There have been some exciting changes at Escape Studios recently, and with that we are very pleased to welcome our new Relationship Manager, Anita Gribble. In this role Anita will have two main responsibilities. One is to work closely with post houses up and down the country to continue building on the industry coaching scheme we currently have for our full-time students. As well as this she will be helping to maintain our relationship with recruiters at a variety of post houses to further benefit our students.
...New Lands...
Fans of French Electro Duo ‘Justice’ will be content this week as they release the adrenalin fuelled, VFX heavy video for their latest single ‘New Lands’. A brainchild of the bands work with production company ‘CANADA’, this video depicts a violent futuristic combination of American football and baseball, (with some motorbikes thrown in for good measure) VFX company Glassworks Barcelona bring the video to life, with sequences that match, and at some points, (speaking subjectively of course) exceed the excitement of the song.
Escapees Work on New UK Zombie Flick
Since 2002’s 28 Days Later, the world has seen the return of the zombie film - in a massive way, and in the last 10 years we have been witness to films of this genre in all manner of shapes and forms.
Match It with 3.1
Last week we informed you of the new releases from the Pixel Farm, PFTrack and PFMatchit.
Super-Hi Vision for the Olympics
Just before the Olympics started I had heard of rumour that the BBC would be screening some of the sporting events, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies, at its Broadcasting House using some very special technology. As it's a screening you’d be right in assuming that it’s going to be some sort of screen and broadcasting technology. What's so special about this is that the BBC are showing off Super-Hi Vision TV, which is basically a branded way of saying UHDTV. UHDTV in simple terms is 8K television accompanied by 22.2 3D surround sound on a 300 inch screen. There are only 3 cameras functional in the world and are developed by NHK (the Japanese national broadcaster) and they are all in London. NHK have been developing this technology since the 1990's with the aim of creating a camera with a higher level of fidelity than the human eye and a screen that encompasses your entire field of view, and as a result create the ultimate visual experience.
Interview with Legendary Matte Artist
The art of filmmaking has come a long way over the last 100 years. The technology we use today to create breath-taking scenes continues to push the boundaries of high-definition and realism, but we should never forget the genius of film crews who didn’t have the opportunity to ‘fix it in post’ or rely on computer graphics to set the scene. As lots of you know, some of the best moments in film history were created by filmmakers having to think on their feet, making the best of an impossible situation. And of course there are certain skills that were essential to the filmmaking process back then that will start to be forgotten due to the rise in post-production capabilities and accessibility.
IKinema LiveAction
SIGGRAPH is going to be bursting at the seams with new releases, with UK based IKinema set to unveil IKinema LiveAction at the LA conference next week.
Feeling Frozen Out?
How A Concept Becomes A Reality
When you see different characters on screen you often wonder where the ideas, or ‘concepts’, for these characters first came from. We can answer that question for you, they're called concept artists.
Maxon Cinema 4D
It has been announced this week that MAXON will be releasing CINEMA 4D R14 in September this year. MAXON have almost 20 years of programming innovation under their belts and CINEMA 4D is one of the best known and most successful 3D motion graphics, painting and rendering software applications around.
Super Mario On A Whole Different Level
Now, I have to admit that I'm not the biggest fan of stop motion videos, but quite a few people around here really like them and I certainly appreciate the work that goes into creating them. Therefore I felt the need to share this one I spotted at TheVerge.com. It was made by a guy called Zach King and contains everyones favourite Mario and a couple of other guest appearances which you'll no doubt spot.
My, That's A Lot Of Dwarfs You Got There
Peter Jackson, reknowned director for the massively popular Lord of the Rings trilogy took to Facebook earlier this week to announce that his latest creation The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey will now be a trilogy of films.
Pipeline In Your Pocket
Fed up of being tied to your computer in case your rendering fails? PipelineFX and Qube! have found a solution to that problem.
Ever Wanted To See Your Name In Lights?
Or wanted to be able to say, ‘I did that’, when watching a film and seeing a huge, breath taking explosion? Then maybe you should start to think about pursuing a career in Visual Effects. At Escape Studios, we want to make those first steps into the industry as easy as possible whilst providing you with the tools to succeed. Our Visual Effects Production course will not only give you the skills to progress in the exciting world of Film Visual Effects, but will also show you how to make an impressive show reel (which results in many of our students securing jobs once they have finished.)
Batman's Greatest Hits
Following on from my previous blog about The Dark Knight Rises, I thought you would all be interested to see what IGN claim are Batman’s Greatest Movie Moments. They span across all Batman films and, although there will be some obvious choices thrown in there, a couple will probably shock you.
A Quick And Honest Review
Last weekend I finally got to see The Dark Knight Rises. I love a bit of Batman, with my favourite being Batman Returns (1992) as it has a few of my loves under one roof: Michael Keaton, Danny DeVito and Tim Burton.
Rule, Britannia, Britannia, Rule The Screen
It's obvious to everyone that 2012 has truly been a year to celebrate Great Britain. In a speech at yesterday’s ‘GREAT’ campaign David Cameron highlighted the very importance of British contribution to the arts, inadvertently giving a thumbs up to the VFX industry.
Introducing the BOXX renderPRO
BOXX Technologies present the BOXX renderPRO, the first personal, dedicated, rendering solution for animation, VFX, engineering and architectural visualisation. The renderPRO is designed for desk-side rendering with easy configuring and a compact design for professional performance in minimal space.
The Internet Map
I thought I'd just share with you a little something that I found earlier on my rounds around the interwebs. Specifically this little treat called The Internet Map.
Bring on the BBQ...Round Two!
Ladies and Gentlemen, prepare yourselves and dust off your knives and forks as we are happy to announce round two of the Assimilate and Escape Studios Technology BBQ!
On Thursday the 23rd of August at the Shepherd’s Bar we are hosting a second BBQ with Assimilate and HP, but this time we have also partnered up with NVidia and Red Digital Cinema Professional to showcase a SCRATCH turnkey package exclusive to Escape Studios Technology.