VFX Festival Starts 21 February 2023

2023 VFX Festival is Coming Soon

The VFX Festival is back in London from 21-23 February 2023. 

The 2023 VFX Festival returns to Escape Studios in Central London and, like last year,  will run as a hybrid event, both online and also in person. The event runs from 21-23 February. 

The 2023 VFX Festival will be hosted at Escape Studios at their midTown Campus at 190 High Holborn, and also online. To book your tickets, follow this link to thevfxfestival.com.

VFX Festival in London 9-10 March 2022

VFX Festival 2022

Escape Studios' VFX Festival is back in March 2022, this year taking place as a hybrid event, both online and also in person.

Escape Studios will host the event at their midTown Campus at 190 High Holborn, also streaming the events for a live online audience.

To book your tickets, follow this link to thevfxfestival.com.

VFX Festival Online Starts Tomorrow

The VFX Festival is back. Hosted by Escape Studios, the VFX festival is a celebration of visual effects, animation, games and motion graphics.

For the last seven years the festival has been hosted in London, most recently at the South Bank Centre, but now, for the first time, the VFX festival is going virtual, with online talks and panel discussions.

This week there are two free events, part of the Virtual Series for Schools and Colleges. First up is We Have Lift-Off!: Your first steps to a career in VFX, Animation and Games, which takes place on Tuesday, 19th May at 2pm.  To sign up for the event, follow this link.

VFX Festival 2020 Lineup

One of the many benefits for our undergraduate animation students at Bucks is our proximity to London, and the many animation events which take place in the capital.

The annual VFX festival, hosted by Escape Studios, is returning from 16-18 March.  As in previous years, they have excellent speakers coming to talk about the latest developments in Animation, Games and VFX.

The VFX Festival is Back: 16-18 March 2020

The VFX Festival is back. The annual festival hosted by Escape Studios is returning to London from 16-18 March 2020.  As in previous years, the festival hosts industry speakers to come and talk about the latest developments in Animation, Games and VFX.  In 2020, the festival will focus on discovering and developing new and emerging talent.  Two parts of The VFX Festival 2020 - EDU and Emerging Talent - will take place on 16 - 18 March at the Southbank Centre - the UK’s largest arts centre on the South Bank of the Thames.

The Making of Detective Pikachu

Detective Pikachu

At last week's VFX festival in London, Framestore's Jonathan Fawkner gave a talk on the Making of Detective Pikachu, a movie which was filmed in London and which used the talents of two of the UK's top VFX houses, Framestore and MPC.

It's the kind of talk that we encourage all our students to attend, because of the insights to be gained from understanding the challenges of the animation pipeline within a big VFX project.

One of the big challenges on the film was the take the original Pokemon 2D artwork, and create characters which could be fitted into a photoreal VFX environment.

ILM Explains How to Animate Dinosaurs

Fallen Kingdom

One of the highlights of today's VFX Festival at Escape Studios in London was the presentation by Jance Rubinchik, animation supervisor at ILM, on the making of Jurassic World, and Fallen Kingdom.

Animating animals and creatures is something that ILM has pioneered since the first Jurassic Park movie. Each new Jurassic film has sought to raise the bar for animal and creature work.

Animators who do this kind of work have to become experts in animal and creature locomotion, understanding how the animals would have moved, in order to create a believable performance.

VFX Festival in London June 5-6

The VFX, Games and Animation Festival 2019 is back again, hosted at 190 High Holborn WC1 in central London, by Escape Studios.

This year the VFX festival has been split into three separate but overlapping events. All of the events are well worth attending, and we strongly recommend that any of our students in the London area attend.

VFX Festival Lineup 2019

The Escape Studios' 2019 VFX Festival kicks off shortly at London's South Bank Centre, on February 6th, with many industry speakers coming to talk about the latest developments in Animation, Games and VFX.

This year participants include Framestore, MPC Film, Jellyfish Pictures, Blue Zoo, AXIS animation The Third Floor and Creative Assembly, all coming to talk about their latest work.

VFX Festival is Back February 6-7

Escape Studio's 2019 VFX Festival is just around the corner.  Taking place at London's South Bank Centre from 6-7 February, the VFX Festival is a great place to find out about the latest developments in Animation, Games and VFX.

This year the VFX Festival kicks off with the "Emerging Talent" event, aimed at students and recent graduates, which runs for two days, from February 6th to 7th.

VFX Recruiters at the VFX festival

MPC's Sara-Laila Francis

The London VFX Festival kicked off at Rich Mix in Shoreditch yesterday. This is London's biggest animation, games and VFX event, and we strongly recommend all our students attend.

For many of our students, the biggest advantage of being there may not be the talks and lectures (though these are excellent), but the opportunity to meet some of London's biggest talent recruiters.

VFX Festival in London Next Week

Next week in London Escape Studios are hosting their annual VFX festival, the capital's most important event for animation, games and VFX.

As ever, they have a great line-up of speakers, and there are still a few tickets left.

We recommend that all our students and Escapees attend the VFX Festival; it's a great way to find out the latest news in our industry. Best of all, it's a chance to meet in person some of the recruiters from the big London animation and VFX houses.

2018 VFX Festival Lineup

Escape Studios' annual VFX Festival takes place in February 2018.  As in previous years, Escape has got some great speakers coming to talk about the latest developments in Animation, Games and VFX.

Here at Bucks we strongly recommend our students attend events like this one. It's a great way to find out what's going on in our industry and, best of all, to meet the recruiters from London's leading animation and VFX houses. Below are some of the VFX, games and animation companies who will be speaking in February.

Inside The Jungle Book with MPC

The Jungle Book was one of the most impressive films of 2016, and its secrets were recently revealed at the Escape Studios VFX Festival, with MPC's Ben Jones (CG Supervisor) explaining how the London VFX house brought the characters and creatures of this classic tale to life, re-imagining one of the best-loved of the Walt Disney Studio's animated films.

So, how did MPC create this most extraordinarily ambitious movie?

Blue Zoo Animation Masterclass

At the recent VFX Festival at Rich Mix in London, Blue Zoo's Tom Box introduced one of their animation directors to give a Masterclass in Cartoony Animation. Blue Zoo does all kinds of different styles of animation, trying "not to get known for just one style", but much of their work is done for TV format, where schedules are punishing and animators have to work fast.

Blue Zoo have to be creative, efficient, and find ways to stay competitive - even in a high-cost city like London, where rents and wages are much higher than overseas.

They also encourage their staff to get involved creatively, developing in-house projects which can be brought to the screen, and also doing short films - BZ Shorts - within the studio, developing new styles of animation and experimenting with new ways of doing things.

So what are Blue Zoo's secrets for a fast, efficient animation workflow?