Tim Jones 3D Animator at Blue Zoo

Tim Jones

Many congratulations to Escapee Tim Jones who has just started work as a junior animator at Blue Zoo, one of London's leading animation studios.

Tim was offered a role as a crowd animator on a new TV series production, with the opportunity to tackle more complex character shots as production ramps up.

Tim took our master's degree in 3D animation at Escape Studios, where he put together a strong animation demo reel, and built a LinkedIn profile with embedded links to his demo reel and website. 

MA Character & Creature Creation Sept 2021

Creature created by Escapee Tom Barton

We're delighted to announce the launch of our new MA in Character and Creature Creation, which will debut in September 2021 (subject to final validation by the University of Kent, who formally award our degrees).

The new MA in Character & Creature Creation is all about designing, modeling, and rigging your own characters.  

In this year long Master's Degree, students will learn all the stages of character creation from design through to final render.  The MA course, which is now recruiting, starts in September 2021.  To apply, visit the official course page here.  You can read about it at AWN.com here.

Laura Knight: Shot Creator at Third Floor

Laura Knight

Many congratulations to Escapee Laura Knight who has started a new job as a shot creator at The Third Floor, joining Escapees Sebastian Kuder and Harry Pearson at one of London's leading previsualisation houses.

Laura took our MA in 3D Animation and started her career at Jellyfish Pictures, first as an animator, then as a Layout Artist.

The 3rd Floor specialises in previsualisation ("previs") in which digital artists work closely with the director to lock down the look and feel of individual sequences on a project, helping to make creative choices on camera and character performance.

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. 

Haydn Roff Technical Artist at The Mill

Haydn Roff

Many congratulations to Escapee Haydn Roff, who has recently been promoted to Technical Artist at The Mill. Technical artists work across teams, managing pipelines and helping to bridge the gap between creative and technical talent.

Haydn's role at The Mill is to work across the Creative Tech team, and the VFX team, essentially to help fill the gap between the developers and the artists, a job he describes as "a little bit of everything".

The Mill is one of the UK's leading VFX houses, whose work includes hits such as Gladiator,  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Lara Croft: Tomb Raider and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. 

"Seeker" Wins "Best Trailer" at Bucharest

"Seeker" wins "Best Trailer" at Bucharest

Many congratulations to Escapee Rassoul Edji, whose short film "Seeker" has won "Best Trailer" at the Bucharest Shortcut Cinefest.

This is the fifth festival win for "Seeker", a short sci-fi film directed by Rassoul Edji, about a giant robot running amok in suburban England.

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. 

Shannon Martin Facial MoCap Artist at ILM

Shannon Martin

Many congratulations to Escapee Shannon Martin, who has recently started a new position as a Junior Facial Capture Artist at Industrial Light and Magic.  Motion Capture is a growing part of the animation industry, and one which we are increasingly embedding into our animation course at Escape Studios. 

While at Escape Studios, Shannon contributed to two successful student animated films: "Street Ratz", and "Home Sweet Home". Both films had successful festival runs and won multiple festival awards. 

ILM is one of the world's leading animation and VFX houses, pioneers in VFX work and also software development.  Shannon will be using ILM's own proprietary software for facial capture animation.  

Quarantine Chorus "Hon. Mention" at GSIFF

Quarantine Chorus "Hon. Mention" at Golden Smile Fest

Many congratulations to the makers of "Quarantine Chorus", which has won an Honourable Mention award at the Golden Smile International Film Festival in Bergen, Holland.

This is the eighth festival award for Quarantine Chorus, which recently won "Most Heartwarming Animation" at the Animafantasia Film Festival.

UCAS Deadline 29 January - Apply Now!

UCAS - time to apply

January 29th is fast approaching; if you are thinking of applying to Escape Studios to study the Art of 3D Animation, Games or Visual effects, it's time to make your application through UCAS. 

The UCAS deadline was January 15th 2021, but has recently been extended to Jan 29th to allow for school closures.  We are now welcoming applications for the fifth intake of our new integrated BA/MArt in Animation, Games and VFX - first launched in September 2016.

"Palindromo" Honourable Mention in Prague

Palindromo - Honourable Mention in Prague

Many congratulations to Paolo Amadini, director of  "Palindromo", which has won "Honourable Mention" at the Prague International Film Festival. 

"Palindromo" is the latest animated short created at Escape Studios, written and directed by Paolo Amadini, and overseen by Supervising Tutor Amedeo Beretta. 

Steve Sole Teaches Character Design 18-21 Jan

Steve Sole

We're delighted to welcome back character designer & visual development artist Steven Sole to teach the fundamentals of character design from January 18-21.

