Escape Plan: Our Teaching Methodology

I have recently been talking to many industry people here in L.A., explaining what our plans are and where we’ve come from. This has got me thinking about why we teach the way we do, what advantages it offers and how it fits within a learning styles framework.

Everyone learns in a different way and over the years, I have understood more deeply what I believe to be the best approach learning. There are four styles of learning: visual, aural, read/write and kinesthetic. Most people have a multi modal approach, which means they use a bit of each style in differing percentages. I for one favour kinesthetic, visual and aural over read/write, which means I need to physically get involved with what I’m learning, be shown stuff and speak to people to truly understand something.

I founded the business based on my own experience of leaving Art School with lots of enthusiasm but no practical skills. When I realised that 3D and VFX was where I wanted to be, the only opportunity available was to start as a runner (British term for gopher). At the time, unless you had completed a very limited number of specialist degree courses, no one was willing to take a chance. I managed to work my way into a small 3D animation business and started the onerous task of learning complicated software from the manuals with no one to point me in the right direction.

For me, this made learning very difficult and so once I had the basics I threw myself into delivering a commercial project where the problems, deadlines and clients were very real. Needless to say that after a few very late nights and lots of trial and error, I pulled it off and completed the ident which the client loved.

As my career progressed I had more interaction with very experienced artists and supervisors who took the time to walk me through more complicated techniques and were on hand if I ran in to trouble or got stuck with something. This process really sped up my learning and allowed me to progress much faster.

So where is this all going, I hear you ask? Well it distills down into a very simple formula, as all the best things in life do. We have taken the learning process that everyone goes through when they go in to production and built a rigorous curriculum around it. We’ve taken into account that people learn in different ways and have created materials (video tutorials, Q&A) to support learning, a network to interact with either physically or online (galleries, feedback, comments) and all of our tutors are industry pros, so you get the full attention of someone who’s 'been there and done that', to speed your learning along.

What this means, in my humble opinion, is that we have created a world leading learning environment for people who want to get on in the 3D and VFX industry, who have tonnes of enthusiasm, but don’t have the production skills. Whatever your learning style, there is a support structure to enable you to get the best out of our courses.

I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve created over the last ten years and I only wish something like Escape had existed when I was starting out.