Webinar with Robert Valley Today

Artwork by Robert Valley

Today at 4pm Oscar-nominated Director, Animator and Character Designer Robert Valley will be making a webinar appearance to talk about his work. 

Robert Valley is an animator with a remarkable career that includes hits such as Aeon Flux,Tron: Uprising, Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots and ‘Zima Blue’.

Free Animation Taster on Wed 6 May

Lee Caller

Animation interested in learning the art of 3D animation should sign up for this free online Animation Taster on Wednesday 6 May at Noon.

The class is taught by veteran animator Lee Caller, who is also taking the MA in 3D Animation at Bucks New Uni.

Taster Classes are a great chance to learn about character and creature animation, and find out what an animator's job is all about.  No prior knowledge of Maya - or any software - is required.

Free Sound Effects for Film-Makers from the BBC

For our student film-makers at Bucks, one excellent (and free) resource for sound design and sound effects is the BBC Free Sound Effects for Film-Makers.

Around 16,000 BBC Sound Effects have been made available by the BBC in WAV format for free download for use under the terms of the RemArc Licence. The Sound Effects are BBC copyright, but they may be used for personal, educational or research purposes, as detailed in the license. We're recommending this for all our students.

"Funny Fail Stories" in London Tonight

Funny Fail Stories is back in London tonight - book your seats for tonight, Tuesday 29 October for tales of failure from the world of animation and VFX.

Hosted by animator and director Simone Giampaolo, this event takes place at Zigfried Von Underbelly at 11 Hoxton Square, London N1, just a 5 minute walk from Old St Tube station.

Speakers bringing tales of disaster and near-disaster in the animation and VFX industry include Alina Bopele from Studio AKA,  Sabina Janetzka from Cinesite, and Stefano Marrone from Nucco Brain.

The event is also supported by the London chapter of SIGGRAPH.  Tickets are free and you can book them here.

Making of Lion King in London Tonight - Free

Tonight in Central London MPC artist Gabriel Arnold is giving a talk about the making of The Lion King, the recent Disney blockbuster that has become one of the most successful animated films of all time.

The event is one of a series of "Evening with..." events hosted by Escape Studios at their Central London campus.  As ever, we recommend that any of our students who can attend, do so, as this is a great opportunity to meet in person a lead artist from one of London's leading animation studios, and find out about the reality of the industry pipeline.

Stuart Sumida in London 12 December

Paleontologist and animal locomotion expert Stuart Sumida will be in London next week, and on Wednesday 12th December at 4.30pm he will be giving a free talk at Escape Studios at 190 High Holborn, London WC1.

Stuart occupies a rare cross-over space between science and entertainment, advising Hollywood studios on the development of movies such as "The Lion King" and "Spirit - Stallion of the Cimarron".

Disney's Kevin Hudson in London on 2nd July

"Weeds" by Kevin Hudson

Kevin Hudson, asset artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios, is in London on July 2nd at 4.30pm to talk about his multi-award-winning short film "Weeds".   

“Weeds” is the story of a dandelion, rooted on the wrong side of the driveway in a barren yard surrounded by dry dirt and dead grass.

Free Horse Rig for Maya Animators

horse rig by Motorman TD

We're liking this horse rig available for free download from the Mothman TD website.

It's an excellent choice for animating quadruped locomotion, a useful alternative to the (also very good) Rhett the Clydesdale rig.

So, how can our students get the most out of this rig?

Panel Forge Pro - Free Storyboard Software

At last week's Blue GFX Expo, Blue Zoo’s Tom Box announced that Panel Forge Pro, their new storyboard and pipeline tool, is now available for free for student use.

Panel Forge Pro, extensively tested at Blue Zoo on Miffy the Rabbit and Digby Dragon, makes use of 3D Layouts to save time in Storyboarding, allowing board artists to use low resolution 3D assets to help set up camera angles and layouts.  Good news then for storyboard artists, who can now learn to use this new software for free.

aTools - The Animator's Swiss Army Knife

aTools - "The ultimate free utility belt for Maya Animators"

aTools is a free download for Maya that describes itself as "The ultimate free utility belt for Maya animators."

aTools was created by Portuguese animator Alan Camilo, and is extremely useful for all kinds of animation tasks in Maya.

Blue GFX Expo 9th November 2017

Save the date! Blue GFX Expo is taking place in London on 9th November 2017.

Last year speakers included the folks from Blue Zoo, one of the UK's biggest TV animation company, Stuart Penn from Framestore, and experts from Autodesk showing the latest tools. Curious to know what's inside Maya 2018? Blue GFX Expo will be the place to find out.

Mental Ray Is Back - And It's Free!

Mental Ray is back! 3D Render by Amaru Zeas

Mental Ray is Back! NVIDIA, makers of the classic ray tracer - it used to come bundled free with Autodesk Maya - have now released a version of their software which is free for student use.  This is great news for animation students, because Mental Ray has a number of advtantages over its successor Arnold.  In particular, you can achieve some very quick and attractive lighting setups in Mental ray using Physical Sun & Sky, the closest thing Maya has to a "Make It Look Cool" button.  So, how can our students get a free copy of Mental Ray?

Meet Frame Store's Billy Butler on Thursday 2 February

Escape Studios in West London is hosting another free event for students - an "Evening With..." coming up on Thursday 2 February at their Shepherd's Bush studio, with Billy Butler,  Lead Modeler at Framestore.

Billy has a vast amount of VFX experience, having worked on hit movies such as Gravity, Animalia and Sucker Punch.

He will be showing students his demo reel and talking about his experience in the VFX industry. This is a superb event for any of our students who would like to find out more about 3D and VFX - and 3D modelling in particular. 

Meet Norman! A Versatile and Free Animation Rig

There are many free rigs available to Maya animators hoping to practice and learn their craft. Norman, Max, Morpheus - these are all excellent rigs, easy to download, all free for non-commercial use.

But beware - all rigs are different and each one has its own quirks. All take time to get used to, and each one has its frustrations.  Norman was one of the first character rigs made available for student use, free on a non-commercial license. Norman is reliable, relatively simple to use, and highly customisable.

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.

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.

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!

Charlotte - a New Free Maya Rig!

Digital artist Ahmed Elmatarawi has just released his newest baby - Charlotte - a free Maya rig available for student and non-commercial use around the world. We haven't tested it yet, but the video below takes you through the rig in detail, and we look forward to seeing what our students can do with her. One of the great benefits of working in Maya is its growing user base, bringing us new and better animation rigs for student use all the time. So who and what is Charlotte?

Bucks Library Gets Subscription To 3D Artist Magazine

3D Artist magazine - now in the library at Bucks

3D Artist Magazine is now available for our students in the library at Bucks. 3D artist is one of the leading periodicals for our industry, packed with great information about the latest news in 3D animation and - crucially for students - full of tutorials on how to use the latest stuff.  You can learn animation, modeling, texturing, lighting - all the key components of 3D artistry. Here at Bucks we're committed to stocking the library with the very best magazines, books and journals about animation - so our students have access to the best materials possible to support their studies.

The Top Three Free Maya Plugins

Maya 2016

What free plugins do Maya animators need? Each time Autodesk release a new version of Maya they fix many things that don't appear to need fixing - such as the design of the overall interface, but leave many long-established weaknesses in place.  Luckily for us, there are a number free plugins that can easily be accessed by Maya animators to make our lives easier. Here is our shortlist.