Steven will be teaching our 2nd year undergraduate students, who are currently working on their 2nd year Specialism Module CR5001, where students start to choose their own specialism.

Steven Sole comes to us from Framestore and also from Tiger Aspect Productions, where he was Art Director on the hit TV series Mr Bean.

To see some of Steven's work, visit his official site.

Anim, Previs & Story Fair on 9 Feb at 4pm

Bear animation by Amanda Costa

We're hosting a Storyboarding, Previsualisation and Animation Fair on 9th February from 4pm to 5pm. 

The event takes place online via Zoom, and is an opportunity for prospective students to find out about our courses in Animation, as well as Storyboarding & Previsualisation.

To book your free place, register on Zoom.

CR5001 Specialism Pitch on Thursday 21st Jan

Time to Pitch!

On Thursday 21st Jan from 1.30pm-4.30pm we will be hearing short pitches from our students' on their chosen specialisms for Module CR5001 "Animation Specialism".

This pitch presentation is where our students first present their idea for their chosen specialism. What part of the animation pipeline do they wish to focus on? Character animation? Creature animation? Storyboarding? Producing Animation? Now is the time to choose.

Rigging with Michael Davies Returns 11-14 Jan

Michael Davies teaches at Escape Studios

3D artist and undergraduate program leader Michael Davies will return on 11 January to teach our second year animation students a master class in "Character Rigging for Animators". 

For three days Michael will take our 2nd year animation students through the fundamentals of rigging their own characters.

The class is part of Module CR5001, a specialism module in which students begin to focus on a chosen specialism of their choice.

"Producing Animation" Specialism for CR5001

One of our second year animation students recently asked me what would be involved in selecting "Producing Animation" as their chosen specialism for the second year Specialism Module CR5001. 

It's a good question, and the answer is to dig as deeply as possible into what exactly a good producer does - and then produce a detailed report, complete with bibliography, references and inline citations.  The important elements of producing such as a sample budget and production schedule should also be included.

It would also be a good idea to contact the tutors at Escape Studios who have experience of producing animation, such as veteran producer Steve Burch, and Iliana Franklin, as well as some of the many Escapees who have gone on to fill production roles at animation, vfx and games companies around the globe.

How to find them? Don't forget the awesome power of LinkedIn to reach out and connect to animation professionals.  

Webinar with Charlotte Gimbird 26 Jan 2021

QC Animations at YouTube - the future of animation?

On Tuesday 26 January at 11.30am we are hosting a webinar with Escape Studios undergraduate animation student Charlotte Gimbird, creator of QC Animations.

QC Animations is a YouTube Channel with over 80,000 subscribers, and hundreds of thousands of views every month. 

QC Animations is built about the world of Minecraft - the world's most popular video game.   In this webinar we will be talking to Charlotte about how she created QC Animations, what success at YouTube means, and how our students can get involved in this rapidly expanding part of the animation business.  You can sign up for the free webinar here. 

Steve Lall is Back Teaching MoCap on 5th Jan

Motion Capture with Steven Lall

We're delighted to welcome back Escapee Steven Lall, who will teach a class in Motion Capture Animation to our Second Year animation students at Escape Studios, 

The second year students are tackling CR5001,  the Animation Specialism module, in which students begin to focus on one particular skillset within the animation pipeline.

In this module we bring a variety of tutors in to the classroom to explore different parts of the animation process.

On 5th and 7th January our students will get a masterclass in Performance Capture animation, taught by our very own Studio Assistant Steven Lall.

Producing Animation with Steve Burch

Animation Producer Steve Burch

Escape Studios is welcoming back veteran animation producer Steve Burch on Monday 4th January, to teach a class on Producing Animation.

Steve, who has worked on animation classics such as The Iron Giant, Space Jam, and Osmosis Jones, will deliver a workshop on Producing Animation to our second year animators.

Producing animation is an increasingly important part of what we teach at Escape Studios, as our students collaborate on short film projects, enter festivals, win awards, and also find work in the industry as production assistants and producers.

Happy New Year From Escape Studios

Happy 2021 by Anastasia Gurova

Happy New Year to all our students past, present and future; here's to hoping that 2021 is better than 2020. Thanks to Escapee Anastasia Gurova who supplied the witty GIF to the left. 

The New Year brings new challenges but also opportunities - the animation industry continues to thrive, with remote-working jobs opening up all around the globe.  

The 2D animation industry is experiencing a Renaissance, with new technology, such as Toonboom Harmony, making 2D animation easier to access.

So what should an animator's new year's resolutions be in 2021?