Wednesday 11 September 2024

Welcome to the MA 3D Animation Sept 2024

Animation by BNU graduate Mark Masters
To all our new MA Animation students at Bucks - welcome! Formal teaching starts on Monday 23 September 2024.  

Below is some useful information for our new students starting with us on the Online MA in 3D Animation

Our MA students' first animation module is COM7021 - Locomotion, tackling walks and runs. 


Online Student Enrolment at "Bucks Connect"
Key textbook for animation

All students registering on Bucks courses for the academic year 2024/25 should enrol via the "Bucks Connect" Student Portal.  Academic Registry colleagues have been working with the Bucks IS&T Directorate to further develop the Portal functionality to include Online Enrolment, as well as students’ results. 

Enrolment at Bucks

Course Structure
Ball throw by Joris Van Laar
Familiarise yourself with the course structure; there are seven modules to tackle over the course of 18 months.  The MA 3D Animation for Professionals has six 20 Credit Modules, and one 60 Credit Module (Total 180 credits)

The Animator's Survival Kit.
All our students should buy a copy of The Animator's Survival Kit, by Richard Williams. It is the standard textbook for animators and the most comprehensive book available for learning animation.

Download your free educational license
Download your free copy of Autodesk Maya
Get yourself a free copy of Autodesk Maya. Maya is the main software we animate with, and still the industry standard. You can find a free educational license for Maya here. If Autodesk ask for proof of enrollment, send me an email and I will send you a formal letter of confirmation.

Start watching our Videos
Get yourself a decent laptop
Take a look at the week 1 videos at the Animation Apprentice website. The week 1 videos give you a general introduction to animation, helping you to get familiar with the language of the medium. After that, you should start doing the animation tutorials, starting with basics such as the bouncing ball.

Free Tutorials at Animation Apprentice
Start animating! You will find a number of free animation tutorials at Bucks New Uni Animation YouTube Channel.

Buy a laptop
You will need a decent laptop to run Maya from home. Laptop specs change all the time but see this blog post for some useful advice

Log in to Animation Apprentice
Make sure you have a login to the Animation Apprentice official site, which hosts the bulk of the learning resources for the practical side of the Animation MA. If you don't yet have a login, email info@animationapprentice.org for user access.

BNU Email Address
All our students will be supplied by the Bucks IT Dept with a BNU email address once they are enrolled.  Contact Bucks IT for assistance with this. 

Getting Started Resources at Bucks
For more resources on getting started at Bucks, see the blog posts below:

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