You can really impress future employers by taking advantage of our two expert tutorials this month. Taken from our Character Animation Foundation and ZBrush for 3D Artist courses, they are designed to give you pro-skills in very specialised areas.
Enter our Satisfaction Survey for a chance to win an iPad and Amazon Vouchers
Do you have lots of things to say about Escape Studios? We've put together a satisfaction survey which has been designed to help us understand what you'd like to see from Escape Studios. If there are things you think we can improve or are doing really well, we really do want to hear about it.
TWO Free Tutorials: Car Lighting and MIA Material X Passes
Lighting and Shading are an integral part of the VFX pipeline and if you want to take your skills to a professional level these tutorials are the best place to start learning. What’s great about these tutorials is that they tackle pretty complicated subjects head-on and they are practical so, although you’ll understand the theory, you’ll also learn how to practically apply this knowledge. The best part is that these tutorials will sit in our resource centre permanently, so you can access them whenever you want and learn whenever it suits you.
Escapees to work on Halo Fan Film
Escape Studios has been approached to help with some of the CG and VFX work on an exciting new, non-profit project called Operation Chastity.
The Sistine Chapel in 3D
For all you digital artists out there this just goes to show that there truly is no school like the old school.
How Studio01 used CityEngine
It’s always interesting to see how CityEngine can help studios complete new projects. I caught up with Simon Röjder, the Managing Director of Swedish arch viz studio, Studio01, to get the inside scoop. Studio1 have some great projects to their credit. They are unrivalled in Sweden for their unique ways of using game technology in visualisation work, which enables them to produce an amazing level of interactivity in their 3D-visualisations. Impressive stuff. Here’s the low down on CityEngine…
Announcing the winners of 2010’s CG Whiz
As you know we have spent the past month judging the 170-odd entries we received for this year’s CG Whiz awards. I have to say the standard of entries was incredibly high, and our judges had an extra-tough job singling out those who showed the sheer talent and potential they were looking for.
Amazing Showreel from Displace Studios
Here's a link to a fantastic reel from our friends at Displace Studios, they worked with us earlier this year to create some eye popping 3D brand furniture for our new website and other collateral. They did an amazing job for us and I wish them every luck with this new venture.
Ben Hibon Talks About Deathly Hallows
For those of you who have seen the latest instalment in the Harry Potter franchise, here's an interview with the sequence lead of the animated section explaining the Deathly Hallows. You can check out the full interview here.
Framestore’s VFX Supervisor on HP7 Inspires our Students
Last Wednesday, Escape Studios had the honour of having Christian Manz, VFX Supervisor at Framestore come into our studios and talk to our students about life in the industry. Christian discussed the bits about the job that are great (Like getting to see your name up on the big screen after arduous months of working on a project) and the bits which aren’t quite so good (Like the long hours). It wasn’t just our students who enjoyed it, we loved it too. Christian’s thirteen year career has been an epic one and his latest contribution to the industry as VFX Supervisor on the latest HP7 is particularly impressive. We spoke to Christian about the highs and lows of his career so far, and what it feels like to have been part of one of the biggest films of our recent times.
CG Andrex Puppy!
So an Iconic mascot after 4 decades has finally become a CG character. Having done this myself with the first CG Tony the Tiger I have to wonder whether this will work. The British public being such a fickle bunch! CG Tony was to be a furry character but was squashed at the last moment by Kellogg's in the States as going to far away from the 2D character of Tony (shame he was so cool furry).
The wait’s finally over – CG Whiz 2010 shortlist
We said it was going to be tough to judge and we were right. The entries for this year’s CG Whiz competition blew us away (quite literally!) and the quality of the reels overall impressed each and every judge.
Yo Mo' Bro - Movember Results
With Movember now over, I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone for being so sporting and not taking themselves too seriously with their Mo'. We have raised £2,076 (currently) which leaves us ranked 468 Nationally, which we think is pretty good form. I thought I’d share our leaderboard with you:
Empire Strikes Back Director Irvin Kershner Dies
Irvin Kershner, director of 'The Empire Strikes Back' died on Saturday in Los Angeles, aged 87. 'Kersh'', as he was affectionately known on the set of the 1980 sequel, deserves credit for directing easily the finest of all the Star Wars films, and for a diverse and varied career in which the inter-galactic blockbuster was something of an anomaly.
The Amazing Flying Festo Manta Ray
Have any of you been watching Wallace and Gromit’s new program on BBC1? It’s basically like a new version of Tomorrow’s World with Wallace acting as the presenter and Gromit taking the role of the funny side-kick.
MediaCity UK - Salford Quays, Manchester
I was invited up to take a look around MediaCityUK UK last week. I didn't really know what to expect, I had heard quite a bit about the developments over the past few years but it had always been 'up North' and at the back of my mind.
Last few places available for January 2011 Courses
As the end of 2010 approaches we're filling up fast for our next round of courses in January 2011. The last spot on our Compositing course has just gone, so the next seats available for that are now in April. We have also just filled our Character Animation course with Alex Williams so we now only have a few seats left on the two Visual Effects Production courses, taught by Mark Spevick and Dan Shutt.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 1
I went to see HP7 at the weekend. We are all different but I really miss the magical events of the early Potter, I guess I just didn't want him to grow up!
The VFX work was amazing, as always, well done to everyone involved. Would the film have been enhanced if it was in 3D? I think possibly so, but as we all now know, 3D as an afterthought is not the way to go.
I do worry about having a 'two parter' personally, you are going to the cinema knowing that there will not be a resolution. But that said, the cinema was full and that has to be a good thing for the industry. Count down to the final film... or will it be?
To be academic or not, that is the question...
Here's a great piece of animation which illustrates something I care deeply about, the education system.
CG Whiz 2010: A tough task to judge
As this year’s CG Whiz competition finally closes, we’re delighted to announce we had 170 entries through the door (smashing last year’s entry tally) and the quality of reels blew us away. There’s definitely a lot of talented CG artists out there and we know just how much this competition can help up and coming artists get their foot in the door.