Lovers of 3D will be over the moon to discover that they can now have the power of 3D in their pocket at all times, as the 3Doodler allows the owner to take their artistic imagination off of the page!
Event for the animation and creative community: Monday 25th February.
This week we had a chat with our friends over at Made Visual Studio, who are screening an animated film about Monty Python legend Graham Chapman – (pretty awesome project right?) and its taking place next Monday, 25th of February at East London’s Rich Mix.
Weta Featurette-a
The Oscars is on Sunday (anyone staying up for them?) and in preparation, the team over at Weta Digital has released a couple of pretty awesome behind the scenes/breakdown featurettes, discussing the creation of ‘The Goblin Caverns’ and ‘Rivendell’.
We're going through ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...
If you're a regular through our doors then you might have noticed a few changes. Here at Escape HQ we've been busy building, painting, schlepping, and revamping our office area, studios and break out space for a new and rather fresh look. There's still quite a few bits and bobs to do but here's a look at what we were then and what we are now...
A woman's touch...
The role of Visual Effects Supervisor is hugely important on set as well as during the whole post production process. This person works with both the Director and Clients to convert artistic concepts to stunning visual imagery.
Make 2013 your own! New course dates launched
2013 is set to be a massive year for film, (take a look at our recent blog post to see what cinematic delights we’re yet to sink out teeth into) so why not make it a massive year in film for you too?
Pixar artists grab funding by the horns
These days, it is commonplace for new projects to be funded by creative idea fuelling website – ‘kickstarter’. This is not your only option of funding if you’re a legendary artist from Pixar though.
Paying homage to a VFX legend
The legend that created the lab process of travelling mattes, (that’s blue/green screens to the rest of us) sadly passed away last week, at the grand age of 96.
An Insight to Industrial Light and Magic
Industrial Light and Magic was created back in 1975 by the legend that is George Lucas, and has kept going ever since, racking up work on over 300 movies to date.
From MPC to Cinesite, Fuel VFX to Weta Digital and everything in between! Escapee Leo Neelands.
Ska loving escapee Leo Neelands made a career change but 7 years ago, when upon the word of a trusty friend who recognised the potential of his artistic skills, he made his way down to London with nothing but a Wacom tablet and pen in his bindle and a bucket load of raw talent in his brain.
Behind the scenes at Cinesite - See you there?
Game of Thrones fans, series 3 is on the horizon!
I’m a big fan of Game of Thrones and LOVE the VFX work the guys at Pixomondo have done on the series, especially the set extensions, and it gave me a real thrill to read that series 3 is on it’s way! The series 3 release date being announced at the 31st of March 2013.
2013 Oscars - VFX Nominees!
Tis but 10 days until the much anticipated Oscars! Here at Escape we have a keen eye on who will be winning the prize for best VFX, there are some pretty heavyweight contenders and nominees are as follows…
The 3D Printing Revolution!
View Conference announces cash prizes for 2013 winners!
Our friends over at View Conference Italy, last week unveiled that they will be providing cash prizes for winners of their different awards. The prizes vary from top of the range tablets to a lump sum of 2000 Euros. The categories for application are as follows (complete with direct links)
Flying Sorcery
You may remember this fake UFO clip made famous last year - naturally everyone quickly branded it a fake which it clearly was/is.
Photoshop goes (even more) 3D
Fans of 3D and users of Photoshop will be delighted this week, with the announcement that 'Photoshop CS6 Extended' is on the market, it allows you to create 3D shape text using extrusions as a 3D layer... "similar to CS4 Extended" I hear you say! But alas, according to this write up, we are told that this works far more 'natively', with 'the usability you’d expect from an integrated Adobe toolset'.
Animation Ireland
And how has this happened? Well a decade of tax breaks and investment basically. Tax breaks to aid production costs and funding for development prior to production from various sources. Very interesting given the impending tax breaks around the corner in the UK. Could this be a new dawn in film and broadcast for us here?
I was amazed by how many companies are turning out real quality work in Ireland. The tax breaks have not affected the passion for excellence. In fact I would say it has merely fuelled it - the companies are competing against eachother to produce the best work. And as the industry steadily grows there are now whispers of full length animated movies being made there.
If you are curious about what has been happening in Ireland check out the Animation Ireland showreel on their website...
Here's something you may not know. Ireland has a booming animation industry. No I didn't know that either until I went to the Cartoon Finance conference in Dublin last year. In fact the animation industry is doing so well, that in the face of the downturn, it has become one of their major exports. At the conference, it was quipped that the animators are now the ones with the proper jobs.
Truly EPIC God of War trailer
We were enticed this week when we saw this epic live action trailer for Sony’s game ‘God of War: Ascension’, It was made by creative studio and production company ‘Imaginary Forces’, a firm who have worked on a huge amount of projects, spanning from commercial work to television and film,
Google Chrome, Powerade, Transformers, Minority Report, and Boardwalk Empire, are but a few of their accolades to date. Impressive stuff!
If the game is half as epic as this evocative ad, viewers will no doubt want to get playing right away!
Blown Away by Disney short 'the Paperman'?
Walt Disney shorts are always a treat for viewers. In fact I’d go as far to say that when going to the cinema to see a new Disney Pixar film, part of the excitement is the opportunity to see the preluding short that comes with the main feature