Charlie and Yip" Wins "Best Animation"

We're proud to announce that Bucks New Uni tutor Alex Williams' short film "Charlie and Yip" has won "Best Animation" at the Film One Fest.

Charlie and Yip is a short film about a kid who takes his pet to school for Show and Tell, with unfortunate consequences.

It's a really a teaser for Alex's indie feature film project "My Haunted House", which is still in development.

Agricultural Report By Bucks Tutor Sydney Padua

Agricultural Report By Bucks Tutor Sydney Padua.

The Corona virus isn't the first health scare in our lifetimes; don't forget the dreaded mad cow disease from which we were all going to die in the 90s. As a reminder of that now mostly forgotten panic, watch the short animated film "Agricultural Report" by Bucks New University's very own animation tutor Sydney Padua. Sydney is an accomplished animator, film-maker and graphic novelist, with an impressive career across many media.  Agricultural Report is a charming film, well animated and very funny. 

Bucks Welcomes Back Sydney Padua

Bucks New University is delighted to welcome back new veteran animator and graphic novelist Sydney Padua who, following a year's absense to work on Disney's The Lion King, is back at Bucks.

Sydeny is a lecturer in animation on the undergraduate animation course at Bucks. Her animation career includes a roster of Hollywood hits, animation classics such as The Iron Giant, and many visual effects blockbusters.

Sydeny has also published the award-winning graphic novel The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage.  So, some very good news then for animation and VFX students at Bucks.

Who's Who on our Online MA in Animation?

Bucks New University by Jeton Lakna

Who's Who on our Online Master of Arts in Animation? There are a lot of people involved in delivering our MA - the first (and still the only) online MA in animation in the world.

Below is a brief guide to help our students figure who's who, who does what, and how to get in touch with the key people who's job it is to help our students get excellent results.

Meet Ron Penhaligon, Animation Course Leader

Rob Penhaligon

Meet Ron Penhaligon, Course Leader for our BA in Animation and VFX at Bucks and also our MA in 3D animation. Rob is an experienced 3D artist who headed up the animation department at Amersham & Wycombe College before coming to Bucks.

Rob teaches animation in both Houdini and Maya, and also carries out research into procedural modelling techniques, making him well qualified to head up both courses.

Meet Your Tutor - Nicola Brown

Nicola Brown: 3D modeling at Bucks

Nicola Brown is one of our newest tutors at Bucks. Nicky teaches 3D modeling (and much else besides) to our undergraduate students on the Animation & Visual Effects course at Bucks.

Nicky has over eight years of experience working as a freelance artist in the industry, including many years working as a layout artist and animator.  She also has a BA (Hons) in Animation, and extensive experience teaching animation.

We asked Nicky a few questions about her work, and also about how students and graduates can break into the competitive world of animation and visual effects.

Meet Your Tutor - Dr Fil Ieropolous

Fil Ieropoulos: exploring the relationship between poetry and film

Dr Fil Ieropoulos is responsible for the delivery and grading of the  academic content of our Online MA in Animation at Bucks.

As part of our series of posts introducing our students to their tutors, we asked Fil to talk about his academic work in film and poetry, and how he combines the theory behind his creative work, and its practice.

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.

Sarah Perry Brings "Acting for Animators" Masterclass to Bucks in S0.01

Acting and Movement for animators

We're excited to be welcoming Sarah Perry of Shapes in Motion to teach our students a workshop in "acting for animators" here at Bucks on Monday 2nd March.  Everyone knows that animators are actors - but what does that really mean in practice? Sarah's workshop will help our animation students unlock the secrets of acting methodology, and help them to become better actors themselves.  So, what can our animation students at Bucks expect?

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 Tutor Alex Williams Introduces his Animated Feature Film: My Haunted House

Alex Williams is Co-Course Leader of Animation & Visual Effects at Bucks New University. He is also working on an independent film project, My Haunted House, which is currently in development, aiming for a 2016 release. We asked him to tell us about the project, and what still needs to be done to bring it to the big screen.

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 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.

How do you pick the best place to study animation?

Life at University

One of the most important decisions that any of us will ever make is what to study at University, and where. How do you choose? Even if you know you want to study animation and the digital arts (good choice!), there are at least 80 courses in the UK to select from. So how do you pick the right one? The simple answer is - pick the best. But how you tell which courses are the best? There are a number of ways of making the right decision, but we think that there are two that are by far the most important.

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.