Young Animator of the Year Competition Opens

Young Animator of the Year 2024

The Young Animator of the Year UK ("Yay!") 2024 Competition is now open for entries. Entries are welcomed from UK-based animators between the ages of 11 and 18 years.  All they have to do is submit their film to http://younganimator.uk by September 16th 2024.

Mark Masters Ranks No 3 in March 11 Sec Club

 

Many congratulations to BNU Animation Master's student Mark Masters on his successful entry into the March 11 Second Club - you can watch his animation "Visitor in Nature" above.  Mark's entry was ranked no 3 in this month's 11 Second Club (out of 126 entries) - a very impressive result.  "The 11 Second Club" competition is a monthly contest in which animators compete to animate the most inventive and entertaining take on a piece of dialogue.

Young Animator of The Year Competition

Young Animator of the Year Competition

There is still time to enter the Young Animator of the Year Competition.  The Competition, created by Access VFX and supported by Screen Skills, BAFTA and the BAA Awards, is judged by professional animators.

Entry must be completed by September 4th. You can find more about it here: https://younganimator.uk/competition #animation #YAYUK

Rookies Deadline 1 June 2022

At Bucks New University we encourage all of our students to enter The Rookies Awards, the international competition for young creatives, which and closes on 1st June 2022.

The Rookies was founded in 2009 to "showcase the most talented student designers, illustrators, film makers, animators, developers, digital artists, and launch them into the career of their dreams."

This year the deadline is 1st June 2022, so there is plenty of time to start crafting a great project.

Rookies' Knight Spider Animation Competition

Knight Spider rig from The Rookies

We're encouraging all our animation students to enter this new animation competition from The Rookies.

It's a special character animation contest for the brand new Knight Spider rig for Maya, which you can find here.  

The animation contest is open to students and recent graduates; entries opened on 24 September and the contest closes on 14 January 2022. 

The contest centres around the new free character rig for Maya - the "Knight Spider", which you can download from their official site. 

Win a Dell Workstation at the 11 Second Club

Next month we're recommending that all our student animators enter the monthly 11 Second Club Competition. 

In May 2021 Epic Games, creators of the Unreal Engine real-time renderer, are launching a special prize challenge with The 11Second Club, in association with Dell Computers.  First prize is a Dell Workstation.

Rookies Deadline June 1st 2020

At Bucks New Uniiversity we encourage all of our students to enter The Rookies Awards, the international competition for young creatives, which opened on 7th March, and closes on 1st June.

The Rookies was founded in 2009 to "showcase the most talented student designers, illustrators, film makers, animators, developers, digital artists, and launch them into the career of their dreams."

This year the deadline is 1st June 2020, so there is plenty of time to start crafting a great project.

April Eleven Second Club is Now Live

This month, our masters' degree student animators are working on DA702, their character animation Module, with a view to entering The 11 Second Club, a monthly character animation competition in which aspiring animators practice their skills.

Animators from all over the world participate, animating a character speaking a line of dialogue, which is provided every month by the 11 Second Club. Our MA students are encouraged (but not obliged) to enter the monthly competition as part of their formal submission.

Mark Your Calendars - The Rookies are Back

Here at Bucks we encourage all of our students to enter The Rookies Awards, the international competition for young creatives, which opens on 7th March, and closes on 31st May.

The Rookies was founded in 2009 to "showcase the most talented student designers, illustrators, film makers, animators, developers, digital artists, and launch them into the career of their dreams." This year the deadline is May 31st 2019, so there is plenty of time to start crafting a great project.

Bucks Students Lead "The Rookies"

Turing by Bucks New Uni students

Each year at Bucks we are encourage all of our students to enter The Rookies Awards, the international competition for young creatives.  The Rookies was founded in 2009 to "showcase the most talented student designers, illustrators, film makers, animators, developers, digital artists, and launch them into the career of their dreams."

This year we're proud that our students' film "Turing" is the most popular (ie most watched) film of the year.

