Who Is Batman?

Written by 
The VFX Festival

The last three days have been busy. We’ve been exhibiting at the VFX Festival with our partners HP, and it’s been a great week. But a mystery has arisen. Who is Batman?

Being surrounded by so many talented people from all stages in the career of a VFX artist has been fantastically eye opening. I’m always mesmerised by the simple act of people drawing, but to have so many doing it so well on our Wacom Cintiq 27QHD demo was outstanding. We’ve got a few of the Mischief canvasses saved so keep an eye on Twitter and Facebook for those in the coming days.

But potentially our favourite image was of the Caped Crusader himself. But no-one knows who did it. Sadly we can't really enlist the services of the world's greatest detective, but social media is the next best thing. Right? So if you're Batman, or know him, then we'd like to get in touch. Tweet "@Escape_Tech I'm Batman" to claim your credit and our undying admiration.

Batman

Above: I'm Batman.

And even with that highlight aside the rest of the festival was positively inspiring.

Day one was an overwhelming inundation of young students looking to start their path into the wonderful world of visual effects. Our own Lee Danskin spent a good hour talking to them about what VFX actually is and how it all works.

On the second day we were impressed by waves of graduates and current degree-level students. Descending on the Vue in Leicester Square our voices ran hoarse by the end of the day answering so many questions and talking with so many inspiring people. Our Strategic Business Development Director, Neil Kalsi, was thrilled to meet so many course leaders from education institutions and we manning the stand were met by an epic quantity of artists and technical wizards.

And the final day was no less intense. Graduates again, yes, but this time the pro’s came out. People who have lived and breathed VFX as a career for a while now where poking around inside our new Z640 and the Z1 we had on display. And the Wacom got even more popular.

space dd

Above: My poor attempt at something stellar

What an event like this really helps to show, from my point of view at any rate, is the history of some of our most illustrious VFX artists. From A Levels and BTEC’s deciding to pursue an artistic career to graduating from a top-end course and becoming a VFX professional. The changes from one stage to the next are marked and shows just how effective training is, when coupled with an insatiable desire to create.

The next generation of VFX artists are waiting in the wings, hanging on what the current crop are doing. I for one am excited to see what changes between this year and next. Hopefully we’ll get to see some of the attendees again and see just how far they’ve come!