"Knight Spider" Competition from The Rookies

Knight Spider rig from The Rookies

"The Rookies" have a launched a new free character rig for Maya - the "Knight Spider", which you can download from their official site. 

It's a free Maya Rig and, while we haven't yet road-tested it, it looks suitable for some nice character animation.

You can download the rig here.

The Rookies has also organised a special character animation contest for the Knight Spider rig, which you can find here.  The contest is open to students and recent graduates; entries opened on 24 September and the contest closes on 14 January 2022. 

Rookies: Escape Studios No 1 for VFX & Anim

Escape Studios ranked No 1 in the UK

The Rookies, the international competition for aspiring VFX artists, has ranked Escape Studios No 1 in the UK (and No 4 globally) for VFX & Animation Production Excellence, for the 3rd year.

Production Excellence is an accolade awarded to the best schools that focus on working in teams. 

Team work is something we take seriously at Escape Studios, one of the five pillars of "The Escape Method". 

Animation is collaborative; well-organised teamwork helps prepare our students for the realities of life in industry.

Amarok "Best Trailer" at Golden Nugget Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Amarok", which has won "Best Trailer" at the Golden Nugget Film Festival. 

Amarok was written and directed by Shenaaz Suliman, co-written by Simone Fraser, produced by Josiah Martin-Lofters, and edited by Cameron Haley.  

Amarok is a trailer for a web series about a First Nations police detective in a remote town in Northern Canada; a curfew is imposed as a killer wolf hunts for prey.

Amarok has won multiple festival awards, including Best Trailer at the Vesuvius Film Festival and Best Trailer at the Art Film Awards. 

You can find Amarok here at the IMDB.

Horse Run Tutorial with Marc Stevenson

We've uploaded a new horse locomotion run cycle tutorial by Marc Stevenson to our Vimeo Channel. 

Learning to animation quadrupeds is one of the key skills animators must master. Much of the animation done in the UK is animal and creature work; such as the stunning animation of Disney's re-make of The Lion King, completed at MPC in Soho.

Marc's new run tutorial adds to our growing number of animation tutorials at our Vimeo Channel. 

Alma Wins Best Animation at ANMTN! Fest

Alma Wins Best Animated Film at ANMTN Film Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Alma", which has won an award for Best Animated Film at the Anmtn! Film Festival.

"Alma", is the first fully motion capture CG short film created at Escape Studios; it was directed by Rola Hafez and produced by Emmanouil "Manos" Zervoudakis, and has won multiple festival awards.  

Animal & Creature Animation at YouTube

Leopard by Daniel Amor

For all our students currently studying Module AN5002 (the art and craft of animal and creature animation), don't forget to check our students' excellent work at our YouTube channel, the best place to see recent animal and creature work done by our student animators.

Escape Studios has a dedicated YouTube channel especially for animation content - the channel showcases some of the best work done by our students here at Escape. 

Kiwi's Dream Best VFX at HEI Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "Kiwi's Dream", which has won Best VFX at the Heart of Europe International Film Festival (HEI).

Directed by Paloma Zhu and produced by Daniel Rowe, Kiwi's Dream was based on an original concept by Freddie Belsom about an origami kiwi who dreams of flying in the clouds.

Punch Best First Time Director at Halicarnassus

Punch wins Best First-Time Director at Halicarnassus

Congratulations to the makers of "Punch", which has won its second festival award - Best First Time Director at the Halicarnassus Film Festival.

  

"Punch", written and directed by Niccolo Smaldone, and produced by Stevie Stedman, is about a mysterious creature in a city park which tries to tempt a young boy away from the distractions of his mobile phone. 

Toonboom Harmony with Andy Wyatt 30 Sept

Toonboom Harmony with Andy Wyatt and Harry R

We're hosting a free Toonboom Harmony Event with Harmony experts Andy Wyatt and Harry Ravelomananstsoa on Thursday 30 September at 5pm. 

Andy Wyatt is Director of Animation Associates & Toon Boom UK; he will discuss what skills the 2D animation industry is looking for, offer portfolio advice and insights into the Harmony pipeline. 

To sign up, follow this link.

Aardman Animation Toolkit for Stop-Motion

For all our students who would like to try their hands at stop-motion animation: armature specialist Animation Toolkit has partnered with Aardman Animation to design and create a bespoke armature kit to help stop motion animators with the puppet making process.

Animators can now easily and affordably create their own animation puppets.

