For many years now Massive has owned the crowd sim market space, especially at the high end of VFX. Of course some of the larger post-houses have written their own tools, but the availability of any other commercially viable product has been limited.
Private Colleges Set to Undercut on Tuition Fees
Did any of you read this recent story (Private college undercuts on tuition fees) published on the BBC? If you haven’t, it basically focused on the emergence of competition in the education sector from private colleges. The journalist, Sean Coughlan, took the example of the ifs College of Finance in London who recently announced that they would be charging fees of £5,750 to £6,000 per year.
Animation Escapee Becomes a Ninja
Another escapee from our Character Animation Course has just secured a position in the games industry. Congratulations to Pedro Cabeleira who began an internship this week at Ninja Theory in Cambridge, working on Cinematics for one of their new games.
My Animation Talk at Annecy
The Animation Festival ‘Annecy’ invited me to give a talk about my career as an animator and to lift the lid on a few Animation Mysteries as well. As much as I love working at Escape Studios, it was great to talk about my life as a freelance animator and some of the jobs that have shaped my career like ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’ and ‘The Lion King’. It was also nice to see that people were interested in this too!
New: Key Compositing Concepts Webinar
There are some key compositing concepts that every artist just starting out in the industry should know about. That’s why I have decided to put this webinar together. I will walk you through those concepts, concentrating on a shot that involves Roto, Paint and Rig removal. This is something that I cover in great detail in the Compositing for Production Course that I teach at Escape Studios. I teach about all the techniques that our students will be required to use when they get a job in the industry. This practical knowledge is essential and my aim for this webinar is to give you a taste of these techniques helping you to stand apart from the competition.
3D Creative Director at The Mill Comes to Escape
We’re getting pretty excited here at Escape Studios and looking forward to July 12th, when 3D Creative Director at The Mill, Jordi Bares, will be taking part in our special VFX Open Day.
The Hidden Beauty of Pollination
Those of you who, like me, enjoy beautiful photography are in for a real treat with this one. Louie Schwartzberg has spent a life time filming flower pollination in its most minute details and his work is of breathtaking beauty.
Would You Pay For Your Own Training to Get Ahead?
Would you pay for your own training to get ahead of the competition and secure a better job? Well that’s one of the hot topics in our new Creative Futures Report which launches today.
Online Mentored Student Spotlight: Miska Janhunen
Finland native, Miska Janhunen had been working for his family’s visual design firm as a Webmaster for some time, but he harboured a dream of working in VFX. For years he has been trying to find time and flexibility to study CG. “Because of my location and current situation in life, it felt more or less ‘mission impossible’. Then, in the autumn of 2010, I found Escape Studios’ Online Mentored VFX course and all the pieces fell into place.”
DNeg Snaps up Two VFX Professional Escapees
When I see students go from first day newbies to fully-fledged VFX artists I can’t help but feel that they absolutely deserve it. After weeks of rigorous training learning how to create believable CG, the moment comes when they start looking for a job. And that’s exactly what happened to Pasquale Riefoli and Maria Busco who have both secured jobs at Double Negative!
L.A. Noire in 7 Years!
So how long does it take to make a console game? Of course it varies from project to project but Team Bondi are no strangers to long haul development.
Join us at this Year's Pixar RenderMan User Group Meeting
We are delighted to announce that Pixar and Escape Studios in association with the VES will be hosting the London RenderMan User Group meeting on Thursday, July 21st at 6:30 pm. In a break with the usual tradition, the first of this year's RenderMan User Groups is actually taking place in London, ahead of the Siggraph RenderMan UGM.
Zappar: A Total Geek Fest!
I thought it was going to be one of those 'office' moments when a colleague pulled some papers out of his bag and said "you must see this"... He is important, so I paid good attention...!
Escapee Showcase: Ben Revens
As promised here's another escapee reel. This time from Ben Revens, one of our recent VFX graduates. This is a great reel with good examples of work from two of our most popular courses. The violin and tank shots were produced during our 12-week Visual Effects Production course. The more elaborate and advanced staircases shot was produced during our 6-weeks Visual Effects Professional extension which Ben took straight after his VFX Production course.
CWJobs Speaks To Escape Studios About Becoming A VFX Artist
A few weeks back, CWJobs spoke to our Recruitment Manager, Garreth Gaydon about the best way of getting a job in the VFX industry when you're first starting out. The feature which you can read in full here discusses the high demand for jobs in the VFX industry and the kinds of first jobs that will enable you to get your foot in the door and make it as a VFX artist. It’s a tricky industry to enter because it is both highly creative yet technically very demanding which requires a serious amount of skill and creative ability.
An Interesting Google Chrome Experiment With WebGL
The Ro.me site created in association with Google is doing the rounds at Escape Studios at the moment. In fact, you might even have read the story that Miles posted a few days ago.
Annecy Animation Film Festival
Every June I look forward to heading off to Annecy, not for the sight seeing (although it is a very beautiful place) but for the Film Festival of course. Sadly however, I didn’t attend this year.
Escapee Showcase: Roger Serrabassa Vilar
We're very proud of the work we do here at Escape Studios but we probably don't show enough of our students' work. Over the coming months we're going to be featuring much more student work on our website but in the meantime I wanted to start showing some of the reels from our most recent graduates.
CMVP: European Conference on Visual Media Production
CVMP, the European Conference on Visual Media Production, taking place on the 16th & 17th of November 2011 at the BFI Southbank, London, is putting out a final call for papers.