We would like to be one of the first to congratulate Assimilate for their success at the Cannes Festival 2012. Although the winning films are yet to be announced, several films on the competition's roster have been created using SCRATCH, Assimilate’s digital workflow and post-production tools. SCRATCH has been used on recent screen successes like The Artist, Thor and Underworld: Awakening as well as the films nominated at Cannes 2012.

This year, Escape Studios is ten years old, and it’s a pretty big deal for us. It’s also a big deal for all of the students who we’ve trained over the years and are now dotted throughout the world of VFX. So, from now on, every week, we’re going to be launching a story from our escapee Wall of Fame which will showcase all of the escapees who have gone on to work on the biggest and boldest films, TV shows, commercials and games over the years. It’s a chance for them to step up and take a bow, albeit a virtual one.

As a follow-up to my post on learning resources for coding, I'd like to share our recent efforts to open source some of our in-house code.

Want to see a demo of how computer games will look in the not too distant future? You are in luck. Here is a big breakdancing bunny courtesy of Samuel Lapere. Forgive us, the quality isn't great but it's still pretty phenomenal.

Special effects with computer graphics are all the rage recently. There are very few films produced these days without jaw dropping stunts courtesy of the digital department. But a lot of directors still prefer to shoot the real thing if they can as it nearly always looks better than the CG equivalent.

As we all know the countdown to the 2012 Olympics is on, in fact it is at 77 days to be precise. The buzz of the Olympics is infectious and seems like a time for us to celebrate all things British, especially when it comes to VFX. So thankfully I found this in little beauty in the VFX news this week, the final version of Studio AKA’s introduction sequence for the BBC and their Olympic Torch Relay Coverage.

Batman? The Dark Knight? Wonder Woman? Not really, but these incredibly detailed, hand-crafted finger puppet designs by Tamara Maynes recall iconic heroes and villains who we’ve seen in the pages of comic books and as blockbusters on the big screen.

Yesterday Maurice Sendak, author and illustrator of the children’s classic book Where The Wild Things Are, died. Famous through his writing and illustrating, Sendak published a number of children’s books, wrote and designed three animated stories and his final book “Bumble Ardy” was an adaption of a collaboration between Sendak and Jim Henson from kid’s TV favourite Sesame Street.

Last June Imagineer Systems and Escape Studios hosted a mocha Pro demonstration event in London to celebrate the success of this tracking software. Due to the success of that event we are pleased to announce that we will be hosting another one this year on May 30^th 2012.

I was recently asked to ride the Chiltern 100,  I’m attempting the 58 miles ride for a children’s charity at the end of May.

Now for those that know me, well, they know I am not particularly ‘active’ – I guess that’s why they ask people like me to do charity events, it’s a challenge!