Character Creation Starts Wednesday 16th May

Last call to sign up for our new evening class in Character Creation, which is coming to Escape Studios on Wednesday 16th May 2018.

This unique evening course will teach students how to create their own character designs and bring them to life. Over 12 weeks you will design, model, texture, rig and animate your own character.

The course is taught by Philip Meredith, veteran of Playstation's Overlord Minions and the Silent Hill franchise from Climax Studios.

Last Call for Character Design on Monday

Character Designs by Andrea Torrejon

Last call for our Character Design Evening Class, which is returning to Escape Studios on Monday 14th May

Character Design is an 8 week evening class, running until 9th July, taught primarily by Andrea Torrejon, veteran of Angry Birds, and in-house designer at one of London's leading boutique animation houses, Passion Pictures.

Like all of our courses, this class is taught by a working industry professional; Andrea will guide students through the principles of character design, building up to a live industry brief.

Mike Davies Rigging Class Starts on 14 May

Michael Davies

3D Artist and rigging specialist Michael Davies starts a new evening class in rigging at our Shepherd's Bush campus.

Mike has worked on many VFX blockbusters such as Batman vs Superman, Doctor Strange and Thor Ragnarok.

There are still a couple of seats available, and you can sign up by following the link here.

Carine Ong Prod'n Coordinator at One of Us

Many congratulations to Carine Ong, an Escapee who studied 3D VFX and also animation back in 2010.

Carine is currently working as a production co-ordinator at London VFX pioneer One of Us, and recently gave an excellent talk at Escape Studios about her work on many VFX projects, including the most recent Star Wars release - The Last Jedi.

The latest Star Wars film was just the most recent of a number of VFX projects Carine has worked on.

Prior to working at One of Us, Carine worked at Double Negative, Method Studios, and also at Rushes.

Francesco and Emma on Paddington 2

Paddington 2

Many congratulations to Escapees Francesco Nevi and Emma Riddell, who both worked as Creature FX TDs  on Paddington 2. That means, in plain English, doing technical animation - hair, fur, and the interactions with the 3D characters and their environments.

Being a technical animator is a highly skilled job that employs traditional animation skills - and technical skills - as part of the overall 3D pipeline.

Congratulations to both Francesco and Emma, who took our animation short course back in 2016, for launching their careers at one of London's top animation and VFX houses.

Saturday Club End of Year Show June 9-17

The Escape Studios Saturday Club End of Year Show will be on display at Somerset House from 9th-17th June. In addition, private viewings for VIPs, family and friends will take place on 9th/10th and 16th/17th June.

The Saturday Club show is the culmination of all the hard work that has been created as part of the Escape Studios Saturday Club Campaign, launched as part of Escape's 15th anniversary celebrations, and part of our committment to making animation, games and VFX training more diverse and more widely accessible.

Free Character Walks Webinar on 5th June

"Monty" character walks

I'll be hosting a webinar on character walks at Escape Studios at 6pm on Tuesday June 5th. Like all our webinars, this one is completely free, and there will be plenty of time to take questions during the demonstration.

Character walks are one of the most important parts of the animator's toolkit, and I will be showing how you can take a basic walk cycle and, with just a few tweaks, completely change the character's mood and personality.

Character Design Class Starts August 28

Josh O'Brien

Escape Studios is excited to welcome Josh O'Brien, our newest tutor at Escape Studios.

Josh will be teaching our four week character design class this summer, starting on 28th August and running until the end of September.

Josh is an experienced visual development artist and character designer. Past and present clients include Ash Gaming, Oxford University Press, Capstone publishing, Melwood Pictures and Zondervan Publishing.

MA Animation Starts 8 October 2018

Our newest course - MA in 3D Animation

We're excited to add a new course to the Escape Studios portfolio: our new MA (Master of Arts) in 3D Animation, a post-graduate degree, validated by the University of Kent, and taught at our mid-town campus in central London.

The MA is now passing through the various approval processes, having been subjected to both internal and external scrutiny, and - subject to final approval from Kent - we should soon be ready to welcome our first cohort in October 2018.

Frances Trought: Internships Workshop

Frances Trought

Frances Trought, Deputy Vice Principal of Talent Development at Pearson College, is hosting a jobs and internships workshop at Escape Studios this afternoon, and we strongly recommend that all our students attend.

One of the most common questions asked by students at this time of year is "how do I get a summer internship"? Frances' talk is titled "Applications: Marketing your Personal Brand", and she will be helping students to polish their CV, draft cover letters, fill out application forms, and make sure your LinkedIn profile can help you find work.

