It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a career in Visual Effects is far from boring. As far as careers go, this is an industry that keeps us on our toes, offering us a never ending number of new creative project ideas to be realised, fun new problems to be solved and new technologies to be developed. This is an industry that constantly pushes us to learn and discover more.

In this new Ad from IKEA, we see a gang of garden gnomes waging war against an influx of new modern furniture, appearing on their turf. Watch as the battle ensues and mass gnomes are killed in action, and after you’ve seen it, take a second to ponder how it was created!

It's very easy to lose creative motivation and it's something every artist will experience at some stage in their career. We all got into Visual Effects to work in a creative career, so why stop living the dream? To remain on the cutting edge of creativity, sometimes you need to take yourself out of your comfort zone and remind yourself of the things in VFX that speak to you the loudest - because ultimately that’s what will drive your best work.

To get a real good grasp of compositing and the discipline that surrounds it, there’s no better way than seeing the process in action for yourself. And if this is something that sounds right up your street, the only other thing to add is that your guide for this comp session is none other than NUKE devout, Simon Richardson.

On 7^th of February 2013, Escape HQ will be welcoming Jakub Krompolc, who is head of rigging at London’s Prime Focus world.

Fancy taking a peak behind the VFX scenes at Framestore's cinema? Framestore are one of the biggest post houses operating on Soho (London's VFX Hub...) today. They've worked on everything from The Golden Compass to Avatar to the Skyfall titles). We're conducting our last Open Day of the year there next Wednesday and we're rather excited about it!

We've invited Head of 3D at Framestore Commercials and Escape graduate, Diarmid Harrison-Murray, to kick off the New Year with a live interview, speaking about his latest work on the Skyfall opening title sequence, and his overall journey as a VFX artist.

Last Monday, November 19^th, we ran a very popular webinar with Victor Perez, a master when it comes to using Python inside NUKE. A whopping ninety nine people attended this live webinar to hear what Victor had to share, and we’ve had an incredible number of requests from people who couldn’t attend to share the webinar recording. For us, this interest has been very encouraging, and we look forward to bringing you more webinars like this.

This Wednesday, October 24^th, we’re hosting a webinar with compositing tutor and Head of 2D at Escape Studios, Davi Stein. During her presentation, Davi will guide us through the core processes behind compositing, highlighting exactly what a compositor does, the range of roles available in the industry, and how Compositors are largely responsible for creating the CG magic we see on screen. As well as this, Davi will comment on the effects of some of the most recent changes in the industry to date.

Compositing in regards to VFX can be a difficult process to explain unless seen in action. Although the term may seem quite self-explanatory to those working in the industry, that’s not generally the case for those starting out, looking to break into the industry. And as we speak with budding CG artists every day, we feel it’s important to understand what sets compositing apart from the 3d modelling elements of VFX. As it’s only when you truly understand the range of departments that exist in the visual effects industry, can you make the right career decision.