Welcome to the Escape Studios 4 Week Unreal Bootcamp for VFX professionals

In the midst of the tragedy and disruption of COVID we are helping the UK get tooled up ready for a new chapter in VFX production and real-time CG technology.

An amazing list of tutors, VFX professionals and Unreal experts from different disciplines have given their time to collaborate on this course and offer it for free.

Why now?

Normally, a 4 week program would be impractical from a training perspective. Escape Studios’ recent designation as an Unreal Authorised Training Centre, with generous support from Epic, combined with the VFX industry wish to collectively support its furloughed and regretted redundant community has created a window of opportunity for upskilling and ensuring the UK is competitive and ready to grow when the time arises.

All of the companies involved pitched in their time and effort to make this possible, at no cost to the trainees.

So what is the 4 week Bootcamp?

It’s a practical 5 day week programme (10am-4.30pm BST) that will take you through working together to re-imagine an iconic VFX shot. We’ve chosen the Children of Men (Cuarón 2006) opening street explosion as our subject. The content lends itself well to Environment, Layout, Camera, Lighting challenges, not to mention vehicles, crowds & FX. It's also the sort of shot that simply wouldn't be possible to shoot right now even if you had the budget.

How might we visualise, plan, layout and create this today with realtime tools? How would we take this shot, which features a range of tricky challenges for VFX departments and take it all the way from blocking to finished environment?

By taking a very practical and challenging shot and using tools like Houdini and Unreal we will take you step by step in your teams through the four weekly themes of:

Week 1: Pre-Production: towards a completed blocked out shot

Week 2: Scene (Environment and Lighting): getting a pre-vis quality shot

Week 3: Houdini and FX: creating the real-time quality shot

Week 4: Finalising and Finishing: making the finished shot

The Daily Schedule

The bootcamp day is divided into morning tuition and afternoon practice (although a few classes will be delivered in the afternoon slot by international guest tutors)

Every weekday you will log in from 10am to 1pm to our Zoom platform to learn from the tutor and build your skills incrementally via tasks and exercises. You’ll also sometimes meet artists using UE4 and see their presentations. Be aware because some speakers are in different timezones, some presentations may take place in the afternoon.

Secondly, be aware as everyone is giving there time freely to this, some times and presenters may change. We will endeavour to confirm the line up and time via email the weekend beforehand.

You’ll be placed in a team with other VFX participants and the afternoon will be your collective time to self organise and collaborate on your version of the shot. We’ll supply a Discord channel and a GDrive for your group, but you’ll decide how you will work together and choose other ways to communicate as you think useful. Please note: teams are chosen to have a variety of skills and experiences, and we can’t offer choices or switching as this will cause too much administrative overhead.

Here’s an at a glance picture of the timetable as it currently stands, which is available from here. Remember times may change so check your emails before each week

What support do attendees have?

Firstly your team will have around 12 members, chosen for their different skillsets, and we want you to help each other- your collective experience will mean you can be quasi-autonomous. By working in teams, we can leverage the variety of skills and experiences, creating an environment in line with what they normally experience at work

However you will be introduced to a range of support available throughout:

Tutors can respond and advise during ‘work hours’, and in the afternoon during your practice (contacts available on the day)

Escape Studio Assistants Amanda and Magda will be online to triage low level issues such as access to files, IT issues, outlining tasks, sending your query to amanda.cheung@pearsoncollegelondon.ac.uk or Magda magdalena.kantor@pearsoncollegelondon.ac.uk

For queries about the course structure and guests contact mark.spevick@escapestudios.com

For problems with Zoom please contact Jasmine Beynon Maltby jasmine.beynonmaltby@pearson.com

There will be an FAQs available on the Discord server

What we need from you?

As far as we know this is the first Unreal training course specifically oriented at VFX so part of the programme is getting input and feedback from experienced attendees like you.

It’s a free course so all we need is your patience, resilience and your time! A Bootcamp of this scope hasn’t been tried before. Technology isn’t infallible, and such a multi-agency endeavour is a first, so there will be glitches and curveballs. However, this is an opportunity to seed a big change in the industry and hopefully your prospects too. We hope you’ll be stimulated and gain a lot from our tutors, guests, and each other. Please be supportive of each other, be punctual and enjoy yourselves! Chances are you’ll meet some old friends and make lots of new ones too.

Check your emails for further communication. Thanks!

If you need to communicate with us about attendance or other issues UnrealforVFX@pearsoncollegelondon.com