Escape Studios Mannequin Challenge!

Check out the Escape Studios Mannequin Challenge! One of our talented studio assistants - Dustin Henning - directed this cool video of some of the staff and students at Escape Studios on a slower-than-usual afternoon. Nice work Dustin!

Time To Enter The Monthly Character Design Challenge!

Character Design Challenge!

Why not polish your design skills by entering the monthly Character Design Challenge?

It's a bit like the Eleven Second Club, but for character designers. The group started up in January 2015 and it already has over twenty five thousand members.

This month's design challenge is .....Harry Potter! So what are you waiting for? Let's get designing!

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them? At Framestore, Of Course

Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them? is arguably the must-see VFX movie of the year (that and the new Star Wars, of course!).  And who did the animation on these fantastic beasts? Step up London's very own VFX champion heavyweight - Framestore. The Soho VFX house created a spectacular array of magical creatures, pushing the boundaries of what is possible in digital animation. Framestore's team was led by Christian Manz, VFX Supervisor, and Animation Director Pablo Grillo. Between them these artists led a talented team to create amazing beasts including the Niffler, Erumpent and Bowtruckle, and gangster goblin Gnarlak.

Animation Short Course Starts 27 February 2017

We're taking applicants for our next animation short course - three months of intensive training in 3D animation - starting in February 2017.  This course is aimed at anyone who wants to learn the art and craft of 3D Animation in Maya. You might be a 2D animator wanting to break into 3D, or a graduate who didn’t get the right skills at university – or someone with no experience of animation who wants to make a career change. We teach all our students from scratch, and our goal is to make you job-ready by the end of the course.

UK Games Forum - Today at Escape Studios!

Continuing our programme of industry engagement, Escape Studios are today hosting the UK Games Forum 2016, alongside SideFX, the developers behind Houdini - one of the leading software packages for 3D animation.

Boring But Important - Printing & Scanning

Xerox copier, printer & scanner

The Xerox printer/photocopiers at our 190 High Holborn campus are best accessed through Mobile Printing, available to all our students. Fortunately, it's pretty easy. To print a document, first email your file(s) as an attachment to mobileprint.emea@pearson.com. You will then receive an email with a six digit code.

To print it out, go to any networked printer and select Mobile Printing from the display panel. Enter your six digit code, and select Print.

Suicide Squad Flamethrower Effect - Escape Studios Free Tutorial

Did you know that Escape Studios offers tons of free tutorials at our YouTube Channel?  Tutorials like this one above are a great way to learn new skills, and also find out what it's like to work in the animation and VFX industry.  Above is a tutorial by one of our talented studio assistants, Tom Hall, who has perfected a technique for producing a flamethrower effect in Autodesk Maya, using fluid simulation.  Tutorials like this one are highly recommended - it's a great way to improve your knowledge base and raise your game. To find our YouTube channel, follow this link.

Escape Studios Hosts an Evening With...VFX Producer Richard Lloyd on Thursday 8 December

Escape Studios is hosting another "Evening With..." coming up on Thursday 8 December at our Shepherd's Bush studio, with VFX Producer, Richard Lloyd.

Richard has over 20 years experience in the film and post production industry.  He has worked on films including The Last Emperor, Under the Skin, Collide, The Double and Control.

During the evening Richard will be talking about his work producing visual effects, and will be taking questions about the industry.

And, of course, there will be free pizza and beer for everyone attending!

How to Record Voice Overs - An Animator's Guide

Frank Gladstone directs actors in a sound booth in Soho

Most animators eventually find themselves recording a voice for a film project.  Whether it’s a short film, a personal project, or a piece of animation for a client, you will eventually need your characters to speak.

And for this, unless someone else does it for you, you will need to direct actors. So how does an animator or director go about recording voices? And how do you get a decent performance?

UK Govt Loans Now Available for Master's Study

Government help is available

The new student loan system for postgraduate master's degrees has now been launched. Low interest loans will now provide students in the UK with access to postgraduate university courses.

This is very good news indeed for students who would like to do one of our master's degrees in VFX production and Game art, and VFX (compositing) - excellent degrees which are producing superb work.

Animated Women UK Launch ‘The Achieve Programme’ Supporting Women in VFX & Animation

This week, Animated Women UK launch "The Achieve Programme" - their first ever programme focused on helping women in animation and VFX to achieve their full potential.

