Jobs and Careers Playlist at YouTube

For all our graduates currently looking for work, check out the Animation Apprentice jobs and careers playlist at YouTube. There are plenty of opportunities to find work in the expanding animation industry, but it is important to have a solid demo reel and a well-curated LinkedIn profile - recruiters live at LinkedIn.  The jobs and careers playlist at YouTube offers advice and support on how to land that crucial first job in industry.

How Feedback Works at Bucks New Uni

How do students get feedback at Bucks New University? Animation students on our online MA in 3D Animation receive a weekly bespoke feedback tutorial on their work, showing how to fix mistakes and how to improve.  In addition, we have an online classroom where students post their work, receive positive feedback, and give creative criticism to others.  Being able to take criticism ("notes" in the industry) is part of the process of creating great animation. When you first show your work to a client, they will have comments, and they won't always love your first efforts. Whether you're working at a studio, or doing private client work, or just working on your own personal work, animators need to learn to incorporate criticism in order to make your work the best it can be.

Online Resources at BNU

Working from home

In these uncertain times it's important to remember that we have many online resources at Bucks New Uni, lots of ways of supporting our students who are currently working from home.

As long as you have a laptop and a decent broadband connection, our students can continue to work remotely, following tutorials, working on projects and also working in teams on platforms such as Facebook and Slack.

Our Online MA in 3D Animation already offers feedback and support to all our students via email, online classrooms, bespoke video feedback, and through our online learning resources with our partner school Animation Apprentice.

Learning Dynamics in Maya

Our online MA in 3D Animation partners with the online School Animation Apprentice for the tutorial content, content which is constantly being augmented and improved.

Pretty much all animation courses begin with a bouncing ball - and the MA at Bucks is no exception.

The bouncing ball is where students first encounter the 12 Principles of Animation, including timing and spacing, arcs, weight and ease-in and ease-outs. Nowadays, the physics engine within Maya will give you quite a bit of this for free.

Take a look at the free tutorial below to see how to animate falling dice using the FX tools within Maya. Specifically, the tutorial covers how to use Active and Passive Rigid Bodies in Maya to simulate the effects of gravity and the collision of solid objects.

Bucks Graduates Make Animation History

Alexi Balian, Charlie Falconi, Tim Milson, Neil Whitman, Stephen Young. 

Today was Graduation Day at Bucks and our new MAs in Animation made a little piece of animation history.

Our first graduating cohort aren't the first animation MAs in the world, but they are the first to get their MA purely online.

And, despite living in far-flung parts of the world, many came to Bucks for the graduation ceremony, for the chance to wear a robe and a silly hat and - at last! - meet up in person for the first time.

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?

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.

Moving On

Like Dick Whittington, I'm off to London

Working at Bucks and launching the new course in Animation and Visual Effects has been one of the highlights of my professional career.  After all, Bucks is a university with excellent facilities in new media and a strong focus on the creative arts.

Sad to say, today is my last day at Bucks, and I am moving to a new job in London with Escape Studios. However, the excellent work done at Bucks by our talented students will continue, and I wish the very best to whoever takes on the running of Animation and VFX course.

The World's First Online Animation MA!

We're excited to announce the launch of a animation world-first here at Bucks - the first online MA in animation.  Building on our new course in Animation and Visual Effects, we're launching a new online post graduate degree which can be undertaken by students anywhere in the world.  Above is a short video that explains what the new course will look like.

Preparing for September - Free Videos for our Freshmen Students

What is Animation all about? And what should our students starting with us in September do to get ready? For a general introduction to the medium, and a beginners guide to the language and basic principles of animation, watch the free videos below, hosted at Bucks lecturer Alex Williams' online animation school, Animation Apprentice.

How to Use our Animation Tutorials at Vimeo

Tutorials are hosted at Vimeo - just login!

Here at Bucks we believe in giving our students the best possible experience, and that means having plenty of video content to supplement the classroom sessions. Animation takes time to master, but by carefully going through our video tutorials, hosted at Vimeo, all our students can take the time they need to master this complex craft. Here's how it all works:

Meet our tutors - Alex Williams

Alex Williams

Alex Williams has been teaching at Bucks since September 2012 when he first joined the animation team. Alex has spent 25 years working in the animation industry, and his arrival at Bucks has led to an increased emphasis on the art and craft of animation at Bucks - hence the change of title of the course from "Animation, Games and Interactive Media" to "Animation and Visual Effects". We asked Alex to talk about the changes going on at Bucks, and what students can look forward to.

Animals and Creatures Reel from Animation Apprentice

Here at Bucks we are committed to training animators not just in character animation but also in creature work, doing the kind of animation that is in high demand at Soho visual effects houses like Framestore, MPC, Double Negative and Cinesite. Our second year animators will devote at least a quarter of their time just to the business of animating animals and creatures, preparing them for a successful career in visual effects.

I teach animation not just at Bucks but also at my online school at www.animationapprentice.org, founded in September 2012. Animation Apprentice is still a very young animation school, but we have just put together the first compilation of animal and creature work, showcasing some of the best work done by the students.

Bucks Animation featured in Digital Arts Magazine

We're famous! Today's edition of Digital Arts Magazine online has run a piece all about our new course at Bucks, focusing specifically on our revolutionary technique of "flipping the classroom", inspired by the work of American educator and entrepreneur Salman Khan. Click here to read all about it. We're at Computer World too!

Should you study online - or in a classroom?

Animation Apprentice - teaching animation online

Which is better? Studying online, or in a classroom? Until recently, almost everyone would have answered "in a classroom". But in recent years, as broadband has become cheaper and more universally available, and the cost of computer hardware has fallen, the possibilities for online study have grown. And, as tuition fees rise, so distance learning starts to look like a more affordable option.