3D Animation Taster Days on January 13 and 25

Learn to animate a bird in flight

Fancy trying out 3D animation for a day? I'm running two Animation Taster Days at Escape Studios in Shepherd's Bush, London on January 13 and 25.  Taster Days are a great chance to come and learn about character and creature animation.

The purpose of an animation taster day to give future animators an idea of what it's like to work in the  industry, and find out if this is a career that's right for them.

You will work with Autodesk Maya and the Adobe Creative Suite, and you’ll get a hands-on introduction to 3D Animation techniques, all for just £25. By the end of the day you'll have your own piece of animation uploaded to your YouTube channel.  So, how do you sign up?

What is Redshift? - by Lyuboslav Angelov

Go to any animation or vfx festival and you will hear hair-raising tales of super-long render times, of waiting for days on end for a single frame or batch of frames to render.

In reality, CG artists need our renders to be as quick and efficient as possible.  Long render times increase our costs and take too much time to get things done.

Recently, Bucks animation undergraduate Lyuboslav Angelov has been getting great results from Redshift, a new rendering tool - which has also been adopted by leading London studios such as Blue Zoo. We asked Lyuboslav to explain how Redshift works and how students can benefit from its speed and simplicity.

Bucks Animation Compilation Reel 2016

 
Above is the latest Bucks Animation Compilation Reel - 2016. Here we have featured a selection of the best work done by our students at Bucks over the past year. We're proud of the work our students are doing, raising the bar each year and trying to out-do the work done by past years' students. Congratulations to everyone whose work made it into this latest compilation of the finest animation and VFX work done at Bucks.

Time to Register for BVExpo! 28 Feb 2017

Time to Register for BVExpo! BVExpo is an annual event that describes itself as "the UK's leading entertainment and media tech event".

The Expo takes place from 28 February until 2nd March at the ExCeL London and - best of all - it's completely free. As ever, we recommend that our students attend events like this - it's a great way to keep up with the latest trends in our industry and find out where future opportunities lie.  It's especially interesting for animators interested in broadcast graphics.

Animation Taster Day at Escape Studios on Wednesday 14 December

Learn to animate a bird in flight

Interested in trying out 3D animation? I'll be hosting an Animation Taster Day at Escape Studios in London on Wednesday 14 December - so come and find out all about character and creature animation.

I'm running this animation taster day to give future animators an idea of what it's like to work in the  industry, and find out if this is a career that's right for them.

You will work with Autodesk Maya and the Adobe Creative Suite, and you’ll get a hands-on introduction to 3D Animation techniques, all for just £25!  By the end of the day you'll have your own piece of animation uploaded to your YouTube channel.  So, how do you sign up?

Animated Women UK launch "The Achieve Programme"

Last week, Animated Women UK launch "The Achieve Programme" - their first ever programme focused on helping women in animation and VFX to achieve their full potential.

Official sponsors of the programme include Creative Skillset, Disney, Turner, Escape Studios and The Mill. For any of our students in the London area, this could be a great opportunity to break into the industry, and make connections with leading companies.

Student Loans for Master's Degrees Now Live

Government help is available

The new student loan system for postgraduate master's degrees has now been launched. Low interest loans will now provide students in the UK with access to postgraduate university courses.

This is very good news indeed for any of our students who would like to go on to do our ground-breaking online MA in 3D animation.

Bucks Success Story - Anton Alfy

Anton Alfimenko is a recent Bucks graduate who has now landed a full time job with the Bleacher report, the US Sports News company.

We asked him to talk a little about his new job, and what it takes to break into the industry.

Online MA Student Jeton Lakna Reinvents the Bucks New Uni Logo

We're enjoying this new take on the Bucks New Uni Logo by Online MA student Jeton Lakna. The exercise is in set building, texturing, lighting and rendering - the idea being to get all our online students up to speed with the basic building blocks of the 3d pipeline. Jeton's work is a fun new take on Bucks branding - and also shows off some great CG skills.

