Escape Blog

Games tutor Simon Fenton has made his media debut for Escape Studios on the Guardian’s Career Talk podcast. You can hear Simon talk about getting into the industry, his role as a tutor at Escape, his background and much more, alongside Tom Baskaya of Framestore, an Escapee and most recently a compositor on Avatar. Tom also talks about his time at Escape, as well as what it was like working on James Cameron’s masterpiece.

You can have a listen on the Guardian’s site here. Simon and Tom are on from around 06 minutes 55 seconds into the podcast.

Regular readers of the blog will know that last week we had the awards ceremony of the CG Whiz competition. We managed to grab the three winners and some of the judges, including Steve Venning from The Mill, to film their views on the competition. We think everyone had a great time, and over the next few months we’re hoping to have blog posts from Adam Droy, the overall winner, and runners up Ronan McMeel and Marco Barrato, to see how the competition prizes have helped them break into the CG industry.

Well done to all who entered – we were astounded by the standard of the entries. For all those of you inspired by the entries keep an eye out for next year’s competition, and the chance to win another potentially career transforming prize.

You might have read a couple of weeks ago about the winners of a prize draw we held for those who completed our survey. We wanted to see what people in and around the CG industry thought about their jobs and the world in which they work. We had a fantastic response, with over 2,800 professionals, hobbyists and students answering questions for us, and the results make for interesting reading.

One of the great things we found was that, if you’re a professional working in the CG industry in some form, you love your job. 80 per cent of you are happy working in the industry, and 59 per cent would recommend the career to others. How many other careers have that sort of approval rating?

However, despite the obvious enthusiasm people have for their work, there are some anxieties out there. 42 per cent of respondents said they are worried about job security, while a massive 62 per cent agreed they have had to do more training to refine their skills. Just a quarter of professionals agreed with the statement ‘I get enough training in my job’, with over half disagreeing with it.

For those of you that didn’t get a chance to answer the survey, what are your thoughts on the industry? Do you love it, but don’t get enough training? Or do you dislike the work, but could render a 3D feature with your eyes closed?

We’ve got a couple of exciting new online courses coming up for slightly more experienced CGers.  The Advanced Lighting and Advanced Shading modules are aimed at people with a bit of Maya knowledge, having completed the Maya Core program.

Derived from classroom modules, these courses are ideal for shading and lighting professionals looking to expand their skills and take their career to the next level. Slightly longer than our usual online courses to reflect the added detail, the courses allow people to work at their own pace, without impacting the quality of the teaching. They’ve been created by the same guys that create and teach our classroom courses, so you’re guaranteed our highest standards.

The Advanced Lighting course combines both production level tutorials with artist and technical perspective explanations, covering lighting theory, the art of lighting, night and artificial lighting, image based lighting, photographic lighting and gobos and cookies.

The Advanced Shading course is the perfect partner to the lighting course, helping people to build realistic shading networks and teach them how to use utility nodes to create rendering effects. It also contains 12 different Maya scenes.

Want to know more? Drop us a line.

We’re delighted to announce the winner of our competition with Computer Arts Project: Matt Long. We received many applications to this competition, and the overall quality of the entries was very high, but Matt impressed the judges with an original and well-executed character design. He wins a copy of Maya, access to the online Maya Core course, and a 6 weeks intensive Characters Course with us at Escape HQ in London.

Matt says “I often enter competitions to keep my skill levels up, and winning always feels fantastic. The great thing about this competition is the prize. The opportunity to have access to Escape’s courses is the icing on the cake.”

Matt Long’s Competition Entry

A late comer to CG, Matt is currently a part-time lecturer and student mentor in Wales. “I’ve tried my hand at almost everything to do with CG and design, from graphic design to website building to 3D design. My passion is for character design, and my dream would be to work in the industry. Winning the Computer Arts Project competition and getting to go on an Escape Studios course can only help fulfil that goal.”

Thaddeus Maharaj and Habib Niazi were runners up in the competition. Thaddeus came second with a well executed idea that has potential but the judges felt needed refining. Habib was third with an entry that impressed with the basis anatomy, although some areas needed further development. Each received an online Maya Core course.

