Blog

Last Friday, some of the Escape staff & students were given the opportunity to visit the El Segundo studios of Rhythm & Hues, one of the premier studios in the VFX industry. Rhythm & Hues has led the way in CG animation with their work on such features as The Chronicles of Narnia, The Golden Compass and Hop. Currently they are working on Ang Lee's next film Life of PI and awaiting release of the much anticipated Snow White and the Huntsman.  

Finally after 10+ years of development, many false starts, and a million and one rumors, the long awaited Blizzard title Diablo III is going to be released to the public.  Since the "official" announcement, almost 4 years ago, fans of the Diablo series have drooled over whatever content they could get their hands on and now, the wait is over! 

The talented folks over at Psyop recently won a well-deserved Annie award for their work on Twinings "Sea" in the category of "Best Animated Television Commercial". They actually beat themselves out of the award, as well as others (they were also nominated for Norton "Stuff").  You can read some making-of information here - just click the "details" tab.

Well done, Psyop!

I have recently been exposed by my kids to the joys of a very special cartoon. Adventure Time is a newish series on Cartoon Network. It is by far the most inventive and original series I've seen in years. The creator Pendleton Ward has combined a ton of stuff from my childhood into a very surreal setting, a combination of Dungeons and Dragons, Felix the Cat and the humour from the likes of The Simpsons and Futurama. It is a very good watch for geek dads as well as anyone interested in the world of surreal animation.

Super Bowl approaches – do you have your snacks at the ready? Have you chosen your team? More importantly, have you set your DVR to record the commercials? 

This week’s mashup consists of some Super Bowl sneak peeks – we have a “Twilight”-like tailgating party for Audi courtesy of The Mill, takes 2 and 3 for VW and the “Star Wars” enterprise involving Man’s Best Friend, a couple of car spots steeped in fantasy complete with bikini-clad extras, the Coca-Cola polar bears (Giants v. Patriots) up their game and “The Avengers” trailer.

I remember when you actually had to wait for Game Day to see the spots! 

This year’s previews are kind of light on VFX  - I suspect everyone’s still rendering. 

Let us know which ones you liked – and we hope your team wins!

Here is a mashup of news for this week – there’s a cry for old school technology, a list of tips for you to be better prepared for dailies, a couple of reports from CES, a fun commercial for Mini Coopers based on a fan suggestion, a great trailer from Blur, and a rendition of a Dr Seuss story as told by those who attended Burning Man last year.

What’d I miss?

In Rick’s compositing course, our students have already made great strides. They are currently working on Keying and Rotoscoping - finishing up the section of the course which deals with the core skills for a junior. Next, the students will start to work in ‘real world’ scenarios, which will help them to become problem solvers. They’ve completed work on the NUKE interface and are now focusing on the art of compositing, and the techniques to approaching problems. After the break they will be working on color correction, 3D in NUKE and CG compositing. They're all very excited to start shooting their own footage and putting together multi-pass composites.

The new Tintin movie is due out in the US on December 21 and I have decided it was time for me to write an impassioned plea - ahead of its release - to all my American followers so that they might give this wonderful and quirky European character a chance.

CG Whiz 2011 is now closed to new entrants, and it’s been an incredible third year for the competition. We’ve seen our highest-ever number of entries (almost 200!), including an impressive showing in the new Young Pros category. The standard this year has been higher than we’ve ever seen before, and it’s been amazing to see the amount of talent that’s out there in the world of digital creativity.

Ever wonder how to make an animated bird fly? It does look complex - doesn’t it? Now is your chance to find out how to make that fluid motion of flight look real. Alex Williams, Escape Studio’s character animation instructor will walk you through the mechanics of bird locomotion in this two part tutorial.