If you haven't been able to make it out to SIGGRAPH this week, I will be keeping you up to date with all the news and information that you need. And if that isn’t enough our friends at NVidia will be streaming most of their booth presentations live from booth #634 & #735.
New Relationship Manager at Escape Studios
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Escapee Reunion at Saddington Baynes
Last Wednesday we sauntered down to our friends at Saddington Baynes, devoured some gourmet Pizza, washed it down with some ice cold beer and cleansed our pallets with some invigorating VFX related conversation, all in the name of our second graduate reunion…who says you can’t mix business with pleasure? And with a high calibre of industry employed attendees from the likes of Double Negative, Framestore, The Mill and MPC London, conversation was rife.
Like A Kid In A Candy Store
Last week I accompanied the current Compositing class on a trip to the MPC studio in London. It's all part of the industry mentoring scheme we're encouraging at Escape, as we work to prepare our students for the working world. With aspirations for one day working in the industry, we feel it's really important for all our students to get a taste for what is expected from them as early as possible in their training. Irene Bonilla was one student who joined us that day, and here's what she had to say about it...
Still waiting to hear from VFX companies? Improve your Compositing Demo Reel!
It’s been a little quiet for a lot of Compositors this summer, but there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel. I’m hearing that some companies will be busy this Autumn and into next year. So while you’re waiting for that call, there are lots of things you can do to spend this down time wisely.
Pixologic Release New Upgrade
Pixologic have just released a new update for ZBrush. Any one of the new features would have been worth the price of upgrade... but wait, I forgot...you don't have to pay for the upgrade because its free and totally awesome.
CG Whiz 2011 Winner: Journey So Far
For the past three years, we have held a ‘CG Whiz’ competition, and one of the winners from last year just recently claimed part of his award by beginning a 12 week VFX course here at Escape Studios. We wanted to offer a little insight into what this opportunity means for Daniel, but, before we jump in, here’s a low down on the competition itself.
The Rise of Mobile Gaming
I’ve just discovered some news for the British video games industry. In the middle of a double dip recession, there are 2 new studios opening up in the game industry, which is exciting enough, but this comes alongside the recent announcement that Amazon are also opening up a digital media innovation hub in London. This will have a focus on the creation of interactive digital services for games consoles, smart phones, PCs and TV. They are also building new services and APIs behind the company’s digital media.