"Roupell St" Wins Hon Mention in Athens Fest

Congratulations to the makers of the short VFX film "Curiosities of The Ruthless Roupell St", which has won an Honourable Mention for Best VFX at the Athens Film Festival. 

Directed by Oliver Chenery and produced by Victoria Arraez, "Curiosities of The Ruthless Roupell St"  was created by our undergraduate VFX students at Escape Studios. 

Milo Marshall was the 2D Lead, and cinematography was by Clement Gharini.

The film has won many festival awards. 

Why Animators Need a Clear Silhouette

Animator need to create great poses.  Part of a great pose is a great silhouette, one that "reads" clearly. 

The image on the left is taken from Eric Goldberg's book "Character Animation Crash Course", (we have a copy in the library), one of the best books on character animation.

Eric shows how a single pose can get an instant "read" from the audience. Even though the images are shown blacked out in silhouette, we still know exactly what the character is thinking and doing.

Always make sure your poses, whether drawn or digital, communicate exactly what the character is thinking, feeling and doing. 

Escapee Daria Zadecka Animator at ILM

Daria Zadecka

Congratulations to Escapee Daria Zadecka who has joined Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) as an animator.

Daria Zadecka took our Master's Degree in Computer Animation at Escape Studios, taught by veteran animator Lee Caller.  During the course Daria put together a strong demo reel to apply for positions in the animation industry. 

ILM is one of the world's leading animation and VFX houses, responsible for ground-breaking work such as Star Wars and Jurassic Park. 

"Theseus" Wins "Best Super Short" in London

Congratulations to the makers of Theseus and The Minotaur, which has won "Best Super Short Film" at the London Movie Awards, held at the Close-Up Theatre in London's Shoreditch. 

Theseus and The Minotaur was directed by Mitchell Wright and produced by Ayesha-Ria Jina.  This is the film's first festival award. 

Animate a UFO on a Motion Path

In this brief tutorial we show how to animate a UFO on a motion path - an important technique for animating anything moving through space - UFOs, aircraft, birds, and even fish.  

Motion Path animation is a simple animation technique, and can be learned in a few minutes.  The tutorial starts by searching for a free set and a UFO at Turbosquid - free assets anyone can download.  For Maya beginners. 

Giada Carnevaletti Animator at Brown Bag Films

Giada Carnevaletti

Congratulations to Escapee Giada Carnevaletti who has started work as an animator at Brown Bag Films in Dublin.

Brown Bag Films is a leading animation studio, responsible for award-winning children's TV content. 

While at Escape Studios, Giada worked on two award-winning films: CandleWick and Moon Rockz, both of which have enjoyed considerable festival success.  Giada also worked at Escape Studios as a Studio Assistant.

"Outpatient" Wins "Best Short" at Int'l Gold Awards

"Outpatient" wins "Best Short" at the Int'l Gold Awards

Congratulations to the makers of the VFX short film "Outpatient", which has won "Best Short Film" at the International Gold Awards. 

"Outpatient" was directed by Charlie Wilson, co-directed by Idris Driver, produced by Harry Symonds, and co-produced by Emmanuel Rahman.  "Outpatient" tells the story of a hospital patient on the edge of survival. Abdoulah M Jones stars as The Patient.  This is the film's first festival award. 

"Ghosting" Wins Best Anim at Makihzmithran Fest

Congratulations to the makers of Ghosting, the animated short created by our third year animation students at Escape Studios, which has won the award for Best Animation at the Makhizmithran Film Festival.

Directed by Caroline Geddis and produced by Marc Montebon, Ghosting tells the story of a boy who enters a mysterious mansion on a dark night.  

This is its first festival award. 

Pop Paper City's George Caton-Coult Visits Escape

George Caton-Coult

Escape Studios is delighted to welcome Love Love Films Studio Manager George Caton-Coult to visit our students on Thursday 21 March.

George Caton-Coult is the Studio Manager at Love Love Films, responsible for the TV hit "Pop Paper City"  developed in partnership with Aardman Animation.  

Many Escapees worked on and helped to contribute to the success of "Pop Paper City". 

Escapees at the 2024 Oscars

48 Escapees at the 2024 Academy Awards

Escape Studios is delighted to congratulate the 48 Escapees who contributed to Oscar-nominated movies this year, including Poor Things, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Zone of Interest. 

