Meet Your Tutor - Nicola Brodie

Nicola Brodie

Niki Brodie is our newest animation tutor at Bucks, and is currently teaching animation to our undergraduate students on the Animation and Visual Effects Course.

Niki graduated from Bournemouth University with a First Class degree in Computer Animation and Visualisation, and she also has a diploma in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins in London.

After graduation, Niki spent some 20 years in the animation and visual effects industry, working as a 3D character animator at Mill Film and later DNeg on films such as Gladiator, Harry Potter, Batman The Dark Knight and Thor The Dark World.

About Animation at Bucks

Curious to know more about studying animation and VFX at Buckinghamshire New University? The video above gives a general introduction to the undergraduate course in animation and VFX at Bucks, including interviews with our tutors. To find out more about the experience of studying with us, search through the blog to see what we're all about. We highly recommend that prospective students come and visit us at one of our Open Days. If you can't make it in for a visit, don't forget to take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, and you can also check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK.

Sydney Padua - Our New Animation Lecturer!

Bucks New University is proud to announce our new lecturer in Animation - industry veteran Sydney Padua, whose animation career not only includes a roster of Hollywood hits but also encompasses countless visual effects blockbusters.

If that's not enough for you, she has even published highly successful graphic novels.  So, some very good news then for animation and VFX students at Bucks.

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.

Bucks New Uni and The Hornets Show - by Rob Kelly

Hornets Show - by Bucks students

What is the Hornets Show?  The Hornets Show is a monthly football magazine show revolving around the fortunes of Watford Football Club, who are partners with Bucks, and who have recently been promoted to the Premier League.  Bucks students shoot The Hornets Show against green screen backgrounds and then composite the shots onto CGI backgrounds to make it look like it’s been shot in a shiny high tech studio. It’s a complicated and ambitious project that our university has been running for 3 years. So, how does it all work? Animation & VFX lecturer Rob Kelly explains.

Meet Our Tutors - Sabah Masood

Exterior shot by Sabah Masood

Sabah Masood is one of our newest tutors at Bucks, having just started teaching our students pre-production concept art and development. Sabah has a wealth of freelance experience designing, building and lighting 3D interiors and sets for clients such as Pinewood Studios. Her expertise helps to fill out some gaps in our existing curriculum, making sure that our students are fully prepared for a long and successful career in the digital arts. We asked her to talk about what she is teaching at Bucks, and how the experience has been so far.

Bucks Tutor Rob Kelly Talks About His Work On BBC 2 Idents

BBC ident by Rob Kelly

Rob Kelly is a director with a long track record in the TV industry, and of course he is one of the tutors on the Animation and Visual Effects course at Bucks. Rob lectures in motion graphics, primarily using AfterEffects to teach our animation students (amongst others) to create excellent motion graphics work. In this interview at the Film and TV blog at Bucks, Rob talks about his work directing some of the classic BBC 2 Idents, and how he created them.

Bucks lecturer Alex Williams talks about his work on the Harry Potter films

Bucks lecturer Alex Williams worked on the last three Harry Potter films, while employed at the London VFX house Cinesite, in London's Soho. We asked him to talk about what he did on this very popular films series which help to transform the scale and quality of visual effects work being done here in the UK.

Bucks Lecturer Allen Stroud introduces Lave Revolution

Lave Revolution by Allen Stroud

Bucks lecturer Allen Stroud is a man of many talents. Among his many duties at Bucks, he teaches our first year animators Flash, the 2D animation software that can be used to create excellent animated films. He also has a number of media projects in development, including Lave Revolution, based on the pioneering early 1980s video game. We asked Allen to talk about his work inside and out of the university.

Bucks lecturer Alex Williams introduces "Queen's Counsel", and a new book of cartoons

The Queen's Counsel Lawyer's Omnibus - 20 years in The Times

Bucks animation lecturer Alex Williams initially trained as a barrister, and since 1993 he has published a weekly cartoon strip Queen's Counsel in the law pages of The Times. Recently he published a new book, The Queen's Counsel Lawyer's Omnibus, a compilation of his favourite cartoons printed in the newspaper over the past 20 years. We asked him to talk a little about the book, and also about how a lawyer became a cartoonist and an animator.

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.

Meet our Tutors - Rob Kelly

Rob Kelly teaches Camera, TV production, Design and Motion Graphics at Bucks

Rob Kelly is a vastly experienced commercials director with a long and varied career in advertising and branding, and has numerous awards to his name. He has also worked as a creative director and graphic designer for some of the top branding, advertising and design agencies in London. We asked him to tell us about his remarkable career - and what brought him to teach here at Bucks New University.

Meet our tutors - Dave Creighton

Dave Creighton  by Monika Dzikowicz

David Creighton is one of the two Course Leaders on the Animation & VFX Course, and has long been the mainstay of digital media at Bucks New University. A 20 year veteran of teaching in High Wycombe, Dave has done and seen it all.

He can help with pretty much anything to do with animation and visual effects at Bucks; with two decades of experience he knows how the University works (or sometimes doesn't). We asked him to tell us about his work, and what students on the new Animation & VFX course can look forward to.