Summer Apprenticeship Is Taking Shape

Over the past 4 weeks, Escape Studios’ summer apprentices have been collaborating together - brainstorming, planning, developing pre-visualization work and modeling.

During the first week, the group gathered videos, images and possible CG and live action ideas.  They discussed and identified what was most important and who knew how to do what: animate, model, texture, light, composite, etc. After much brainstorming and discussion, the project idea was soon born.   

Week two was focused on planning out shots, looking at movie and tv references of potential shot ideas, and working out what everyone wanted to focus on. Led by Tad, the apprentices are learning a lot about cameras, camera moves, and aspect ratios.

In the third week, the apprentices did some more pre-visualization work, shot location scouting and blocking out the scene in Maya. Tad ended the week with a presentation on setting up Maya scenes with reference imagery for complex modeling such as a car.  

This past week, all of the apprentices have divided and conquered, working on modeling a 1965 Shelby GT 350, the Dodge Charger from The Dukes of Hazard (The General Lee) and various other objects for their scene.  

At the end of the summer, these apprentices will have 30 seconds of video they designed and produced showing toy cars and miniature objects moving in a realistic way. Each apprentice is going to be able to explore different aspects of the project including tracking live footage, modeling, texturing, animating, lighting, rendering, and compositing. In the next phase of the summer program, we will hear from our apprentices to get their feedback and explanation to where they are with their project. 

Stay tuned for our next update.