Helen Hunt ain’t got nothin’ on me…

After a busy day on reception yesterday with the Academy Tour I was certainly looking forward to a more tranquil start to my morning…

This morning, Escape Relationship Manager Anita Gribble and Head of 2D Davi Stein, took students on a trip to the heart of the West End – to see the newly opened Double Negative facility in Great Portland Street, which opened just 3 months ago! As is always the case with our studio visits, everyone set off early with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and a hunger for adventure.

So, the time is nearly upon us to open our doors to all you budding VFX artist wannabes to show you what we’re made of!

Last week we released the dates for upcoming taster courses in Compositing. Due to popular demand we’ve been encouraged to add some additional dates for March.

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.

Fancy knowing more about compositing? Do you think you might just be a natural compositor? If you'd like to find out more then why not come along to one of our compositing taster days?

Compositing is a crucial part of the Visual Effects pipeline. It's the bit where everything comes together. pipeline, the bit where it all comes together. As a Compositor, you’re the person who has to make sure the shot meets the artistic brief from the
director. You’re the one who’s finessing that creative vision. That final, all important creative milestone – that’s you. The Compositor. The person who naturally looks for the finer detail, who enjoys checking that the colour is ‘just right’, the person who questions whether that ‘hair’ looks part of the scene or not and if not, why not? You’re the person who helps deceive the eye, so the viewer asks, where there any Visual Effects at all?

Combining lots of different elements to make us believe we’re looking at a single scene is no mean feat and it takes highly dedicated individuals to make it happen. Without Compositors we’d never be looking at those gorgeous finished shots we’re so used to seeing. Instead, we’d be looking at the gaudy wires that support actors during actions sequences and shots lacking in any kind of atmosphere or composition. This is the department where the real magic happens through a variety of processes.

So fancy a day trying this out? seeing if it's for you? Places are limited so make sure you register your details now.

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'.

Recruiters in any company will be sent hundreds of applications on a weekly basis, and when it comes to getting your application noticed, just try putting yourself in their shoes for a moment. For example, their first job is to sort through the good from the bad. Your challenge, should you choose to accept it, is to impress at a glance.

VFX fans and readers of WIRED magazine will have noticed a special feature in this month’s edition, as Soho’s VFX teams are made into super heroes by, well, themselves.