There are only a few days left to get huge savings to the latest Autodesk 2010 releases - saving you up to 59% on Softimage 2010, Maya 2010 and 3ds Max 2010 Suites if you order before the 1st December, 2009.
New feature - Nick's Doodles
Here at Escape Studios, we pride ourselves on our close links with the industry. One of the ways we maintain these links is by having tutors who have done the jobs they teach. This means that our tutors are some of the best CGers in the business, and they’re an incredibly creative bunch.
Top Down Animation - Work in Progress - Step 1
I am currently working on (amongst other things) a simple animation in order to demonstrate the Top Down Animation Technique. The animation I am going to do is of a character walking up and sitting down in a chair then tipping backwards. I thought it would be interesting to demonstrate the steps that I would go through in doing an animation this way, so I'll be posting my progress as I go.
ZBrush 3.5 R3 for Windows now released!
We have good news for all users of Zbrush: the new ZBrush 3.5 update for Windows has just been released. It's called R3, and it has loads of new features and enhancements as well as a better toolset. If you are a registered user of Zbrush, you can download it for free here.
Interesting Field for Animated Short Oscar
Recommended Animation Books
I have been asked by a number of Webinar Attendees about what books I would recommend for animation. So I thought I would give you a list of all the ones I have.
VFX in the 70s
Announcing...the CG Whiz shortlist!
It's the moment you've all been waiting for... Escape Studios and The Mill are delighted to announce the shortlist of our CG Whiz competition. We’re astounded by both the level of interest and the standard of entries: we’ve had 136 entries, whilst the videos have received over 8,300 views! The shortlist (in no particular order) is:
Survey prize draw winners announced
A few weeks ago we ran a survey to find out what people thought of the CG industry, with a prize draw and some fantastic prizes for a lucky few. We’re please to say we can now announce the winners of the prize draw.
20 animated submissions for upcoming Oscars
Not sure how many of you have been following this story, but a whopping 20 feature films have been submitted for the Animated Feature film category for the upcoming Oscars. This is great news for the industry as it means we’re well on track to getting five nominees qualifying for the category at the awards next February (we normally only have 3!).
Hollywood producer, Charlotte Huggins to discuss 3D breakthroughs in film and TV.
For those in the film industry, this may be an interesting event for your December diary. The Institution of Engineering and Technology is holding the inaugural John Logie Baird event on the 8th December entitled ‘3D – Back to the future’.
Free Advanced Lighting Tutorial
We have just made a great new free tutorial available to you all: Advanced Lighting for VFX Artists. This is ideal material for VFX artists who wants to improve your lighting skills.
How to Become a World-Class Animator
Thanks to everyone who attended my "Becoming a World-Class Animator" webinar last night - it was great to get a chance to speak to all of you! We're going to make the presentation available in the Escape Studios Free Resources section of our website soon - so make sure that you keep an eye out for it.
Upgrade to Maya, 3ds Max and SoftImage 2010 apps and save up to 59%!
Good times for anyone training to be a games artist
Very recently there has been a release of two games engines that you can use at home.
CG Whiz shortlist to follow
So the CG Whiz competition has finally come to an end. We’ve been blown away by the number of entries we’ve received and the quality of the submissions.
CG Whiz update
The deadline has passed, and we’re now reviewing all 136 entries we received. We’ve been amazed by both the number and quality of the submission, so well done to all who’ve entered.
Online Maya courseware at The Arts University College at Bournemouth
Hi all,
I recently caught up with Paul Hilton, Senior Lecturer BA (Hons) Animation at The Arts University College at Bournemouth. AUCB recently purchased our online Maya coursware for themselves and their students, so I asked Paul how they were finding the experience:
V-Ray® for Autodesk® 3dsMax® Service Packs Officially Released!
The newest build of V-Ray has officially been released! You can now upgrade your version with new Service Packs and get brand new and modified features for free.
Western Spaghetti
All the talk of stop motion animation last week got me thinking, so I went in search of some great examples of this type of work. This Western Spaghetti viral is awesome.