We just caught up with Stu Schwartz—last year’s CG Whiz winner.  Here’s what he had to say about the experience and knowledge he’s gained and, of course, a few tips for this year’s submissions:

I learned a lot this last summer at Escape Studios as a student and intern but one of the most important things I want to make sure students and aspiring artists know is that I found out how important networking can be.  The more you get out there and meet people, the more opportunities will present themselves.  Escape is located right near the heart of countless studios and is always putting on events and connecting with other studios and industry professionals.  It's been a great environment for meeting other artists and potential employers.  So keep that in mind as you move forward in your careers.

Following on from last week's announcement about our Weekly Round-Up of news, here are the stories that I have picked up over the past week. If you have suggestions for stories I missed, just drop me a line or post a comment.

Most of you who keep up with industry news will know that compositing skills - in particular NUKE skills - are in very high demand at the moment. There are more jobs out there than candidates, and we have never had so many compositing students studying with us.

In a fast paced industry, where new technologies are being introduced more frequently, it can be difficult to stay on top of which products successfully aid efficiency and quality in our work. It’s great to know that some companies take an opportunity to show off their products and how they are being utilised in the industry. Last Thursday I made a special effort to attend an event for NUKE and MARI software. The torrential down pour that evening made venturing out difficult, so I was glad to see so many people were able to attend. Armed with umbrellas and rain coats well over one hundred of us braved the weather to enjoy an evening with NUKE and MARI, an event hosted by Escape Studios in collaboration with The Foundry and HP.

Changing career is never easy. It takes lots of thought, and above all courage and commitment. But that's exactly what escapee Richard Sowerby did. He sudied multimedia at Cheltenham University and forged a very successful career as a systems/graphics analyst. It took him 7 years to pluck the courage to follow his dream of working in the VFX industry and start looking for courses in compositing. And boy, did his determination pay off!

There are very few places left on our 12-week Compositing Course starting on the 15th of August - which is why we will soon be announcing some new 2012 dates.

Jon Wadelton at The Foundry was kind enough to keep giving us more information about NUKE 6.3.  You can read what he had to say about the future of NUKE when he spoke to me last week.

Our mentored program for our classroom students is moving on a pace, and I am pleased to report that another one of our compositing classes is being mentored by Ben Owen at MPC.

The Foundry just released NUKE 6.3 and there’s a lot of new stuff in the product. They’ve taken product development in a direction that allows users in all VFX industries to partake in the benefits of the product. NUKE is no longer just built for artists in the film industry, it is built to create highly visual commercials with the functionality that it now has.

Chris Mulcaster is a great example of someone who got to where he wanted to be through hard work and determination. Chris studied our VFX Production course and it gave him all of the skills he needed to secure a job in the VFX Industry. But he didn't just study the course, he poured his heart and soul into it. This is the sort of dedication which pushes you to achieve great things and which sets you apart in a very competitive industry.