We’ve just blown the half time whistle on the CG Whiz competition and thought it might be time for a team talk; a chance to touch base with everyone and let you know how it’s all going.
Self-Publishing: Buzz of the Games Industry
We hosted a TIGA event on Self-Publishing a couple of days ago. There were developers from many of UK’s independent studios and a few larger studios as well - proof if I needed one, that this topic is very much the buzz of the industry.
Two New Online Courses: ZBrush for 3D Artists & Character Animation Foundation
Today, we are launching two brand new online courses. One is an advanced ZBrush course for professionals; the other is a Character Animation course for 3D novices.
Open Source and the Studios
So a year on from the opensource announcements made by numerous studios the move seems to be going well. A lot of major facilities are opening up the process and offering solutions the most well known is probably OpenExr by ILM but numerous other facilities have begun releasing software and specs back to the community.
iPad in education?
We all love gadgets, and anything from Apple generally creates interest for good or bad. Enter the iPad. Well, it has been around for a while now, but other than playing Angry Birds, does it really have other uses?
What’s Your Favourite CG Film or Scene of all Time?
Our CG Whiz competition got us thinking about what our favourite CG films and scenes of all time are. One thing led to another, much "debating" took place around the office and then we thought it would be best to let our Twitter followers have the last say. After being inundated with many great suggestions from them, here are the top five.
Disney Release Source Code for Partio
One of the biggest challenges facing TD's is moving data from one system to another. For example, getting the nice particle animation that you have done in Houdini into Maya for rendering.
Universities to be ranked by graduate employment rates
The coalition government released last week a whole host of new measures aimed at universities in a bid to make these institutions more transparent. You can read the full story published in the Telegraph here. I for one fully applaud the sentiment behind these measures, but if you'll allow me a cliché, "the devil is in the detail".
Steam Hit 30M Users
Wow! Steam have announced that they've hit the 30 Million user mark last week. That's a phenomenal number of people they can deliver games direct to. And now with over 1,200 games in the catalogue to chose from, that's a very impressive market reach. I reckon we may see a lot more developers/publishers using this as a platform to deliver games over the coming years as digital distribution products seem to be increasing in demand. What do you all think?
Augmented Reality
First there was the Wii Mote from Nintendo which offered a new gaming experience. Now, we have Move from PlayStation using both the PlayStation Eye Camera and Move Controller.
CG Whiz : 3 Weeks to Go
I have been checking out all the entries received so far into our CG Whiz competition, and it's been a lot of fun watching all the work submitted. Thanks to everyone who has entered so far.
Bursaries Available for Escape Studios' New Short Courses
We've just launched some new short courses which are going to be taking place here at Escape before Christmas. Each of these consists of five days intensive full-time classroom training from one of our industry professional tutors.
We have four courses on offer, and they are...
Go Weta! But still the Hobbit runs away...
The actors unions and writers strikes are having a major negative impact on the film making capabilities all over the world. First, there was LA some years ago with their writters' strike. Now they threaten the film production in NZ according to the recent news.
Movember = facial hair for Escape Studios' Men!
Dear friends of Escape Studios... We have decided to take part in Movember this year.... OK, let me explain...
Mythbusters: Do game developers need publishers?
I caught up with Nicholas Lovell of GamesBrief the other day to find out what he'll be talking about at TIGA's Self-publishing seminar next Wednesday. Here’s what he had to say, and it’s pretty interesting stuff:
AutoCAD for the Mac
Autodesk have released AutoCAD for the Mac after its announcement back in August.
Celebrating Mandelbrot: Beautiful 3D Images
Those of you into weird mathematical equations will probably have heard of Benoît Mandelbrot - who is famous for being the father of fractal geometry. Sadly he died a few days ago, but not without leaving us with the most amazing body of work.
Conrad Olson's take on Escape's Compositing Course
One of our escapee - Conrad Olson - recently posted a story on our LinkedIn group which I thought would be of use to all of you who are currently considering taking our Compositing Course.
CG Whiz update
We’re eight days into this year’s CG Whiz competition, and we’ve been amazed by the quality and number of entries through the door so far. It’s going to be a tough one to judge and to think we’ve still got three weeks to go to see what talent’s out there.