Blue GFX Expo in London on 17th November 2016

Blue GFX Expo is taking place in London on 17th November 2016.

Last year speakers included Tom Box from Blue Zoo, one of the UK's biggest TV animation company, Stuart Penn from Framestore, and the folks from Autodesk showing the latest tools.

Bring Your Own Animation! on Monday 21st November

The Lukin - BYOA!

"Bring Your Own Animation" (BYOA) is an animation event that takes place every month in London.

This month it is being held on Monday 21st November at 6.30pm at the Lukin pub, 4 Conway Street in central London W1T 6BB.

Anyone can bring their animation or just come along for drinks.  If you are a student, or a professional who's working on a shot or a reel, bring your work and get feedback from Professional Animators.

Dishonored 2 at BAFTA on Saturday!

BAFTA is a great resource for any of our students with easy access to central London - which is basically all of our undergraduates. The BAFTA clubhouse is at 195 Piccadilly - a short walk from Piccadilly and Green park Tube stations.

On Saturday 22 October at 5.30pm BAFTA is hosting the creative team behind the game Dishonored 2 - an amazing chance for our animation and games students to meet the creative team behind this blockbuster game, and get to know the talent that put it together. Tickets aren't free, but at £7.50 it's cheaper than a movie.

Blue GFX Expo is Back! 17th November 2016

Blue GFX Expo is taking place in London on 17th November 2016.

Last year speakers included Tom Box from Blue Zoo, one of the UK's biggest TV animation company, Stuart Penn from Framestore, and the folks from Autodesk showing the latest tools.

Welcome To The Bucks New Uni Online MA in Animation

The world's first online MA in animation

We're excited to welcome all our new students who will soon be starting the journey with us on our online MA in animation, launched one year ago at Bucks in partnership with Animation Apprentice.

This is a unique degree - the first of its kind - which can be undertaken by students anywhere in the world, leading to a formal qualification in the field. You will not only learn how to animate, but you will engage at Masters' level with the underpinning theory and structure behind the art form. So, what is this degree all about, and what can our new students expect?

Bucks Animation BA Has Moved to a Shiny New Site at bucksanimation.com

We have a new website! https://bucksanimation.com/ . The BA (Hons) Course now has a new site where you can see recent student work and get more information about the course. We have been putting in a lot of work behind the scenes to make sure that 2016-2017 is the best year yet! If you wish to apply then hurry, there are still a few places available in clearing.

If you are looking to study at our online MA in 3D Animation please continue to check this site: http://animationapprentice.blogspot.co.uk/

Autodesk Releases Maya 2017: Mental Ray Is Out, Arnold Is In

Autodesk has just released a new version of Maya, titled Maya 2017 (I know, we're only half way through 2016) - which now features an entirely new system for rendering your images. 

The old ray trace renderer, Mental Ray, has been dropped, and Autodesk have chosen Arnold instead. For those of you have have never used Arnold before, and might have some catching up to do, Animation Apprentice student Lee Caller has helpfully put together a YouTube playlist of videos that will walk you through the basics of the Arnold renderer. 

Arnold is a great renderer, and no doubt a significant improvement on Mental Ray. However, there is a catch, and it's a pretty big one.

How to Load 3DS Max Files into Autodesk Maya

Visit a website like Turbosquid and you will find plenty of cool stuff, much of it free, to help you with your animation. You might want to download a set, or a prop, something to make your shot come alive.  After all, you don't want to waste precious time modeling complex props and sets - you want to get on with your animation.

But what if the only available file type for download is a 3DS Max file? Max is a popular platform for learning animation and, while is it much less widely used in industry than Maya, there is lots of great free content out there in the 3DS Max format. So, what we need is a way to import 3DS Max files into Maya.  Fortunately, it's pretty easy when you know how.

