Technology That Empowers The Future Of Creative Artists

Overview

• Customer: Escape Studios
• Location: London, United Kingdom
• Head of Industry Training | Mark Spevick
• Head of Creative Technology | Michael Davies
• Programme Lead for MA Games | Christian Avigni
• Watch the video here
• Download the case study here

Escape Studios has been supplying the creative industries with talent across animation, games, and visual effects since 2002. Originally located in Shepherd’s Bush, its mission is to fill the gap in industry training. This is because back when it was established, there were no university courses that provided artists directly with the skills needed for their careers. As a Rookies and Houdini certified school, Escape Studios shapes raw talent into the next generation of creative professionals that the industry needs. With courses designed and delivered by industry experts, Escape Studios teaches only relevant techniques, skills, and software to produce studio-ready artists. Over 4,000 alumni later, Escape Studios has formed a strong network of passionate creative artists that have been part of many award-winning productions such as Stranger Things, Dune, No Time to Die, Star Wars and 1917.

THE CHALLENGE

As a result of technological innovation and the rising consumption of digital entertainment, the visual effects (VFX) industry has become one of the fastest-growing technology sectors in the world. Machine learning, artificial intelligence, and increasing R&D are expected to drive its market even further forward in the future. Consequently, there remains a constant high demand for industry professionals. To fill the demand for VFX artists, universities need to stay agile and offer courses that reflect the needs of the industry.

THE SOLUTION

Fast game simulations

Speed is important when working inside game engines. Escape Studios has been using the Scan 3XS workstation powered by an ASUS ProArt Z790 Motherboard together with a RTX 4090 GPU. This runs fluid simulation in 120 frames per second easily in Unreal Engine, which has made not only working but also teaching enjoyable. Programme Lead for MA courses, Christian Avigni, mentions how he cannot sit around and wait for the computer to unfreeze during his simulations, so he needs a workstation that keeps up with the movement of his mouse.

Christian uses the workstation together with the ASUS ProArt Display PA32UCR-K. Its color accuracy of Delta E value of less than 1 and 4K resolution assures him that what he is seeing in the monitor is what he should be seeing. Together the workstation and monitor provide him the confidence to work efficiently from the beginning of the pipeline.

Working with motion

Escape Studios uses the ASUS ProArt Display PA32UCG-K to save time when it comes to production. This 4K monitor has its peak brightness up to 1600nits. Michael Davies, the Head of Creative Technology, uses the monitor to review students’ work. Since he can see the full high dynamic range of colors, he is always able to give more meaningful feedback to his students.

Working with fast animations and VFX, the 120Hz refresh rate means everyone can see the kind of motion very clearly and smoothly. Michael mentions that one of the things that they do a lot in animations is getting characters and other animations to blend between one another.

“All of these different transitions, we actually really need to be able to see this character almost frame by frame. That's really, really difficult if you don't have a monitor that is actually showing you what you should be seeing,” he says.

THE OUTCOME

After using the ASUS ProArt monitors and workstation together, Escape Studios has noticed a difference in its workflows. More details, faster turnarounds and improved feedback means the teachers can focus more on the creative process and keep on producing some of the top creative artists for the industry.

“It's been fabulous working with the ASUS team. What it's enabled us to do is turn around and iterate a lot faster and be more concerned about the creative output and the storytelling than the technical aspects of having to work.” concludes Spevick.

Product installed