Skillset, the industry body which supports skills and training for people and businesses in the UK have put together a nice VFX Core Skills handbook that you may be interested in.
Hold Me Clothes
Evgenia Golubeva recently finished our Character Animation course with us and has very quickly landed a commercials job at Partizan Lab in Soho on the strength of her excellent demo reel. She has also recently put together a short film titled "Hold Me Clothes", a stop-motion film written by her and animated in just one day at a recent film festival in Italy.
Visual Effects Society Slams Hollywood
Some of you may have never heard of the Visual Effects Society (VES) - see the previous link or last paragraph if you have not.
Spotlight On Escapee Evgenia Golubeva
Evgenia Golubeva recently completed our animation course at Escape Studios and has put together one of the best student animation reels we have seen completed in just 6 weeks. Evgenia took full advantage of the Animation course and diligently completed all of the animation exercises, often working late into the evenings, and working relentlessly to improve her skills. Most of the shots on her reel have been taken from in-class exercises, but the way in which she has compiled the shots together into a single well-edited piece of work makes her reel far more entertaining to watch than a mere series of student shots cut together with music.
Digital Domain IPO?
We have talked recently about how well the UK is doing in VFX so it's nice to see some noise happening in the US also. Digital Domain saw its revenue from visual effects climb to $101.9 million last year - up 70% from 2009, according to its filing. Whilst DD have already had one attempt at going public in 2007, they seem convinced that now is possibly the right time.
Meat Love
It’s always good when people respond to the blogs we write. The one I wrote last week about the MTV advert animation got a great response when we tweeted the link, with @anthonygelatka pointing me in the direction of another great piece of animation.
Gaming Gets Emotional With LA Noire
No doubt you’ve heard about Rockstar’s latest release LA Noire - apparently a completely new type of video game. Up until recently, most games have been all about hand eye co-ordination but in LA Noire, which is set in the late 40s, the main skill is about being able to judge body language and characters’ faces to figure out if they’re lying or not - or ‘emotional perception’ as some are calling it.
Pixar Release RenderMan Pro Server 16
Our friends at Pixar have announced the release of RenderMan Pro Server 16!
Augmented Reality... Kelly Brooks... Angels Fall...
OK, so hopefully the title got your attention, and we can get past the Kelly Brook distraction - she's currently "fronting" a new marketing campaign from Lynx "Angels will fall" which is all relevant, honest!
Back On The Road
The Escape University Tour starts up again this month after a short break for Easter. Last week, I was in Ipswich to speaking with students at the School of Arts and Humanities at University Campus Suffolk.
The Pixar Podcast
I stumbled across 'The Pixar Podcast' recently, I just thought I would share it with you in case you had not seen it.
Alex Williams to Host Special Animation Open Day in London
Our Character Animation Tutor Alex Williams needs little introduction. if you follow the world of Animation, you will have heard of him and his work. He is one of the most talented animators of the decade and has not only written books such as QC Cartoon Series, but also worked on well known titles such as The Lion King, Pocohontas, Looney Tunes: Back in Action, and most notably Who Framed Roger Rabbit. He makes quite an impression on most of the people he meets, and especially the students in his class.
Character Animation Escapee Tracey Chung Secures Job at Ragdoll Productions
If you’ve ever dreamt of becoming an animator, Tracey’s story should help you realise that your dream might be easier to attain than you think.
Our Grand Day Out at Aardman
On Tuesday we, our Recruitment Manager, Garreth Gaydon, and I were let out of the office for the day to go and visit Aardman! I have to say, it was awesome! Based in Bristol, it's a bit of a trek but well worth the effort. They are such a brilliant studio and it's every bit as cool as you'd imagine.
Just Another Comic Book Hero Movie? Maybe Not...
Ok, so there I was, happy in my comfort zone, knowing that the Green Lantern could never be a great movie and that nothing could ever live up to the comic book.
Autodesk 2012 Line-up Now Available!
UK has been NUKED!
We have been totally amazed over the past couple of months over the number of companies that are looking for NUKE ops at all levels.
25 Years of Pixar Animation
I'm sure many of you will have seen the film medley that represents 25 years of Pixar Animation. Well, it's amazing to be reminded of all their fantastic work - not just the images and characters, but the stories also. They pretty much have it all. I would personally like to thank Pixar for The Incredibles, which for me is unsurpassed. Simply brilliant.
New Way to Sculpt and Model with 3D-Coat
It’s not often that I come across a new product that shows me a completely different way of working… We’ve been checking out 3D-Coat and have come to the conclusion that it might just provide something quite special in terms of modelling and sculpting.
University Tour Under Way
I have been out on the road over the last month visiting universities across the UK, as part of our university tour, and wanted to give you an update on my progress so far. It's been a bit of a whirlwind, but meeting up with such enthusiastic and creative people is never a chore - you come back full of ideas an imbued with the same enthusiasm