We know just how popular our webinars are on all things CG, well the next in line is all about our Mentored Training and includes a preview of our exciting e-Learning platform.
For those who can’t give up work for 12 weeks or come to our offices in London or Los Angeles, Mentored Training is just the ticket. You can study our VFX or Compositing online and still get expert mentoring and feedback from our tutors and share your creations with classmates on Facebook, YouTube and Vimeo (that’s thanks to our clever e-learning technology!).
Mentored Training Webinar, 9th February
StereoScopic 3D Doesn't Work!
So when an academy awarded influential film editor like Walter Murch makes very detrimental comments about 3D stereo some people should take a long hard look at it. What does 3D really add to the whole film experience except expense and a headache? You can find his comments here - all of which are very observant and true.
A Career in Games: Smart Move
According to the UKIE, “UK development leads the charge on Motion Controlled Gaming and in the All Format chart”. Figures released earlier in the week show that games made by UK developers account for 42% of all units sold for Microsoft’s Kinect since its launch. Those are pretty impressive results and something that we should be celebrating. Pity the government doesn’t value the industry enough to maintain the tax breaks for the games industry – you can read more about this in a recent post by Lee Danskin.
Good News: Graduates Vacancies are on the Increase
At last, we have good news for graduates in the UK. The Association of Graduate Recruiters (AGR) have just released figures indicating that the number of graduate vacancies is actually on the increase for the first time since the recession started.
New versions of MARI 1.2, NUKE 6.1v4 & NUKE 6.2v2 Out Now!
The Foundry team have been hard at work, announcing three new releases in as many days. There are some new cool features added to MARI to improve its 3D texture painting capability, and NUKE has loads of feature enhancements and fixes worth checking out. Here is a summary of what you can expect from the new releases:
Wings3D Release Made me Feel a Little Nostalgic
The release of Wings3D release 1.4 - the open source modeller - made me take a trip down 3d memory lane.
The 5 Miserable VFX Jobs That Make Movies Possible
I came across this blog on the 5 miserable VFX Jobs that make movies possible and found it quite amusing... ;-)
Free Webinar - Mentored Training Tour
We've had lots of questions about how our Mentored Training works and we thought it would be great to give people a guided online tour. We'll take you through what you'll learn on the course but more importantly, how you'll learn on this course - demonstrating our unique e-Learning platform.
BOXX: An Inside Perspective
There has been a lot of talk and reviews of BOXX machines lately. To find out a little more about what makes them perform so well, I caught up with BOXX’s Director of Marketing and Business Development, Shoaib Mohammad to get the inside scoop…
Escapees make it to Autodesk's Education Showreel
We're never prouder than when our escapees get the recognition they deserve. This usually comes in the form of a first job with a top post house or commendation from the professional community for a perfectly executed shot, so when we found out that some of our escapees made it to the Autodesk 2010 Education showreel, we were beaming.
TACTIC Make New Video Tutorials Available
Are any of you into production asset management? Then this could be the ideal resource for you. Southpaw have just launched a new 'video page', where you can gain access to loads of useful resources for how to use their TACTIC software.
New kid on the block: 3D World's Andy Price
Exciting news on the Escape Studios blog - we’re pleased to announce that 3D World’s very own online editor Andy Price is going to be giving us his take on the latest CG action. For those that don’t know, Andy covers everything that's up and coming in the world of CG and animation for 3D World.
Games Art Production Students Show off their Work
Here's the first look at some of the work from the Game Art Production course which finished in December.
Games Industry Tax Breaks - or The Lack of Them....
So when Activision, the distributor of Call of Duty Black Ops - a game that hit the $1 billion mark in sales in roughly the same amount of time as Avatar - mentions that it might take its development out of the UK you would hope that someone might sit up and take notice.
The Disney 50 at BFI Southbank
This looks like a great treat for anyone into animation. If you want to see where it all began, then check out The Disney 50 at the BFI, showing all 50 Disney films ever made.
Free Tutorials - Animation & ZBrush
You can really impress future employers by taking advantage of our two expert tutorials this month. Taken from our Character Animation Foundation and ZBrush for 3D Artist courses, they are designed to give you pro-skills in very specialised areas.
Miss the Recruitment Webinar? Watch it online now
Don't worry if you missed the Recruitment Webinar that ran before Christmas, as we've recorded it for you to watch on our website.
Mega Cities made easy with CityEngine
Constructing a whole city spread out over 385 square kilometres in just 4 weeks seems like a tall order. Base Productions faced this very dilemma when creating 6 CGI sequences for National Geographic's Mega Cities, to create the large Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. They managed to get around it by using CityEngine to procedurally generate buildings, and only concentrate on a few hero buildings to recreate the huge city. You can check out the opening sequence to see the final result, and although the buildings aren’t very detailed, it gives you a great feel for the density of the city and its size.
New Year's Resolution
It's that time of year when everybody makes a multitude of New Year's resolutions. I am of the opinion that they are not worth doing unless you are going to stick to them. Having said that, we have actually decided to start the year with a resolution. It’s a fairly simple one: we are resolute in our wish to give you more of the free tutorials that you want. There you are, I told you it would be an easy one.
Stereoscopic 3D and Small Children
Nintendo, Sony, Toshiba have all issued warnings on the development of eyesight in younger children when watching stereoscopic 3D images. Here is a link to a BBC story about the recent Nintendo announcement. Their announcement basically said: "There is a possibility that 3-D images which send different images to the left and right eye could affect the development of vision in small children".