Judging by the high number of re-tweets and Facebook shares of the story I posted on October 19th about Mandelbrot, I figured this was a subject that interested many of you. I am glad I am not the only one!
Salvador Dali and Disney: An Unlikely Collaboration
I came across a tidbit of trivia the other day about Salvador Dali that set me on a little 'surf fest' on this incredible artist.
Wallace and Gromit Return to our Screens
I read something last week which made me angry, sad and yet hopeful at the same time… This one is a bit of a long story, and I hope it won’t sound too much like a rant, but I feel I owe it to all the people who, like me, felt rather disappointed when they watched “Wallace And Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit”.
CG Whiz competition reaches the half-way mark.
We’ve just blown the half time whistle on the CG Whiz competition and thought it might be time for a team talk; a chance to touch base with everyone and let you know how it’s all going.
Two New Online Courses: ZBrush for 3D Artists & Character Animation Foundation
Today, we are launching two brand new online courses. One is an advanced ZBrush course for professionals; the other is a Character Animation course for 3D novices.
Open Source and the Studios
So a year on from the opensource announcements made by numerous studios the move seems to be going well. A lot of major facilities are opening up the process and offering solutions the most well known is probably OpenExr by ILM but numerous other facilities have begun releasing software and specs back to the community.
What’s Your Favourite CG Film or Scene of all Time?
Our CG Whiz competition got us thinking about what our favourite CG films and scenes of all time are. One thing led to another, much "debating" took place around the office and then we thought it would be best to let our Twitter followers have the last say. After being inundated with many great suggestions from them, here are the top five.
Bursaries Available for Escape Studios' New Short Courses
We've just launched some new short courses which are going to be taking place here at Escape before Christmas. Each of these consists of five days intensive full-time classroom training from one of our industry professional tutors.
We have four courses on offer, and they are...
AutoCAD for the Mac
Autodesk have released AutoCAD for the Mac after its announcement back in August.
Celebrating Mandelbrot: Beautiful 3D Images
Those of you into weird mathematical equations will probably have heard of Benoît Mandelbrot - who is famous for being the father of fractal geometry. Sadly he died a few days ago, but not without leaving us with the most amazing body of work.
3D Conversion of Harry Potter Cancelled - One for the Studios!
According to Variety we have been saved from yet more badly converted stereo films - check out the story here. Warner Brothers have canned the release of Harry Potter Deathly Hallows part 1 in 3D. This is due to quality issues, that were mainly due to time constraints, and Warner have come to the conclusion that the converted film was not high enough quality. I can only applaud them for not releasing yet another stereo nasty.
Pixar's RenderMan Studio 3 is out!
RenderMan Studio 3 has arrived and it packs some punch! Speed and lots of features and enhancements, including support for Maya 2011.
RenderMan Studio is Pixar's advanced suite of tools for shading and lighting TD's.
Free Webinar: The Art of Creating Great Animated Characters
I will be holding a free live webinar on November 4th. Here's a quick outline of what I will be discussing.
Great Animation by Plato Art Space
Here is another great piece of animation, created by Plato Art Space. It could almost have been created for Escape!
New Skillset Bursaries Available for Escape Studios Training
Skillset have recently announced a new funding scheme which will allow individuals working in the UK film industry to apply for a bursary towards various types of training. The scheme is aimed at increasing the high-end visual effects skills within the film industry so individuals who want to get additional training under this new funding can identify a course or a training provider that meets his or her needs and apply for bursary from Skillset.
October Free Tutorials
I find it really annoying when I find freebies that are ‘for a limited time only’, and it’s something we’ve been guilty of with our free tutorials. We’ve had some great feedback about them, and with that in mind we've decided to revamp the way our freebies work.
Portrait of an escapee: How Nick Illingworth Became TD at MPC
When Nik Illingworth came to an Open Day last year, he was brimming with CG enthusiasm. He knew that he wanted a career in VFX but didn't really know how he was going to make it happen. After studying for 12 weeks with us, Nik was up and running. He finished his course, was offered his first job at Frametore and accepted it, then a short while later he decided to come back to us for 6 weeks of final professional training. He's now Effects Technical Director at MPC and still has the same love for the industry that he started off with. Nik's is one of many stories of CG enthusiasts who come to study with us and that's why we wanted to share his case study with you - getting a career in VFX off the ground really is easier than you think.
Balloons & Zeppelins: Fresh VFX escapee work
Here's my final post showing some work from the courses which have just finished. These clips are from escapees who were on the Visual Effects Production course taught by Dan Shutt. Again these are 'work in progress' and need a little more polishing but you can see they are both great ideas that have been really well executed.
Amazing Physics Engine
Check out this amazing physics engine created by Thiago Costa, he's 23 and never even got a high school diploma! Life's not fair!