Matt’s work can be viewed on his blog, Sinzalot.

Thaddeus Maharaj’s Competition Entry

Habib Niazi’s Competition Entry

Our September Free video tutorial is now available! This month, we are giving away an hour long tutorial from our Online Animation Course.

The tutorial introduces you to the tools that big animation studios like Pixar use to bring objects and characters to life. It  is aimed at giving you a basic grounding in key framing, animation curves, blendshapes and a whole host of other industry standard tools.

Just click here to access this free animation tutorial.

An article appeared in last weekend’s Sunday Times discussing the fact that two of Britain’s former polytechnics have outperformed Oxford and Cambridge by getting more of their graduates into work than any other university. For years vocational courses, typically taught at newer institutes, have been stigmatised for their lack of academic prowess. However, employers in some industries, such as the computer graphics industry, prefer to hire candidates with vocational qualifications, so could this mean opinions are about to change? Universities are starting to understand that certain courses, which can be tailored to specific careers, will produce graduates with more relevant skills than those covering a broad range of theoretical topics, leaving students in a better position to find work after they graduate.

We’ve long appreciated the importance of aligning a course’s curriculum with the needs of the industry and it’s encouraging to see others recognising the value of vocational courses. By providing students with the necessary tools and expertise to succeed in their chosen field throughout the course, they will be more employable and will have a head start on the career ladder. Whilst some universities are embracing the advantages of vocational training, more funding is needed to provide tutors with the resources to give their students a more industry focused education.

Top college places students on the path to employment with Escape Studios

Uxbridge College has become the first further education institute in the country to invest in Escape Studios’ Maya courseware. The college, a Beacon establishment and one of the top ten performing colleges in London, is incorporating units of the Escape course into its own teaching, ensuring its students benefit from the expertise of Escape’s world class tutors.

Whilst other further and higher education institutes have paid for their students to access Escape’s online courses in their spare time, Uxbridge College is the first in the UK to structure the teaching of over a third of its weekly contact time around Escape’s courseware. Awarded an ‘Outstanding’ report by Ofsted, the college has a reputation for offering the best teaching methods and facilities possible to its students, and this new partnership supports Uxbridge College’s position as a centre of excellence.

Zulfiqar Choudhry, course developer at Uxbridge College said “We’re always looking to ensure our students are receiving the most innovative, high quality education and training. Partnering with Escape Studios allows us to tailor our courses to maximise the opportunities available to graduating students and means that our courses are always up to date. Uxbridge College is working to close the gap between vocational training and the academic education system, and our partnership with Escape Studios is a fundamental step towards achieving this.”

Demonstrating Uxbridge College’s approach to securing the best teaching methods, Zulfiqar has already completed an Escape course in Maya, and plans to enrol in the VFX course when it begins in November. “Computer graphics isn’t like teaching English, or Maths, where the basic components are the same whether you’re learning it now or ten years ago. What I learnt as a student and what I’m teaching now are worlds apart, and to maintain our high education standards we need to stay at the forefront of what the industry needs. We would be doing our students a disservice if we didn’t strive to be as close to cutting edge as possible.”

Mark Cass, Commercial Director at Escape Studios said “One of the key issues with vocational education is relevance and usability. Uxbridge College is completely committed to providing its students with the right skill set to enter their chosen industry, not just an education. That’s what makes this partnership so attractive to both Escape Studios and Uxbridge College, that our two philosophies are so closely aligned when it comes to the goal of these courses. The end result is not graduation, or the completion of a module, it’s when students take their skills and use them to secure future employment.”

As a Beacon college, Uxbridge College not only educates its own students, but also works with other colleges and organisations to share its expertise. Beacon status is awarded by the Government’s Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS).

Students on the BTEC National Diploma in Games Development and Higher National Diploma (HND) in Interactive Media will all be taught modules incorporating the Maya core bundle, whilst the latter course will also have the VFX bundle taught in its second year.