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.

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 New University Animation Demo Reel 2015

An animator's demo reel is never done. It is a constant work-in-progress, always being refined and updated to include your best work and weed out the less impressive material. Above is a compilation of some of the best animation that has been done at Bucks over the past year.

Letter From Denmark - What Can We Learn From The Animation Workshop?

The Animation Workshop, Denmark

The Animation Workshop (TAW) in Viborg, Denmark has become one of the best places to study animation in Europe, with ten students competing for each spot on their character animation course.  I have taught classes there for many years and this year I acted as an external examiner, helping to grade the students on their final year "bachelor films", which were among the strongest student films I have ever seen. So what, exactly, is the secret of their success, and what can we learn from them here at Bucks?

Win £750! - Competition Launched for a Video on Life at Bucks New Uni

Bucks New Uni Film Competition

Calling all Bucks Animators! The Bucks Students’ Union is running a competition for university students and alumni to produce a short video about what it’s like to study here at Bucks. There is £750 up for grabs with a £500 prize for the most-viewed video at YouTube (ie a popularity contest) and a second prize of £250 for the best video as judged by a university panel.

VES Student Awards Now Accepting Entries - Deadline 23 November 2014

The VES Student Award for
Outstanding Visual Effects as Presented by Autodesk

Calling all Visual Effects Animators at Bucks! The annual VES awards are now open. The Visual Effects Society is the organisation that brings digital artists together from all over the globe - it's our professional community organisation. 

The student awards represent a unique opportunity to showcase your work and have it reviewed by the industry’s leading VFX artists. If you win, you will have a chance to take the stage in Beverly Hills, California at the annual VES Awards.

It’s now time to submit your best visual effects or animation work from school projects completed this year. The deadline is 23 November 2014.

Enterprise at Bucks - animated by Anton Alfimenko

Enterprise at Bucks is the department of our University which is dedicated to helping students learn real-life skills.

Stuff like how to set up a business, how to invoice a client, and how to survive in the commercial world. Many of our students will launch their own freelance careers (even if they also have a day job) when they leave uni - and a good working knowledge of the realities of the marketplace is a vital tool for survival.

Anifest is Back! Deadline: 30th September 2014

 The Canterbury Anifest Short Film Competition returns for 2014. Submissions are now open for animated shorts under ten minutes in length with entry closing on Tuesday 30th September 2014. Entries will then be considered by the Anifest judging panel, which includes Andy Frain, Producer of the cult classic Japanese animated film Ghost in the Shell, and Michael Arias, Director of Tekkonkinkreet.

Nickelodeon Announces 2014 Student Animated Shorts Program: Deadline Monday Sept 15

Nickelodeon has announced their 2014 Student Animated Shorts Program, and the deadline for submission is Monday Sept 15th. You don't have to pitch a finished film, just an idea in concept. You will need an idea, characters, a setting, a story, and some storyboards. This is an opportunity to have your idea for a TV series picked up by a major US network - time to sharpen your pencils and start brainstorming.

Rebecca Rochon of the Bucks Learning Development Unit congratulates our students

Rebecca Rochon of the Learning Development Unit (LDU) has formally congratulated our students for their excellent work on a short animated film for use at Bucks. The film, How to write a Lit Review, was completed earlier this year, and aims to help students who are struggling with the process of researching an academic report.

Rebecca wrote: "I wanted to express my thanks on behalf of the LDU for the work you put into the animation How to do a Lit Review.  I have it banked as a teaching resource, it will be built into the LDU organisation on BlackBoard for students, and LearnHigher will be incorporating it into their website for the new academic year."

Withoutabox - the smart way to get your animated short film noticed

What is Withoutabox? It is the best, simplest and most efficient way to enter your short animated film to the many film festivals currently welcoming submissions all around the globe. Submit your film to Withoutabox.com just once, and you can enter most of the festivals on the planet.

The site allows you to upload your film, fill in some (rather long) forms, and then - hey presto - you can enter film competitions all over the world. Withoutabox is free. As for individual competitions, the fees vary from nothing to quite a bit. It's up to you as to how many you want to enter.

Student Showcase: Jack Strood introduces "A Spring in her Step"

Jack Strood, one of our final year animation student at Bucks, presents "A Spring in her Step", a short animated film about a girl who wins a dance competition only to find that her celebration is short-lived, as she is faced with a demanding life challenge. The film combines stop-motion techniques with 2D animation, to create a unique blend of different styles. We asked Jack to tell us about the film and how he put it all together.

Bucks animators collaborate with the Learning Development Unit to create a unique film project

A group of our awesome animation students have collaborated with the Learning Development Unit here at Bucks to create a unique film project - How To Write a Literary Review. The project is aimed at students who are struggling with the challenging process of carrying out a literary review before writing an essay or dissertation, and aims to simplify and de-mystify the process. We asked the students who worked on the project to explain what they did, and how they pulled it off.

Thames Valley Student Film Competition - £200 cash prize

Connecting Thames Valley Tech (CTVT) is running a film competition open only to students at universities in the Thames Valley (including High Wycombe). The competition brief is to produce a video about the diverse range of technology companies that we have across the Thames Valley. The winner will receive £200 in cash and will appear as the featured “about us” video on the front page of CTVT for at least three months. The deadline is Midnight on 24th April 2014

Aardman Animation Competition - Success against the odds

National Accident Helpline has teamed up with Aardman Animation to run an animation competition called 'Success against the odds'. Aspiring animators are invited to create a short animation on this theme, for a chance to win a tour of the Aardman studios, a 'Make a Morph' workshop, an original Morph artwork signed by Peter Lord, plus paid travel expenses and accommodation. The winner and shortlisted entrants will also get personalised feedback on their animation from Aardman.

Sofa.com competition - last call for entries - £3,000 prize!

Last November Sofa.com launched a student animated film competition titled ‘Filmed with Happiness’. Anyone who is studying or working in film making, animation or television is invited to submit a short film (15-30 seconds long) for children, based on the theme of "happiness".

The winner gets £3,000 in cash - and the chance to boost your profile with a little help from the sofa.com PR agency. There are also three runner-up prizes of £1,000 each. The deadline for submission is 31st March, and - perhaps most interesting of all - one of the judges has recently been confirmed as Peter Jackson, he of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.

Collaborating on Group Projects - how do you pick the right people?

Animators need sound designers

One of the most important aspects of studying any form of film-making,  whether it is animation or live action - or any other media - is learning to collaborate with other people. As a film-maker, you cannot possibly hope to become an expert in everything; you will always need help from other departments. Animators may need help from modelers, designers, texture artists - finding people with the skills you need to finish your film is all part of getting the job done.

Sofa.com launches Student Film Competition - with a £3,000 prize

Sofa.com have launched a student animated film competition titled ‘Filmed with Happiness’. Anyone who is studying or working in film making, animation or television is invited to submit a children’s short film based on the theme of "happiness".  The winner gets £3,000 in cash - and the chance to boost your profile with a little help from their PR agency.