Lighting and Shading are an integral part of the VFX pipeline and if you want to take your skills to a professional level these tutorials are the best place to start learning. What’s great about these tutorials is that they tackle pretty complicated subjects head-on and they are practical so, although you’ll understand the theory, you’ll also learn how to practically apply this knowledge. The best part is that these tutorials will sit in our resource centre permanently, so you can access them whenever you want and learn whenever it suits you.
Escapees to work on Halo Fan Film
Escape Studios has been approached to help with some of the CG and VFX work on an exciting new, non-profit project called Operation Chastity.
V-Ray 2.0 for 3ds Max – Out Now
The long-awaited V-Ray 2.0 has been released, with some great new features and additions that will really give you better and faster results.
The Sistine Chapel in 3D
For all you digital artists out there this just goes to show that there truly is no school like the old school.
Flash on Ipad, Windows on Ipad, Quicktime on Android, MAYA on IPAD
The cloud is only just beginning to really show its power and what it can do. This OnLive demo of their new video compression technology is astounding. It will open a whole new era of computing and inter-op that we can only dream of. Imagine running maya on an Ipad? Well, it's not that far fetched an idea, and I reckon rental of maya is a definate possibilty in the future. But what about having the ability to run any app on any hardware? This truely is a game changer and from their humble beginnings in just the games' world I think OnLive just showed that the future will be a very different place and that they may be a major force.
How Studio01 used CityEngine
It’s always interesting to see how CityEngine can help studios complete new projects. I caught up with Simon Röjder, the Managing Director of Swedish arch viz studio, Studio01, to get the inside scoop. Studio1 have some great projects to their credit. They are unrivalled in Sweden for their unique ways of using game technology in visualisation work, which enables them to produce an amazing level of interactivity in their 3D-visualisations. Impressive stuff. Here’s the low down on CityEngine…
Top 5 Reasons to use Mari
So many people were impressed with The Foundry’s Mari presentation at our recent Bristol event, that I decided to find out a little more about the new product. For those that haven’t come across Mari before, it’s a new 3D creative texture-painting tool that was originally designed by Weta Digital for painting high-resolution textures on 3D models in King Kong and Avatar.
Announcing the winners of 2010’s CG Whiz
As you know we have spent the past month judging the 170-odd entries we received for this year’s CG Whiz awards. I have to say the standard of entries was incredibly high, and our judges had an extra-tough job singling out those who showed the sheer talent and potential they were looking for.
New Hot Fix4 for 3ds Max 2011 & 3ds Max Design 2011 - Out Now
The latest Hot Fix for 3ds Max 2011 & 3ds Max Design 2011 has just been released.
3 Reasons BOXX 8550 is The Fastest Workstation in the World
There has been a lot of talk about the BOXX 8550 XTREME lately, and why it’s the fastest workstation in the world. Many of us are naturally suspicious of all the marketing hype, but on proper investigation, these claims are actually based in pretty solid facts... Here’s the low down.
Amazing Showreel from Displace Studios
Here's a link to a fantastic reel from our friends at Displace Studios, they worked with us earlier this year to create some eye popping 3D brand furniture for our new website and other collateral. They did an amazing job for us and I wish them every luck with this new venture.
Creating a Medieval City with CityEngine
Ever thought how hard it would be to design all the different buildings for a Medieval town and then deal with the layout and terrain?... Wow what a headache! Well, not such a headache any more. You can now create realistic looking medieval dwellings and villages that look like they have just come out of an episode of Merlin using CityEngine.
Xbox Kinect Versus Playstation Move
Ben Hibon Talks About Deathly Hallows
For those of you who have seen the latest instalment in the Harry Potter franchise, here's an interview with the sequence lead of the animated section explaining the Deathly Hallows. You can check out the full interview here.
New NUKE Bundle Promo – Save up to 50%
Framestore’s VFX Supervisor on HP7 Inspires our Students
Last Wednesday, Escape Studios had the honour of having Christian Manz, VFX Supervisor at Framestore come into our studios and talk to our students about life in the industry. Christian discussed the bits about the job that are great (Like getting to see your name up on the big screen after arduous months of working on a project) and the bits which aren’t quite so good (Like the long hours). It wasn’t just our students who enjoyed it, we loved it too. Christian’s thirteen year career has been an epic one and his latest contribution to the industry as VFX Supervisor on the latest HP7 is particularly impressive. We spoke to Christian about the highs and lows of his career so far, and what it feels like to have been part of one of the biggest films of our recent times.
Thank you technology customers!
Last night we had some of the finest brains and talent in Soho out for our Technology Christmas drinks.
We just want to really thank all those who came along and hope you enjoyed the evening.. We certainly did and it was great to see so many new and familiar faces!
The Foundry's STORM: Now on Beta
Hot off the press... The Foundry have just launched the public beta for their long awaited RED camera tool, STORM.
Free Public Beta of Lightworks
EditShare has released the free public beta of the Lightworks non-linear video-editing software.
CG Andrex Puppy!
So an Iconic mascot after 4 decades has finally become a CG character. Having done this myself with the first CG Tony the Tiger I have to wonder whether this will work. The British public being such a fickle bunch! CG Tony was to be a furry character but was squashed at the last moment by Kellogg's in the States as going to far away from the 2D character of Tony (shame he was so cool furry).