Congratulations to all our Escapees whose work contributed so much to the success of these amazing films - we are proud of you all. 

"Sea of Madness" wins "Best VFX" at 1st Fest

Sea Of Madness wins Best VFX at 1st Fest

Congratulations to the makers of Sea Of Madness, which has won "Best VFX" at the First Film Festival.

Sea Of Madness was directed by Maria Freitas  and produced by Ivy Wang.  Jake Hines was the editor and 2D Lead, and Sebastian McKernan was the 3D Lead.  Ian Chavez Zarate stars as The Pirate. 

Industry feedback and support was provided by Industrial Light & Magic.  

This is the film's first festival award.

Why Animators Should Tell a Story

Animators need an idea

Every Shot Needs an Idea. Animators should always imagine clearly what their shot is about before they start to animate. 

Animators are actors, with a pencil, or a mouse. Like stage or screen actors, animators must always think about what the character is thinking and feeling. Who is the character talking to, and what is the scene about? What do they want, and what do they fear?

Unless these questions are asked, and answered, the scene will tend to feel empty of meaning, and lack compelling interest.  Start by writing out your scene as a short story. 

Escape Studios at the 2024 BAA Awards

2024 BAA Awards

Last night the UK animation industry celebrated the winners at the biennial British Animation (BAA) Awards at London's South Bank.

A number of Escapees and current students at Escape Studios volunteered to help out on the night.  Many thanks to current students Alfie Williams, Yusuf Uddin and Escapee Oliver Gallagher, whose hard work helped make the evening a success.  

Animate a Military Walk with Monty

Every animator needs to learn how to animate a character walk.  

In this latest tutorial, we show how to take a basic walk cycle using the "Monty" rig (free for download from highend3d.com) and make Monty march like a goose-stepping soldier on a parade ground.  

The video tutorial is recorded in Autodesk Maya, and is aimed at animation beginners. 

"Roupell St" Wins "Best Trailer" at VIZ Fest

Congratulations to the makers of the short VFX film "Curiosities of The Ruthless Roupell St", which has won "Best Trailer" at the Viz Film Festival Awards. 

Directed by Oliver Chenery and produced by Victoria Arraez, "Curiosities of The Ruthless Roupell St"  has won many festival awards. 

Milo Marshall was the 2D Lead, and cinematography was by Clement Gharini.

Animate a Cowboy Walk with Monty

Cowboy walk with Monty

One thing every animator needs to learn is how to animate a character walk. In our latest tutorial, we show how to take a basic walk using the "Monty" rig (free for download from Creative Crash) and make Monty walk in a masculine way - with just a few clicks.

The video tutorial is recorded in Autodesk Maya, and is aimed at animation beginners. 

Escape Studios Undergraduate Prospectus Online

We're delighted to announce that our new undergraduate study prospectus is now live on our official website:https://www.escapestudios.ac.uk/prospectus/.

To find out more about what's in our undergraduate and post graduate courses at Escape Studios, follow this link. 

The prospectus is free to download. 

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To apply for one of our courses, follow this link. 

"Void" Wins Hon Mention at Future of Film Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Void", which has won an Honourable Mention in the category of Best Animated Short at the Future of Film Awards.

Void is one of the latest short films from our third year undergraduate animation students at Escape Studios.  

"Void" was directed by Kaya Akinci, edited and produced by Luis Yarroll.  

This is its second festival award.

Animate a Slow Sad Walk with Monty

Animate a sad walk with Monty

Every animator needs to learn how to animate a character walk; fortunately we have 100s of animation tutorials for our students at our Vimeo Channel

In the tutorial below, we show how to take a basic walk cycle using the marvellous "Monty" rig - and then make Monty sad and depressed - with just a few clicks.  The video tutorial is recorded in Autodesk Maya, and is aimed at animation beginners. 

Using Infinity Curves with Offset in Maya

In this very short tutorial (just two minutes long) we show how to use "Infinity Curves with Offset" in Maya.  Let's say you animate a character taking two steps across the screen, and you want to replicate the action. By using Infinity Curves with Offset, you can replicate the motion automatically, and have the character take as many steps as you like.  Once you're done, you can bake your curves, and then edit the shot.  We also have many animation tutorials at our Vimeo Channel, available for all our students and recent Escapees.