The Best Tablets for Animation

What Kind of Tablet Should our Students Buy? This is a question we often get asked at BNU, especially for those animators working remotely on their own hardware. 

Nowadays there are many different kinds of tablets available, and cheaper versions than the traditional Wacom brand. 

Why Something is Better Than Nothing

It's not always good to be a perfectionist

From time to time animation students will get stuck on a project, and will request extra time, or hand their work in late - and then apply for Mitigating Circumstances.

Sometimes this flows from perfectionism, performance anxiety, or even a sense of imposter syndrome - a student feeling that their work isn't good enough. 

In truth though, it is always better to hand in something than nothing; an imperfect submission is always better than no submission at all.

Meet "Artifact" by Kristis Bandzevicius

Meet "Artifact", a new short film created by BNU animation student Kristis Bandzevicius. "Artifact" was written, produced and directed by Kristis, currently studying for his MA in 3D Animation at Bucks.  "Artifact" was completed during the course of Kristis' studies at BNU, and is currently being entered into film festivals. 

Interruption of Studies at BNU

On occasion students at BNU find that for whatever reason, personal or professional, they need to apply for an interruption of studies (also known as a suspension of studies). 

Interruption of studies means exactly that - you interrupt your studies, typically for a year, then pick up the course in a year's time.  In other words, you press the Pause Button. 

To find out the details of the Interruption of Studies procedure, take a look at this handy PDF, which sets out how it's done. 

DA702 Character Acting Starts 10 Jan 2022

Animation by Alex Southcombe

Starting in the New Year our masters' students tackle DA702, the second animation module on our online masters' degree in 3D animation. Classes start on 10 January 2022.

The module is titled DA702 - Character Performance, and builds up to an entry into the March 2022 Eleven Second Club competition.  

On March 1st 2022 the club's official line of dialogue will be released, and our students have until March 30 to submit their finished work. DA702 PR1 assignment is due on Wednesday 30th March 2022 at 2pm.

Cartoon Museum Opens "The Laughter Lab"

Last night was the opening of a new exhibition at London's Cartoon Museum, titled Laughter Lab: What’s So Funny?, which seeks to "uncover the science behind funniness".  

The exhibition invites visitors to contribute to a science experiment which hopes to find out what makes a cartoon funny. 

The experiment is being conducted in collaboration with Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford. What makes us laugh? It's a complex question, with some surprising science behind it. 

Why Students Should Submit Work Early

Deadlines matter, and at BNU the lecturers have little leeway in accepting late submissions. The "No Detriment" policy that was in place following the Covid Pandemic is now at an end, and BNU deadlines are now a lot more rigid than they have been for the past year.

Our recommendation here at BNU is this: Don't wait until the due date to submit your work.  Instead, aim to submit your work the night before. 

BNU Terminates "No Detriment Policy"

"No Detriment Policy" has now ended

Last year Buckinghamshire New University introduced a "no detriment" policy in response to the Corona Virus Pandemic. 

The policy remained in force until the end of the 2020-21 Academic Year and - in effect - gave all our students an extra 10 working days (two calendar weeks) to hand in assessments, beyond the formal deadline.

"No detriment" meant that the work submitted would not suffer any detriment, ie it would still be graded as if it were handed in on time. All our students should be aware that this policy is now at an end, and no longer applies. 

Young Cartoonist of the Year Competition

Deadline 5 January 2022

The Young Cartoonists of the Year Competition is back; the deadline for submissions is 5 January 2022.

Hosted by the Cartoon Museum, re-opened after its long Covid-19-slumber, the annual competition seeks to reward rising cartoon talent. 

Judges include Martin Rowson (The Guardian), Christian Adams (Evening Standard), Banx (FT), Peter Brookes (The Times), Nick Newman (Private Eye), and Matt from the Daily Telegraph.  Entry is free. 

Why Animators Must Fail Upwards

Animation is a hard craft to master, requiring a lot of practice. All our early efforts are likely to be unsatisafctory. Which is why animators need to fail upwards. 

All of us fail in most of the things that we do for the first time.  The key to success is to keep failing, fail better, and fail faster.

