and updated version 3 (with extra lights and stuff) - which you can download here. 

Below are some tips on how to use the BB-8 rig: