Last Friday we had another of our open days for potential applicants to our VFX, animation and game degree programmes. It was a busy day, and this time we had our Oculus Rift and a workstation set up so people could try that out and play with some of the software they’ll be using if they come on our programmes.

It’s always good to speak to people who are starting out on the road to a career in the creative industries, and the enthusiasm and depth to which they’ve started developing their skills already is amazing. I wish I’d been that focussed at that age!

Having our new head of animation along, Alex Williams, was great too, especially for those specifically interested in the animation degree. I become a proper fan-boy when he says things like “when I worked on the Lion King..”, working alongside Alex and the rest of the tutors at Escape Studios is a real treat and they bring so much to the courses. I wonder if I should get him to autograph my DVD of Iron Giant (or even better the new Blu Ray when it arrives, it’s one of my fave films), or would that be unprofessional!?

Follow Alex’s blog for interesting tips, especially what to do for your portfolio. And if the games are more your thing, follow our games blog from Simon Fenton.

If you couldn’t make it along to the open day, there’s details of future ones on the website, so come along and find out more, including details of our ‘Experience Day’ which gives a real flavour of how we work with students. Whatever you decide, talking about the games, animation and VFX with like-minded people is always fun.