Escape Studios in Shepherd's Bush, where I used to teach character animation, is hosting Britain's first VFX festival, from October 10-13th. Wired magazine recently ran an interesting piece about a panel discussion on September 27th which preceded the festival, and where the industry's Great and the Good gathered to discuss how best to make London as competitive as possible for international vfx work. As Pat Joseph of The Mill put it: "The future is fantastic, but we have to manage expectations. There is a talent shortage. We are arguably the best in the world at visual effects, but we have to be careful."
Here at Animation Apprentice we could not agree more. The talent shortage in London is one of the main reasons why work often goes overseas. That's why we do our best to offer animation training which is specifically geared towards the needs of the animation and VFX industry. We want our animators to emerge from our course with cutting edge skills, so that they can tackle a wide range of character and creature work, and pursue successful careers in a fast-changing technology-driven business.
— Alex