Sesame Street Audio Archive

For animators looking for inspiration for some cartoony animation with dialogue, one great place to search is the Sesame Street Sound Archive, which you can find here. 

The Sesame Street Sound Archive is full of cartoony audio clips, which work well with cartoony characters such as Mr Buttons and also the Willy rig.  It's especially useful for our Character Performance Module DA702. 

To get started, try picking a very short line of dialogue, download it and then drag and drop it into your timeline in Maya. To see more about how to use audio files in Maya, follow this link.  To see more about how to use the "Willy" rig, see this blog post.

Float Folks Best Trailer at Art Film Awards

Float Folks wins Best Trailer at Art Film Awards

Congratulations to the makers of "The Float Folks", the short teaser/trailer made at BNU by our animation students, which has won "Best Animated Trailer" at the Art Film Awards.

The Float Folks is an animated TV Series created by Ian Foyle and directed by Monika Dzikowicz, currently in development.  The Float Folks has won many festival awards.

"It Doesn't Work!" - How to Solve Tech Troubles

Why Doesn't It Work?

"It doesn't work"  is a problem frequently encountered by our students at BNU.

Remember that every technical problem, no matter how infuriating, has a solution. One of the key skills our students learn at BNU is how to solve problems - and find solutions, so that production work can continue. Digital artists face an endless stream of technical hiccups.

Float Folks Best Trailer at Dreamachine Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "The Float Folks", the short teaser/trailer made at BNU by our animation students, which has won "Best Animated Trailer" at the Dreamachine Film Fest.

The Float Folks is an animated TV Series created by Ian Foyle and directed by Monika Dzikowicz, currently in development.

The Float Folks has won multiple festival awards.

Free Script Toggles Control Curves On and Off

Morpheus curves

Below is a very useful MEL (Maya Embedded Language) script for Maya animators, developed by Justin Barratt, and one which we are recommending for all our students. It's a very useful tool, used to toggle the visibility of your animation rigs' control curves on and off.

All you have to do is paste the lines of script below in your script editor in Maya (under the MEL tab) and then save save it to a shelf in the usual way. 

Once you've done this, it should help to speed up your workflow and make you a faster, and better, animator.

Float Folks Wins Future of Film Award

Floats Folks Best Trailer at Future of Film Awards

Congratulations to the makers of "The Float Folks", the short teaser/trailer made at BNU by our animation students, which has won "Best Trailer" at the Future of Film Awards. 

The Float Folks is an animated TV Series created by Ian Foyle and directed by Monika Dzikowicz, currently in development.

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. 

Luxo Jr. Lamp Hop by Michael Acosta

Our MA animation students are currently tackling their first Module - DA701 Locomotion and Mechanics. Part of the module is learning to animate inanimate objects - in this case the Luxo Lamp - made famous by one of Pixar's first animated shorts, Luxo Jr.  Above is a lovely example of lamp animation by MA student Michael Acosta, playfully referencing the original Pixar animation with his own twist.

Float Folks Best Trailer at Vesuvius Fest

"Float Folks" Best Trailer at Vesuvius Fest

Congratulations to the makers of "The Float Folks", the short teaser/trailer made at BNU by our animation students, which has won "Best Trailer" at the Vesuvius Film Festival. 

The Float Folks is an animated TV Series created by Ian Foyle and directed by Monika Dzikowicz, currently in development.

Stanislavski's Questions for Actors & Animators

Constantin Stanislavski

Constantin Stanislavski was a Russian actor and theatre director who was one of the first to set down in writing the principles of great acting.

Many actors credit him with inventing "the Method" - the means by which actors immerse themselves in a character. 

Animators are actors with a pencil or a mouse, and we need to give a performance that is just as credible as anything that a stage or screen actor will create.

So, what can animators learn from Stanislavski's seven questions for actors?

Float Folks Wins Best Trailer at Halicarnassus

Congratulations to the makers of "The Float Folks", the short teaser/trailer made at BNU by our animation students, which has won "Best Trailer" at the Halicarnassus Film Festival. 

The Float Folks is a TV Series created by Ian Foyle and directed by Monika Dzikowicz, currently in development.

The Float Folks is a fun, watery world, a miniature community of slightly oddball individuals.