In this modern age, the desk of the busy designer is likely to be filled with graphics tablets, laptops and PC’s, and let’s be honest, there is such a thing as too much clutter.  But hopefully when this invention hits the design world, things will change!

Often I’ve thought to myself, “boy I’d like to visit Japan, the culture difference, the challenge of the language barrier, the public transport…”

I love photography, and this picture just takes the biscuit!

This rather charismatic chap called Barry has made his very own diorama model of the battle sequence on ice planet Hoth, from the Empire Strikes Back.

When you're just having one of those days in front of your computer, it's always good to take a step back, and gain some perspective. Get some inspiration!

October is certainly bursting with exciting events for the digital geeks among us. One to mention is our very own VFX Festival, the other is the VIEW Conference, a premiere international event in Italy for computer graphics, interactive techniques, digital cinema, 2D/3D animation, gaming and VFX. Running from 16^th to 19^th October in Torino, this 4-day event is overflowing with lectures, meetings, tributes, exhibits, screenings, workshops and demo presentations. And better still, our very own Daniel Shutt is among the exciting line-up for this year’s launching event.

LinkedIn is a pretty awesome tool for lots of reasons, but one in particular is how it encourages some users to be quite industrious in their spare time. And a perfect example of this is how freelance digital compositor Vincent Frei has created a group called The Art of VFX. This is where Vincent shares interviews he’s had with a range of industry professionals working in VFX, offering us VFX geeks an inside scoop into what they’ve been working on.

In case you hadn’t heard, the Olympics is on at the moment, and amidst the gold medals, world records, union jacks and jovial sports fans, there have been a number of VFX delights that have caught our eye here at Escape, and we thought we’d share a couple with you!

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.

The Halla Stulecia in Wrocław, Poland is an almost 100 year old dome designed by legendary architect Max Berg and was built to commemorate the 1813 war of liberation against Napoleon. Almost a century on, members of the visual arts label AntiVJ have transformed the 65 foot concrete dome into what they call O (Omicron). O is a cinematic installation that paints the hall's intricate contours with the stark, pulsing lights of a futuristic starship.