Congratulations to all the finalists of our CG Whiz competition. We had a great time at the Reveal Event last night, meeting the future stars of the CG industry. As we’ve said before, we were overwhelmed by the sheer number and quality of the entries we’ve received.
It’s clear that there’s a lot of talent out there, but there could only be one winner – Adam Droy (spikeycactus)!
Adam excelled across the board. His showreel highlighted his creative flair whilst demonstrating a sound understanding of the techniques involved. We’re very much looking forward to Adam studying with us at Escape next year, and wish him the best of luck during his work placement at The Mill.
The two runners up should also be commended, having fought off stiff competition from over 130 entrants.
Ronan McMeel’s (MrMeel) showreel earned him the runners up position, impressing the judges with his creativity and incorporating a storyline throughout his work.
Marco Baratto (smileandwave1987) also wowed the judges with a technically sound showreel – inspired by the “HP Hand” commercial.
Ronan and Marco – we hope you enjoy Escape Studios’ online courses and exclusive tour of The Mill.
For those of you that missed out this year, or didn’t get around to entering, don’t forget to keep your eyes peeled for information on next year’s competition. You’ll hear about it here first.
The deadline has passed, and we’re now reviewing all 136 entries we received. We’ve been amazed by both the number and quality of the submission, so well done to all who’ve entered.
Anyone who would like feedback should get in touch, letting us know the name of their entry and an email address. We’ll be announcing the winners soon, so keep an eye out.
All the talk of stop motion animation last week got me thinking, so I went in search of some great examples of this type of work.
This Western Spaghetti viral is awesome.
It’s clever and creative – making bubble wrap look like boiling water and turning a ball of string into cheese is truly inspired.
This is the work of Adam Pesapane, a 35 year old digital artist based in New York City who goes by the nickname PES. If you’d like to see more of his creations take a look at his YouTube channel.
Thanks to SickDamage.com for bringing this to my attention. Take a look at their site for more cool videos, including a second video by PES called Human Skateboard – once again, the piece of work is genius.
If anyone has seen any other great examples for us to feature then please let us know.
We’re almost at the end! The CG Whiz competition ends at midnight tonight, so if you’re going to enter act now. We’ve had a tremendous response so far, with over 125 entries posted here.
To enter, all you need to do is post your portfolio as a response to our video. As a reminder, the winner of CG Whiz will get a place on one of Escape’s world class 3D training courses, plus a much-coveted work placement at Oscar-winning visual effects company The Mill. There are also two 12 month online Maya courses and a behind-the-scenes tour of The Mill on offer for the runners up, plus subscriptions to leading industry magazines 3D Artist and Shots.
What are you waiting for? Get your entries in now! We won’t count any entries posted after 00:00 31st October, so don’t waste any more time.
There’s just two days until the end of the CG Whiz competition, so if you’re going to enter you’d better post your videos soon! We’ve had 96 entries so far, will yours be joining them? Check out a couple of the things we’ve been getting:
Remember, the deadline is Friday 30th October, and to enter you need to post your entry to this video. Don’t leave it until the last minute, get posting now!
Now this is what we like to see – children getting involved in animation from a young age.
This week we heard that Tate is teaming up with Aardman Animations, the team behind Wallace and Gromit, to create a new film. And, they want children to help them brainstorm. Check out the video on our YouTube channel.
The Tate Movie Project’s aim is to introduce children to key aspects of film-making while teaching them some basic animation skills. I have to agree with a blog post I read on Boxwish – the thought of kids creating film is really original and should generate some amusing sound effects.
The entertainment factor is just one part of it. I think it’s a great opportunity to give young people a taste of this exciting industry. Who knows? We might see the children here at Escape in years to come.
The news got us thinking about other children’s movie projects out there which will spark interest at an early age – let us know if there are any in your area. Also, what other methods are out there to get kids interested in animation from an early age?
There’s just a week to go until the end of the CG Whiz competition. We’ve had 74 entries so far – is yours one of them?
Here’s a couple to give you an idea of what other people are doing:
Inspired to enter? Enter via YouTube, by posting a video response to this clip. The competition closes on 30th October 2009 and the winner will be announced in mid November. Good luck!
Our CG Whiz competition has got off to a fantastic start – we’ve already had an impressive 27 entries but there’s still time to submit your best work.
Remember, for the chance to win a place on one of our fantastic Visual Effects training courses, plus a work placement with The Mill, all you need to do is post your animation or graphic illustration portfolio as a video response to our YouTube video below by the 30th October 2009. That’s it!
Check out the entries we’ve received so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HN3cr8TGReI
There’s some awesome CG talent out there, and some of these entries look like the work of professional CG artists – but please keep in mind that we can’t accept entries from the pros, we want to give others a leg-up into the world of films and visual effects.
What’s your favourite entry so far? As always we’d love to hear your feedback – either share it here on our blog or on our YouTube channel.
For full details, see the competition homepage at: www.escapestudios.com/CGWhiz