How to Get Ready For Our Online MA in 3D Animation in September

What kind of preparation should students do before starting with us on our online MA in 3D Animation in September?  It's always good to do a little preparation and get a bit of a head start.

Below is a brief list of stuff to get you under way. You don't have to do all of it, but tick off a few of the things on this list and you will be a making a great start on your animation career.

Blue Zoo at MPC SIGGRAPH Event in Soho Wednesday 25 May

Blue Zoo, one of the UK's most innovative indie animation studios, is the star of the next SIGGRAPH event, on Wednesday May 25 at MPC in London's Soho, at 7pm.

The founders of BlueZoo will be talking about how they nurtured their fledgling company from an idea into a multi-million pound animation powerhouse.  Best of all, the event is completely free!

Bucks Animation Graduates Latest Short Film - Chargesync

Our animation graduates at Bucks have just completed their latest freelance commercial project: Chargesync.  Chargesync is a tech company that makes electricity storage devices that people can put in their homes, saving money on their electricity bills and helping to reduce their carbon footprint as well. The purpose of the film is to help electricity consumers understand exactly what it is that Chargesync do.  Animation is a wonderful tool for taking complex ideas and getting them across in a simple, clear way. And this film was a great way for our students to get paid experience of working on a live freelance job - for a great company with a great message.

Powerup!

Hi Bucks Animation readers- Sydney here with a couple of fun animation projects from our second years: The Powerup Project is a simple brief with a lot of scope for creativity: it asks for a 5-10 second scene where a character gains power in some way. I suggested the students could literally transform the character if they liked-- animation is a great medium for magic, fantasy, and scifi after all!  This exercise is meant to practice clear storytelling through posing, while giving the students a chance to be playful with combining animation, effects, and camera work. The multitalented Mobo King delivered on all fronts with this great scene (he gets extra points because I'm a mad Steven Universe fan too :) )

I also enjoyed Radoslav Hristov's clever use of a mod of the Norman rig we use for our basic animation exercises:

We are still accepting applications for next year at Bucks Animation by the way, if you hurry! So you can make a Powerup of your own...

-- Sydney

Craimer Jones. Sci Fi environment WIP

Hello! I am Rob Penhaligon, the new Course Leader for Animation & VFX. I thought I would get my Bucks blogging career started with a really nice work in progress from our 3rd Yr student Craimer Jones.

He has been developing a sci fi environment for the Experimental phase of his major project. The next phase is to develop an animation with some atmospheric effects. This may take the form of an over the shoulder shot of a poor soul, running in fear for their life. Whatever happens, I am really looking forward to seeing what Craimer comes up with.




The major 3rd yr Honours project consists of 2 phases, the first Experimental phase involves taking an idea that directly relates to your intended career. You experiment with it and refine it into to something that works. The second phase is Production, which has just started. This involves developing and pushing your idea to a really high standard, ready to take to prospective employers, or if you wish, as the starting point for your own freelance company.

Government Funding for Post-Graduate Study in the UK

There is good news this year for students in the UK hoping to secure funding for post-graduate study, including our pioneering Online MA in 3D Animation - the first of its kind anywhere in the world.

Prospective students will soon (from this summer) be able to secure Government funding for postgraduate study through loans, studentships, bursaries and grants.

If you are a UK-based student and you start a full-time or part-time master’s degree after 1 August 2016, you can now apply for a Postgraduate Loan. You will be able to borrow up to £10,000 to pay your fees and also help with living costs. So, how does the system work?

Bucks Animation: The Force Awakens!

Hello Bucks Animation Blog readers! I'm finally getting settled in as the new animation lecturer here, so it's time for me to start blogging! Just a quick one to warm up with...

We just wrapped up a semester of creature work with the second years, and I loved this fun production from Lyuboslav Angelov. Wolfdog isn't the easiest rig for action scenes but Lyuboslav got a lot out of him, and modelled and rigged a friend for him to play with!