Wednesday 17 June - Our Next Open Day at Bucks!

Wednesday 17 June is our next Open Day at Bucks, and the last one for the current academic year. Open Days are a great way for prospective students to get a feeling for what it is like studying at Bucks. Come and see our campus, take the tour and see the state-of-the-art facilities that we offer. Meet the Animation & VFX course team, and find out what we can do to start your career in this most exciting, challenging, and rapidly-expanding industry. We'll even give you free coffee and muffins.

How Did Disney Animators on Frozen Approach Their Shots?

Watch Disney's smash hit animated film Frozen and you will find some first class acting, beautiful work which arguably takes the medium to a whole new level of sophistication and skill. But how do animators achieve such great acting? The answer of course is just the same as it would have been at the Disney studio 70 or 80 years ago: if you want great acting, study great actors. Below is an excellent shot progression showing how animators on Frozen used live actiion reference to bring their shots to life.

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.

Akshay Ohari Wins YouTube Silver Plaque

Akshay Ohari

We're delighted to congratulate Bucks Student Akshay Ohari who has won his very own Silver Plaque from YouTube. These coveted awards are handed out to Channels at YouTube with more than 100,000 subscribers - a huge milestone.

Akshay started studying Animation & VFX with us at Bucks last year, but left to set up his one online business FutPacks, which has been growing rapidly.  Here at Bucks we encourage all our students to be entrepreneurs, taking on freelance work and growing their skills as digital artists and creators of original content.  Congratulations to Akshay on a great achievement.

Bucks Students Take The Harry Potter Studio Tour

Harry Potter Tour

Bucks animation & VFX students took the Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden on May 13th, visiting the 80-hectare studio complex which was used for filming the Harry Potter series of films. The trip was free for all our students, paid for by the Bucks Big Deal, and was as good an introduction to the art, craft and science of visual effects film-making as almost any amount of classroom instruction - and far more fun.

Reminder - Creature Animation Masterclass on Friday 29 May

Framestore did the character animation for Paddington

Don't forget! This coming Friday 29 May we welcome an expert in character and creature animation from Framestore, one of London (and the world's) leading visual effects houses.  Marion Strunck, a graduate of the excellent Animation Workshop in Denmark and a rising talent at Framestore, will be coming to Bucks to give our students a masterclass in creature work. So, what can our students at Bucks expect?

Finding a Summer Internship in Animation & VFX - Twelve Rules for Success

Interview, a short animated film by Mikkel Okholm and Mikkel Brons-Frandsen

How do animation students find summer internships and placements in the industry? Jobs in the entertainment industry have always been highly competitive, and even unpaid internships can be hard to find, So how do you track them down? There are many ways - official jobs postings, word of mouth, rumours in the pub, personal contacts, even cold-calling - all of these can be effective ways to find a summer placement in the business. Below are the twelve key rules we think are vital for success.

How to Apply For Our New Online MA in Animation

The world's first online MA in animation

Our new online MA in Animation is now taking applications and, if you hurry, you can still get a 10% discount on the fee. We're excited to be launching the world's first degree of this kind, and we're getting applications from all over the world, including the UK, USA, Canada and Australia. So how does the application process work, and what can applicants expect?

Bucks Graduation Show at The Curzon Soho on 4th June

Curzon Soho

All graduating students at Bucks are invited to the Bucks Graduation Show at The Curzon, Soho, on 4th June 2015.  Come to the heart of London's film industry and see the best creative media being done by students at Bucks this past year.

Reminder - Producing Animation Workshop with Steve Burch on Tuesday 26 May!

Steve Burch

Don't forget! On Tuesday 26 May we welcome Steve Burch visit Bucks for a lecture and workshop on Producing Animation.  Steve has 26 years experience in the animation industry, having worked on around dozen animated features including Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant.  His roles have included Special Effects Supervisor for Dreamworks and Warner Bros Feature Animation. Steve has worked with three Oscar winning directors and has produced and directed many commercials and animated shorts. So, what can our students expect on Tuesday?

How Did Animators on Disney's Big Hero Six Plan Their Shots?