Summer School - Big Discounts for Students

Save pennies with a NUS card

Our new summer courses at Escape Studios have recently launched, and we are offering a significant discount on all of them for students.

Thinking of studying storyboarding or character design this summer? You can get a very substantial discount off the courses if you have a current NUS card.

For example, our 4 week storyboarding class costs £1,850 with an NUS card, and our 4 week character design class is also £1,850. 

Framestore's Oz Gani and Ross Burgess Reveal Animation Workflow Secrets

Ross Burgess and Oz Gani acting out some dinosaur action

Think of Framestore and you think of high-end animal and creature animation. Paddington, for example, was animated at Framestore, raising the bar for the whole industry in terms of the quality and believability of the animated performance.

Today we were lucky enough to have two senior Framestore animators (and the head of talent development) visit us at Escape Studios, to check out our students' work and give us some insights into the Framestore animation workflow.

Locksmith Animation Studio Opens in London

Good news for the London animation industry; the long awaited Locksmith animation studio, first announced back in 2014,  has opened its new premises in Primrose Hill, housing up to 70 artists.

Locksmith brings with it the prospect of jobs, creative success, and - at last - a proper, fully equipped animation studio right here in London.

Sergio D'Innocenzo Animator at TeamTo

TeamTo, Paris, france

Many congratulations to Escapee Sergio D'Innocenzo who is a senior animator at TeamTo, an animation studio in Paris, France.

Sergio studied our Animation course here at Escape Studios, and worked on developing a great demo reel. His hard work paid off, and he now works at TeamTo Studio doing animated TV series.

We asked him a few questions about his work, and how he broke into the industry.

Pixar's Royce Wesley to Visit Escape

Royce Wesley

We're excited to welcome Pixar animator Royce Wesley to London in June, when he will be mentoring our student animators.

Royce is an experienced character animator whose credits include Brave, Coco, Robots and Inside Out.  Royce will be visiting us in London right after finishing up on "Incredibles 2" to mentor our animators and help us to strive for Pixar quality animation.

Like Aaron Hartline, who visited us earlier this year, Royce brings industry talent to our classroom, to make sure our teaching techniques are as cutting-edge as possible.

Trailer Project - Student Showcase

The Adventures of Little Hanzo

Recently our second year animators completed their first collaborative group project - a short teaser/trailer for an animated film, TV series, or game.

Group work is notoriously hard to manage - one of the reasons why schools and universities often avoid it - but it is very much at the heart of what we do at Escape Studios, because it's how the industry works.

Animation and VFX are rarely solo sports. Being able to work together in teams is one of the core skills our students learn at Escape Studios, and it's why we introduce group projects as early as possible in the curriculum. Scroll down to see how the projects turned out.

Framestore Animator Oz Gani to Visit Escape

Oz Gani

We're excited to welcome Framestore Animator Oz Gani to visit Escape Studios on Friday, helping to guide our second year animators with their second group project, a creature documentary (or mockumentary), showcasing their skills as animals and creatures animators.

Oz will be reviewing the students' work and helping us to make sure we're reaching for Framestore standards of animal and creature animation.

Kevin Richards Animates Shane The Chef

Shane the Chef has just launched on Channel 5, featuring the work of Escapee Kevin Richards, who was one of the character animators on the show.

Kevin graduated from our short course in 3D animation in 2017, and since then has been working as a 3D animator at Cloth Cat in Cardiff.

We asked Kevin a few questions about how he got the job, and what advice he would offer to students hoping to break into the industry.

Aaron Hartline on Animating Woody and Buzz

Aaron Hartline was visiting us this recently from Pixar, mentoring our animators, and helping to make sure we're reaching for Pixar standards with character animation.  Aaron was the lead animator on the team that animated the Buzz and Woody intro at the Oscars in 2016, presenting the award for Best Character Animation. As part of his visit, Aaron walked us through the process of delivering a piece of character animation featuring two of the best loved characters in animation in front of an audience of 900 million people - quite an intimidating job. So, how did he pull it off?

Ash Ellis Teaches Lighting

Ash Ellis at Escape Studios

Our Animation and 3D Studio Assistant, Ash Ellis, took over the Animation Short Course for one day last week to teach our animation students the fundamentals of lighting in animation.

​Animators don't need a high level of expertise in lighting, as they are generally judged by recruiters and studios purely on their animation skills.

Nonetheless, a basic understanding of lighting setups is an important ancillary skill, part of the animator's toolkit.