Alma Best Cinematography at Halicarnassus

Alma wins Best Cinematography at Halicarnassus

Congratulations to the makers of "Alma", which has won an award for Best Cinematography at the Halicarnassus Film Festival. 

"Alma", is the first fully motion capture CG short film created at Escape Studios; it was directed by Rola Hafez and produced by Emmanouil "Manos" Zervoudakis.  Cinematography was by Austin Hill. 

Amedeo Beretta Teaches Animals & Creatures

Amedeo Beretta teaches at Escape Studios

We're delighted to welcome back veteran animator and animation tutor Amedeo Beretta who is returning to teach our second year animation students the art of animal and creature animation. 

Amedeo has worked on many major animation and VFX projects including Paul, John Carter and Planet 51.

Amedeo is also our in-house expert on Motion Capture, having led classes in MoCap and supervised the award-winning MoCap short "Alma", which has won multiple festival awards. 

Dave Novis Pre-Vis Animator at NVIZ

Dave Novis

Many congratulations to Escapee Dave Novis who has recently started work as a Pre-vis Animator at NVIZ Animation, a vfx animation production house based in London and Los Angeles. 

 
Dave took our short course in 3D Animation at Escape Studios, and later become a Studio Assistant (SA) at Escape Studios, helping to train student animators.

Dave worked hard to polish his demo reel, securing his first job in the industry at Lipsync Post, before moving into previsualisation, a growing part of the animation industry. 

Beauty of Nature Wins Best No Budget at DSFF

Beauty of Nature wins Best No Budget Film at the DSFF

Congratulations to the makers of "The Beauty of Nature", which has won Best No Budget Short at the Dreamer's Short Film Festival (DSFF).  

Directed by Eliezer Girma and produced by Liam Mann, "The Beauty of Nature" was animated in Maya, edited in Adobe Premiere and rendered in Unreal Engine. 

Free Showreel Guide from Escape Studios

Free Showreel Guide from Escape Studios

Why not download your Free Showreel Guide from Escape Studios?

A showreel is the key to finding work in the expanding vfx and animation industry. 

Our Free Showreel Guide draws on the recent experience of our successful Escapees, including their advice on how to create a quality showreel.

The guide also includes advice from recruiters at Creative Assembly, Framestore, Blue Zoo and DNEG.

Kiwi's Dream Wins Best VFX at Genesis Fest

Kiwi's Dream Best VFX at GIFF

Congratulations to the makers of "Kiwi's Dream", which has won Best VFX at the Genesis International Film Fest. 

Directed by Paloma Zhu and produced by Daniel Rowe, Kiwi's Dream was based on an original concept by Freddie Belsom about an origami kiwi who dreams of flying in the clouds.

CJ Rock's "Animated Alphabet"

Meet "The Animated Alphabet", a short film by Escape Studios animation student CJ Rock, featuring 26 vignettes of the letters of the alphabet.  CJ Rock is in his second year of studies at Escape Studios, studying the Art of Computer Animation.  CJ animated this charming film over the summer holidays, creating animation using the DigiCel FlipPad App on his iPad.

Cherelle Owusu Shot Creator at The 3rd Floor

Cherelle Owusu

Many congratulations to Escapee Cherelle Owusu who has recently started a new job as a Shot Creator for The Third Floor, specialists in pre and post visualisation.

While at Escape Studios, Cherelle directed the short film "Flame", which has won multiple festival awards, and even secured a licensing deal with a major US Airline.

Cherelle is one of a number of Escapees to join The Third Floor in recent months.

VFX Project at Escape Studios Starts 20 Sept

award-winning Jerich0

On Monday our third year animation students start work on The VFX Project, part of Studio Module PR6001, in which our animation students collaborate with VFX students to create short films.

Students write a script, produce a storyboard animatic, film live action plates, scan and track the plates, create and animate the characters, light and render their shots, and add sound design. 

The process is just like working on a live client project in a real studio, with a focus on collaboration and problem-solving. 

To see some recent examples of award-winning VFX Project work, check out Kiwi's Dream, BoxBots, Little Gestures,  Home Sweet Home and Jerich0.

Screen Skills: "Animation Trainee Finder"

Animation Trainee Finder Programme at ScreenSkills

ScreenSkills has launched the Animation Trainee Finder, a paid placement programme for animation graduates.

Animation Trainee Finder is being launched by the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Council with the support of UK animationStudios.  The deadline to apply is 27 September 2021.