Shot Breakdown: Fred basketball test from trent correy on Vimeo.

Above is an excellent shot breakdown video by Disney animator Trent Correy about how he planned out one of his shots on Big Hero Six. How does an animator actually plan their shot? There is, of course, no single answer to this question - every animator has their own workflow that works for them.  That said, most animators approach a shot in fairly similar ways, thinking about it, planning it, thumbnailing it, making a road map for their destination. Watch Trent's video above and see how a skilled animator approaches their subject. You can also click here, or follow the link below:
http://trentanimation.tumblr.com/post/112765648590/ive-had-a-few-requests-lately-to-do-a-shot

Wednesday 17 June - Our Next Open Day at Bucks

Wednesday 17 June is our next Open Day at Bucks, and the last one for the current academic year. Open Days are a great way for prospective students to get a feeling for what it is like studying at Bucks. Come and see our campus, take the tour and see the state-of-the-art facilities that we offer. Meet the Animation & VFX course team, and find out what we can do to start your career in this most exciting, challenging, and rapidly-expanding industry. We'll even give you free coffee and muffins.

Introducing the Animus Rig!

Animus rig by Nick Miller and Lin Xiong

Finding great rigs to study creature performance isn't easy. Here at Bucks we've just started to use the Animus Rig, created by the very talented Nick Miller and Lin Xiong, and released as freeware into the Maya community. It's a great rig for a number of reasons, one of the most important being the wide range of facial controls, which makes it perfect for sophisticated creature dialogue and lipsync. So, how does it all work?

"White Walker" Sculpt by Phaedrus Byskou

White Walker by Phaedrus Byskou

Here is an excellent 3D sculpture by Bucks Animation student Phaedrus Byskou, who has created a White Walker from the Game of Thrones TV series.  It's an excellent piece of work, and inspiring to see our students doing such high quality CG modelling.

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?

CGMeetUp post Free Maya Rigs

CG MeetUp - full of great resources for animators

CGMeetup have posted a list of free rigs for animators to download and start using themselves. Here at Bucks we encourage all our students to try out new rigs and see where inspiration leads you. There are more and more excellent free rigs being released into the Maya community and this only helps our students to produce more and better work. To find the list of free rigs, follow this link.

Harvard Referencing by Sara Eaglesfield

What is Harvard Referencing? Referencing is defined by Wikipedia as follows: "Parenthetical referencing, also known as Harvard referencing is a citation style in which partial citations—for example, "(Smith 2010, p. 1)"—are enclosed within parentheses and embedded in the text, either within or after a sentence. They are accompanied by a full, alphabetized list of citations in an end section, usually titled "references", "reference list", "works cited", or "end-text citations". Confused? Well, Harvard Referencing can seem a bit tricky at first. The good news for our students is - help is now at hand.

Reminder - Harry Potter Tour on May 13th! Be at Lily's Walk at 9.30am

Harry Potter Leavesden Entrance. Photo by Karen Roe

Bucks animation & VFX students will be taking the Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden on May 13th. Warner Bros. Studios Leavesden is a 80-hectare studio complex in Hertfordshire and a major film and media complex, used for filming the Harry Potter series of films. So what can our students expect on the day?

One Week Left to Submit Your Project to Cartoon Forum!

Do you have an animated TV series or TV special in development? And if not, why not? Our animation students at Bucks are not just technicians, they are creators, brainstorming new ideas and concepts in animation, searching for the next Peppa Pig or Charlie and Lola.  But you can't do it alone - animation is a team sport.  A successful TV series needs co-producers, financing, broadcasters and new media partners. And where do you find those? Well, Cartoon Forum is where.

Framestore Animation Masterclass Comes To Bucks on May 29

Framestore did the character animation for Paddington

We're delighted to welcome an expert in character and creature animation from Framestore, one of London (and the world's) leading visual effects houses, and the people did the animation for Golden Compass, Paddington, Gravity, and dozens of other VFX movies.  Marion Strunck, a graduate of the excellent Animation Workshop in Denmark and a rising talent at Framestore, will be coming to Bucks on May 29th to give our students a masterclass in creature work. So, what can our students at Bucks expect?