This is my report from a one-day introductory course at Escape Studios, a "hub for 3D animation and visual effects expertise" in Shepherd's Bush, London.
Since I'm a largely self-taught artist and an illustrator with a strong leaning towards software geekdom, the concept of a Learning Day at Escape studios did make me salivate.
I've been particularly fascinated by the awe-inspiring results that modern 3D modelling and visual effects can achieve - and have often wondered what goes into it. Having had a small glimpse into the world when I got to "peek under the bonnet" of the computer games industry a few years ago, my curiosity has been steadily increasing with time. I decided to give the Learning Day a go, even if I'd never sign up for another course again. And should I wish to, the small fee from the Learning Day is redeemable against any further courses.
Overall, it was a fun experience, if totally exhausting. I can't remember the last time I felt so mentally wiped out. And really, that was a bit unexpected after only a deceptively simple set of exercises. If you're there to learn, there is definitely a lot to take in.
The software packages we used at Escape were Shake and Maya. I felt immediately at home with Shake; sure, it wasn't simple, but at the same time it felt really intuitive and the concepts were fairly familiar.
Shake 4 is the only compositing software with a complete toolset for both single artists and visual effects facilities. With 3D multi-plane compositing, 32-bit Keylight and Primatte keying, cutting edge Optical Flow image processing, Final Cut Pro 5 integration and an open, extensible scripting language, Shake 4 delivers all the tools required for sophisticated film and television visual effects.
I've done enough Photoshop work and I "get" certain things more easily than others, so the Shake part of the day was definitely enjoyable on that level. In fact, I wished we could have done more with it. When I begun to understand the power of this package, it was time to stop. It definitely left me wanting to explore it further.
Not so much with Maya. I've had the Maya personal learning edition installed for a while, but unlike Photoshop, which I was able to just play around with in the beginning, until I started learning how to use it properly... well, my experience with Maya was definitely not the same! When I'd looked around it before, I just felt overwhelmed. It didn't seem to have a natural way to learn by trial and error because even to do the simplest thing, you'd have to know some of the basics about the tools, the interface and about 3D modelling in general. So you have to have an understanding of at least some of it to even get started.
Article comments
1 - James
I've just finished the the foundation course at Escape it was amazing! Really good fun but a lot of hard work! I want to do the 2d compositing course next.
2 - Nukapai
Well done! The studios certainly seemed to be made up of people who knew their stuff and have a very active hand in the industry, so you're in good hands and have good prospects. (I only wish I could split myself into many copies and go off to explore all the things I'd like to learn about. But realistically, I know my adventures in 3D will most probably never get off the ground).