“Pitch Bibles” from Our Undergraduate VFX Students

Our First Year undergraduate VFX students recently concluded the Creative Foundations Craft Module (CR4002), a foundation course in creativity and creative thinking, taken by all our first year students, whether they are studying VFX, Games, or Animation. Part of CR4002 is the mini-module “Movement & Narrative”, a two-week exploration of creativity, storytelling, and design, taught by industry veteran Kevin Richards. At the end of Movement & Narrative our students pitch an idea for an original TV or web series, including an “Animation Bible“. Scroll down to see some examples of our students’ best work.

“Animan” by Eric Dulieu

First Year of Undergraduate Study at Escape Studios In their First Year of Studies, all our undergraduate students study a broad art and design curriculum, enabling them to understand the whole animation, games and VFX pipeline before committing to a single specialism in their Second Year of Studies.

CR4002 – Creative Foundations Craft (30 Credits) CR4002 Creative Foundations is a foundation course in creativity and creative thinking. The module is taught in the first term between September until Christmas. Movement and Narrative

Movement & Narrative is a two week mini-module exploring the basics of creativity, storytelling, design and acting.

Original Series Pitch

In Movement & Narrative, students have two weeks to tackle creativity, story, storyboarding, acting and design. At the end of the class, students pitch an original idea for an animated TV or web series. Students are encouraged to explore creative ideas and creative thinking. What makes an original concept for an animation series?

Kevin Richards teaches Movement & Narrative

Tutor – Kevin Richards This year the tutor for both modules, CR4002 and PR4001, is veteran animator and storyboard artist Kevin Richards. Movement & Narrative Outline Concepts and Creativity These creative workshops include simple in-class exercises about creative thinking, getting students used to the idea that there are no “right answers” in this class.

Story Fundamentals What are the basic rules of storytelling? What makes a good story? What makes characters memorable? Students do plenty of quick in-class exercises to think about story and character. Storyboarding

“Fragments of The Mind” by Demi Martens

Students are introduced to the art and craft of storyboarding, learning the basics of narrative structure. This also includes exploration of character expressions, body poses & silhouettes, and the basics of film editing and visual narrative. Animation Thumbnails Closely related to storyboarding, animation thumbnail sketches help animators to plan and structure their work. Design & Drawing

Students explore the fundamentals of design, including the basics of character design, visual development, and shape theory. The class builds up to a final brief – Design and pitch of a TV series. Final Project

“The Patchwork Dinosaur” by Nessie Nascimento

The final project includes a classroom pitch, complete with supporting material such as artwork (an animation “bible”), character design, and a pitch of the underlying premise. The Art of the Pitch As with all good pitches, the idea is to throw out a hook and get your audience interested in the idea. If your audience likes it, they will want to know more, and – who knows? – they might even invest their time, money or effort in your project. Art & Technology At Escape Studios our students don’t just learn technical skills, they also learn to create their own characters and ideas.

Even in their second year, our students are already collaborating together and working on award-winning films such as Planet Mars and Golden Acorn.

PR4001 – Creative Foundations Project (2 week group project) (30 Credits)

“Bubbles or Bliss” by Anya Graham

The next module students tackle is: PR4001 Creative Foundations – Project. In this module, students take the skills they have learned in Creative Foundations – Craft, and complete a team project. In the case of our undergraduate animators, their task is to create an animatic for a proposed animated TV series. Working in Teams For many of our students, this will be their first experience of a team project, working together in groups – just like in industry. You can see an example below, created by Paloma Zhu, Morgan Mda, Konrad Peczkowicz and Callum Wylie. Alpha Lighthouse at Whale’s End

“Alpha Lighthouse at Whale’s End” Credits: Paloma Zhu: Director, story, concept art. Morgan Mda: Storyboards and concept art. Konrad Peczkowicz: Editor, sound design. Callum Wylie: Producer, post-production. Toby Haslam created this teaser/trailer below for his original series concept “Giles and Rupert’s Prehistoric Predicament“.

Giles and Rupert’s Prehistoric Predicament