Last week I mentioned the 'red carpet day' for Games companies at the BAFTA's. Well, The awards ceremony was last night and the results are in!
Red Carpet Day for Games at the BAFTA Awards
Is it any wonder that the games companies in the UK have a hard time? So many companies going out of business already this year (and it's only March) and seemingly no government support or tax breaks. Whilst computer games feature as heavily in many people's lives as film, I suspect that few know about the games BAFTA awards.
Well, it is red carpet day for the games industry on Wednesday 16th March 2011 and you can view the awards online starting from 8:30 PM. Will the awards ever make it to live TV? OK maybe not, we don't generally know these faces as they are not on the big screen. But give a thought for the awards, the games and the technology these guys produce - they need everyone's support... It's not like we don't play games right?
Has your favourite game been nominated? Check out the nominees here. For me in the family section it has to be Kinect Sports but good luck to everyone who has been nominated!
UK Games Industry in Need of Help
We were all delighted for our friends at Double Negative on Sunday, as they scooped an Oscar for their VFX work on Inception, and the whole country was feeling a touch of national pride as Brits dominated the ‘big’ awards. No matter what your thoughts on the future of British film, it was certainly a good day to be a part of the UK film industry.
Brit Success at the Oscars
The winners of the 2011 Oscars were finally revealed yesterday amidst the usual pomp and ceremony that we are accustomed to, and I have to say, it was a pretty good night for Britain.
Visual Effects Benefit from New Rules at the Oscars
No doubt you’ll all be looking forward to the Oscars this weekend. It's particularly significant if you’re a VFX fan, with five nominees in the Visual Effects category this year rather than three.
VFX wins at the BAFTAs
I don’t think anyone was too surprised by last night’s BAFTAs. Personally, I was really pleased to see Inception win the Special Visual Effects award. With the hardware becoming more powerful, the software more sophisticated and the work ever more creative, as an industry the bar is set incredibly high, and it’s always great to see how people are constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. It’s even more impressive when you consider who else was nominated.
"I can't wait to start my VFX Course" explains CG Whiz winner Stu Schwartz
Since I’ve been back at school I’ve been constantly asked about the CG Whiz competition. Are you excited about going to LA and studying with Escape Studios? When will your placement start at The Mill? Are you nervous? Apprehensive? And truth is: I'm totally overwhelmed, but so excited! The more I look at what the course entails, the more eager I get. I’m looking forward to learning new 3D programs that I haven’t used before. And not only that, but delving deep into them. I’m hoping that this will give me a much broader knowledge of VisFx. I’m also really thrilled about the Instructors who I will be learning from directly - they are all incredibly qualified and will be invaluable as mentors to me!
Escape Studios wins website of the month
So it may not be an Oscar but we’re still pretty damn pleased that we’ve won SilverStripe’s website of the month! Without getting too techy, the reason that we took first place is because our website is a complex SilverStripe implementation that has lots of integrated services such as Single Sign-On, Sales Force, Magento e-commerce and YouTube feeds. The graphic design for the site was created by Distinguished & Co – who did a great job, making navigation a doddle. Big thanks to all of the guys who voted, what a great way to end the week.
A New VFX Outfit to Watch
Currently wowing audiences everywhere, and hot off the back of its Oscar nominations, Danny Boyle’s latest film 127 Hours is something we’ve been keeping a particular close eye on. Obviously we’re fans of Mr Boyle’s work (personally, I can’t wait to see the Olympic opening ceremony), but in this case we’re more interested in a small team of people working behind the scenes.
Escape Studios announces winner of the CG Graduate Design Awards
Firstly a big thank you to all of you who entered our CG Graduate Design Awards. We were really impressed with the standard of entries and it made last week’s judging day with our friends at The Mill pretty tough.
Robert Holmes takes time out to talk about his career to date
It’s always great to find out how escapees get on after their training and enter the world of work. Last week, we met up with ex-student Robert Holmes out at SIGGRAPH. Since his time at Escape, Rob’s gone on to work on some amazing projects at The Mill. He took time to tell us how he got his break and what’s needed to be successful in this industry.
CG Graduate Design Awards competition entry date extended to 16th August
Firstly, a big thanks to everyone who has entered our CG Graduate Design Competition Award so far. Entries have been coming thick and fast and as always the standard has been exceptional.
Thanks also for keeping in touch via all our social networks - it really is great to hear from you all and it just reaffirms our belief that the UK and the US have a wealth of talent and will undoubtedly produce many future stars in the CG world.
Competition reminder
It's great to see entries coming through for our Graduate Design Awards. Just a quick reminder you need to upload your show reel to our YouTube channel and then complete your entry by sending your contact details to escapestudios@brands2life.com. We need your name, showreel title, email address, telephone number, year of graduation, university and course attended.
Graduated but still looking for a job?
The BBC recently reported on the struggle faced by graduates to find a job after leaving university. Unemployment amongst grads aged below 24, rose by 25% last year.
CG Graduate Design Awards go live
We’ve launched the CG Graduate Design Awards aimed at uncovering talented uni grads in the UK and US. This is the first international competition of its kind, where we’ll be giving fresh talent, a helping hand into the competitive computer graphics world with our partners The Mill. So, if you’re a student or recent graduate dreaming of breaking into the industry, this is the opportunity for you.
Calling all Uni Grads
We are launching our new online competition to uncover the crème of the CG class of 2010 on both sides of the Atlantic. The CG Graduate Design Awards is the first international competition of its kind, where we’ll be giving the most talented graduates out there a helping hand into the competitive computer graphics world.
Escapee wins BAFTA for Flock! game
Our very own Escapee, Chris Bradwell, has won a BAFTA for his fantastic work on the game Flock! just five years after graduating.