Get Ready for the Rookies

This year at Bucks we are encouraging all of our students to enter The Rookies Awards, the international competition for young creatives.

The Rookies was founded in 2009 to "showcase the most talented student designers, illustrators, film makers, animators, developers, digital artists, and launch them into the career of their dreams."

This year's deadline is May 15th, so there is plenty of time to start crafting a great project.

Enter the Character Design Challenge!

Character Design Challenge!

Calling all Bucks Character Designers! There are just two days left to enter this month's Character Design Challenge!

The CDC is a bit like the Eleven Second Club, but for character designers. It launched in 2015 and already has over 25,000 thousand members.

This month's design challenge is .....Carnival of Venice! So what are you waiting for? Let's get designing!

"Chappie" Student Art Competition

"Chappie" Film Competition

Sony Pictures is offering students a chance to enter an art competition for a new film "Chappie", being released on Blu-Ray. The contest is open for two weeks, and the winner gets a pack of goodies and film-related prizes.

Bucks New Uni's Annecy Survival Guide

Annecy - an ancient medieval town in the French Alps

The International Festival of Animation at Annecy is the world’s biggest animation festival. It can be a slightly overwhelming experience; there are so many things going on at once that it can be hard to feel like you really get to make the most of being there. Alongside the film festival is MIFA – the world’s biggest animation marketplace, a brain-boiling congress of industry types furiously buying and selling. But Annecy is an event that we believe that every animator should go to at least once – if only to get a feeling for the sheer size and diversity of the modern animation industry.

What Is The Monthly Character Design Challenge?

Character Design Challenge!

Calling All Character Designers! Why not polish your design skills by entering the monthly Character Design Challenge? It's a bit like the Eleven Second Club, but for character designers. The group already has an astonishing twenty five thousand members - and growing fast.  So what is it all about, and how does it work?

Reminder - Still Time to Sign Up For Annecy 2015!

Annecy - still time to sign up

Annecy is to animation as Cannes is to Film.  Annecy is the first, the original, the biggest and still the best international animation festival. So, should animators go all the way to the French Alps to find out about animation, and what will they find when they get there?

RealFlow's Deliciously Viscous Student Challenge - Worth $3,000

Time to enter the RealFlow "Deliciously Viscous" Student Film Challenge! At stake is $3,000 in prize money for the winning submission. RealFlow is one of the newest and most exciting software packages for creating realistic fluid motion in an animated environment, and $3,000 of prize money is a worthy prize pot. So, how does it all work?

Autodesk CG Student Awards - $360,000 To Be Won - Deadline May 13th 2015

Yes, you read that number right. Autodesk, creators of Maya and 3D Studio Max (among much else besides) have launched the CG Student Awards, featuring an astonishing $360,000 prize pool to be won by student animators and VFX artists. Not only is the potential prize money enormous, but once you enter, you still qualify for $96 worth of prizes - just for entering! Any student who is serious about a career in the animation and visual effects industry should not miss the chance to take part in this competition.  

Bucks Animators Enter The March Eleven Second Club Competition!

This month, our second year animators are entering The 11 Second Club, a monthly character animation competition in which aspiring animators practice their skills and get their work noticed. Animators from all over the world participate, animating a character speaking a line of dialogue, which is provided every month by the club.

Throughout the competition, participants can share their progress with one another and critique each other's work - just like in a real animation studio. At the end of the month, all the participants vote for the submission that they consider the best for that month - so it's a very democratic process. The idea of the 11 Second Club is "to give animators a chance to practice their skills in a fun, challenging environment".

How To Enter and Win Animated Film Festivals

Laurels of victory - these can be yours! Photo: Wikipedia

There is no better way for a student to launch their career in animation than to enter and win animated film festivals around the world.  However, as the competition gets tougher all the time, how does a student have a decent chance to enter their film, get noticed, and win prizes? We asked veteran DreamWorks storyboard artist Nassos Vakalis, whose short film "Dinner for Few" has been winning festivals all over the world, to explain the secrets of success.