Lessons From the Animation Workshop

Gateway to The Animation Workshop

At the beginning of January I was back at The Animation Workshop in Denmark, working as a "Censor" or - as we would say in the UK - an External Examiner.

External Examiners exist to maintain standards across higher education and ensure that degree results are fair.

Animation Library at Bucks

Gateway Building at Bucks - home to the Animation Library

The animation shelves of the library in the Gateway Building here at Bucks are an important resource for our students. In recent years the University has bought our department more books, and more copies of the key books, so there are more to go around.

And we have many journals too, such as Animation Magazine - materials that help students learn from the best sources and keep in touch with the latest news from the industry. Below is some general information about to library for our new animation students.

Best Horse Rigs for Maya Animators

Right now we're encouraging all our animation students at Bucks to make sure they have plenty of horse animation on their demo reels, as one of our favourite London studios crews up for a big horse-related project.

The Animation Apprentice official site (to which all our students have access) has a series of horse video tutorials, teaching students how to animate a walk, a trot and a run.

Queen's Counsel - For a Few Guineas More

As well as teaching animation at Bucks I also do a weekly cartoon strip in The Times, a satire on law and lawyers.

I first started drawing Queen's Counsel back in 1993, when newspapers were still pretty much the only way that people got their news. And every self-respecting lawyer read the law pages of The Times on Tuesdays.

This year I published my 10th "Queen's Counsel" book - For a Few Guineas More, a collection of the best cartoons published over the last six years in law pages of The Times.


This new book is the one I'm most proud of - in part because it is the first cartoon collection which is in full colour throughout. Queen's Counsel started being printed in colour in The Times in 2011, for the first time.

VFX Taster Online Just £25

Online 3D VFX Taster Course

We're recommening this new online 3D VFX taster course, recently launched by London's Escape Studios.

The online taster was developed by Escape Studios' Head of 3D, Mark Spevick, and is delivered through the Smashcut platform.

Best of all, it costs just £25, and takes under 6 hours to complete. It's a great way to find out if 3D Animation and VFX is for you.

UCAS Deadline 15 January 2020

UCAS - deadline January 15th

If you're thinking of applying to Bucks to study on our BA in Animation, the official UCAS deadline is looming; applications must be in by 15th January 2020.

It's always a good idea to get your application in early, so apply now and tidy up your portfolio later.