Here at Escape Studios we're one of the official sponsors of programme, which aims to help women break into the animation and vfx business.

SIGGRAPH Screening of LAIKA’s “Kubo and the Two Strings” on Tuesday December 6

SIGGRAPH's London chapter is hosting a local screening of Laika's latest stop motion triumph - the Annie-nominated “Kubo and the Two Strings”.

After the movie I'll be hosting a Q&A with Director Travis Knight and Producer Arianne Sutner who will talk about the making of the film.

Events like this are a great way for our students to meet leading film-makers in person, and find out what makes the industry tick.

Animation Taster Day - Wednesday 14 December

Learn to animate a bird in flight

We still have a few seats left for our next Animation Taster Day at Escape Studios on Wednesday 14 December - so come and learn about character and creature animation.

We're running this animation taster day to give future animators an idea of what it's like to work in the  industry, and find out if this is a career that's right for them.

You will work with Autodesk Maya and the Adobe Creative Suite, and you’ll get a hands-on introduction to 3D Animation techniques, all for just £25!  By the end of the day you'll have your own piece of animation uploaded to your YouTube channel.  So, how do you sign up?

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?

Visual Effects Society Host VR Event at Escape Studios Monday 28 November

On Monday 28 November from 6:00PM until 11:30pm we have the privilege of hosting The Visual Effects Society at our mid-town campus at 190 High Holborn for an evening titled "The Business of Virtual Reality".

The evening will include VR related demonstrations and a discussion about the future of Virtual Reality in our industry.

UCAS Deadlines - Time to Apply For Our New Undergraduate Courses

UCAS - time to apply

Thinking of applying to Escape Studios to study the Art of 3D Animation, Games or Visual effects?  UCAS is now open, and we are welcoming applications for the second intake of our new integrated BA/MArt in Animation, Games and VFX - just launched in September of this year.

Below are some good reasons why we believe we are building one of the best animation courses in the country, and how you can get started on your new career as a digital artist. Best of all - you will study in central London, a short walk from the centre of the industry, and learn from industry professionals with extensive experience.

Escape Labs is Back! Rendering Software Panel on Thursday 24 November

3D Render

There are just a few places left at our Escape Labs Software session on Thursday, to be held at our brand new campus at 190 High Holborn.

Come along on thursday 24th November at 6pm and hear from Fluid Pictures, Jordi Bares from Glassworks, and Amaan Akram from The Mill as they share their knowledge of rendering software and discuss what are the best solutions for visual effects artists.

The event is free, and we'll even throw in free drinks and nibbles!

Escape Studios Head of 3D Mark Spevick Joins Board of VES

Mark Spevick

We're congratulating our Head of 3D Mark Spevick, who has just joined the board of the the Visual Effects Society (VES), the global organisation that "represents the full breadth of VFX practitioners with over 3,000 professional members in 33 countries worldwide".

VES supports our industry with, among other things, the VES Awards, the deadline for which is fast approaching. If you're a student and you have a great VFX shot you'd like to submit, this could be a great chance to get noticed and start your career. The winner gets a paid flight to Beverly Hills and receives a VES statue.

Meet Panel Forge - New Storyboard Wizard

One of the highlights of yesterday’s Blue GFX Expo was Blue Zoo’s Tom Box introducing Panel Forge Pro (the first public demonstration of the software), a new storyboard and pipeline tool which has now been extensively road tested at Blue Zoo on the Miffy the Rabbit and Digby Dragon TV Series.

Panel Forge uses 3D Layouts – much like its rival Redboard (also developed here in London) – to save time in Storyboarding.  Panel Forge allows board artists to use low resolution 3D assets to help set up camera angles and layouts, and has been used on “10,000 shots” to date.  So, what is Panel Forge all about, and why should our students be interested?

How The Simpsons Predicted President Trump

Why read the news when you can watch animation? Specifically, The Simpsons, back in 2000, when in a now infamous episode titled “Bart to the Future,” the long-running animated TV series predicted that Donald Trump would one day become president of the United States of America.  Simpsons writer Dan Greaney recently told The Hollywood Reporter that the thought of a Trump presidency "just seemed like the logical last stop before hitting bottom. It was pitched because it was consistent with the vision of America going insane".