Do you use After Effects? Do you spend a lot of time designing and animating lens flares? Then Optical Flares might just be the plug-in for you. We’ve just added it to our Techstore, and we think it is pretty cool.
Add Realism to Composite Shots with 220 Organic Effects
OK, so Sapphire is not a new product. It has been used by a lot of the top studios like Framestore, MPC and The Mill for some time now. But is it new to our Techstore range, so we thought we’d make a bit of noise about it.
Prepare for Your First Compositing Job With Our New Free Webinar
If you’re an aspiring compositor who would like to know more about what the industry is going to expect from you, then sign up for my new webinar, entitled:'Entry Level and Junior Roles for Compositors".
Escape Studios in a Live Q& A at the Guardian
The chances are, if you’re reading this blog, you’ve got more than a passing interest in the film industry. Alright, specifically the VFX part, but still, you’re keen to know as much as you can about the industry, and possibly how you can break into it (hopefully with our help…).
Top Ten Uses of Special Effects for Great Storytelling
I came across an interesting little article yesterday on PodcastFilmReview.com about the top ten uses of special effects for story telling. It was refreshing to see someone looking at this from the angle of the story telling rather than just for the special effects themselves.
Double Negative, The Mill and Framestore Mentor Escape Studios Students
Just want to say a Big Thank You to Double Negative, Framestore and The Mill for the fantastic help you've given our students on the first stage of our industry mentored classroom courses here at Escape Studios.
BBC to Broadcast New Dinosaurs Documentaries
The BBC have announced that they are to broadcast a new series of famous dinosaurs documentaries. This will be a much shorter series than the original Walking with Dinasaurs - only 3 programs - but will feature all the 3D and visual effects wizardry you would expect from this program. According to Broadcasting News, it will feature photo-realistic fight scenes to give a "whole new perspective on dinosaurs".
London VFX Houses Create Wizardry
It was great to see a write up in Variety about the big four post houses in the UK for more than one reason.
Visual Effects Benefit from New Rules at the Oscars
No doubt you’ll all be looking forward to the Oscars this weekend. It's particularly significant if you’re a VFX fan, with five nominees in the Visual Effects category this year rather than three.
Escapee Ricardo Viana Gives us the Low Down on our Online Mentored Course
Want to know what it’s like to do one of our Mentored courses? Well we caught up with Escapee Ricardo Viana to find out how he got on – all the way from sunny Portugal.
VFX wins at the BAFTAs
I don’t think anyone was too surprised by last night’s BAFTAs. Personally, I was really pleased to see Inception win the Special Visual Effects award. With the hardware becoming more powerful, the software more sophisticated and the work ever more creative, as an industry the bar is set incredibly high, and it’s always great to see how people are constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. It’s even more impressive when you consider who else was nominated.
The 5 Miserable VFX Jobs That Make Movies Possible
I came across this blog on the 5 miserable VFX Jobs that make movies possible and found it quite amusing... ;-)
Escapees make it to Autodesk's Education Showreel
We're never prouder than when our escapees get the recognition they deserve. This usually comes in the form of a first job with a top post house or commendation from the professional community for a perfectly executed shot, so when we found out that some of our escapees made it to the Autodesk 2010 Education showreel, we were beaming.
New kid on the block: 3D World's Andy Price
Exciting news on the Escape Studios blog - we’re pleased to announce that 3D World’s very own online editor Andy Price is going to be giving us his take on the latest CG action. For those that don’t know, Andy covers everything that's up and coming in the world of CG and animation for 3D World.
Games Industry Tax Breaks - or The Lack of Them....
So when Activision, the distributor of Call of Duty Black Ops - a game that hit the $1 billion mark in sales in roughly the same amount of time as Avatar - mentions that it might take its development out of the UK you would hope that someone might sit up and take notice.
That’s all Folks! For now…
With 2011 around the corner, I wanted to reflect on some of the amazing things that Escape Studios has achieved this year. Opening our offices in LA, launching our brand new US website, the phenomenal success of CG Whiz and the launch of our Mentored Training Courses is just the tip of the iceberg. We've had Paul Frankin of DNEG talk to our students about the incredible VFX created for Inception and Christan Manz, VFX supervisor on the latest HP7 talk about how Framestore wowed with their character creation.
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.
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.
