Bucks Animators Go to Blue GFX

Blue GFX

Last week Bucks New University students went to the Blue GFX Expo in London – a massive annual visual effects event sponsored by Autodesk, and a great opportunity to find out about the latest developments in our industry. There were presentations about Autodesk Maya, 3D Studio Max, a chance to try out the latest Cintique tablets, and best of all a talk by Framestore about the work they did on Gravity, a film that looks and feels like a live action movie, but is entirely animated. OK, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock were real – but the rest is CG magic.

Nomad Games

I went to a fascinating lecture by Don Whiteford of Nomad Games, who talked about how his company got started – an excellent introduction to the challenges of starting up a small games business and adapting to new technology and changing markets. They created Talisman – now a 30 year old game, and he talked about how business need “not just one product, but something that gets updated and can be rolled out over time, with expansions and extensions” to the existing game. He also explained that here in the UK, Creative Skillset will fund creative salaries at 50% for a year – hugely useful for a start-up company short on cash.

Autodesk Maya

Graham Bell of Autodesk introduced some of the latest features of Autodesk Maya, including how to use their hair tools to create realistic fur and grooming for CG animals and creatures.

Overall, the event was a huge success, and a great way for students and lecturers alike to catch up on new developments in our business.

Blue Zoo

To see more about Blue GFX 2013, see this post about the use of Maya's latest hair and fur tools, read about how Blue Zoo revealed the secrets of making a new animated TV series, find out about how Frame Store did the title sequence for Skyfall, and learn about how graduates can get a job with Blue Zoo, the UK's largest indie TV animation company.

---Alex

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks.  

bluegfx expo - 6th November 2014

Blue GFX - in London 6th November

Blue GFX Expo is taking place in London on 6th November 2014. Last year's event was superb - in attendance were the founders of Blue Zoo, the UK's biggest TV animation company, the guys from Framestore who did the animation for the Skyfall title sequence, and representatives from Autodesk showing the latest hair simulation tools. There were so many talks on cutting edge CG tools that it was hard to choose which ones to attend. For all our students, this is a not-to-be-missed chance to catch up with the latest technology and meet in person the people who run the UK's top animation and visual effects houses.

What is bluegfx expo?
The bluegfx expo is an industry day which provides Media and Entertainment professionals an opportunity to hear about the latest developments in technology.

Hear from industry leaders
Blue GFX are in the process of lining up talks from companies of all shapes and sizes.

Get hands on with the latest technology
The expo hall gives you the perfect opportunity to discuss the latest software and hardware technology from your favourite manufacturers, and discover new innovations from developers you may not have heard from before. More details of speakers and sponsors to follow.

Location
The Coin Street Centre is 5 min walk from Waterloo train and tube station and Southwark tube station, 15 min walk from Charring Cross, and a few tube stations away from King’s Cross St Pancras. When you get to Stamford Street, look for the yellow building.

Coin Street Centre
108 Stamford Street, South Bank
London
SE1 9NH

When does it start and finish?
Blue GFX starts at 9.30am on Thursday 6th November, and finishes at around 8pm (if you stay for drinks)

What is happening?
You can see the full agenda here.

To Register for Blue GFX, follow this link. And to read about last year's event, see our blog posts here.

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks.

Miracles and Inspirations by Bucks Graduate Monika Dzikowicz makes the Official Selection of the Festival de Cine de Madrid

Monika Dzikowicz graduated from Bucks last year, and recently completed her short film Miracles and Inspirations, which has been entered in to short film festivals all around the world. Most recently the film has been accepted for the Official Selection at the 23rd Festival de Cine de Madrid, taking place in Spain in October of this year.

Visual Development for Miracles and Inspirations

Miracles and Inspirations is a short film completed by Bucks animation graduate Monika Dzikowicz, which shows what could happen if art could take us back to the times it was created in.

The film tells the story of the unusual friendship between a young girl and an ancient Roman sculpture of a woman. It explores themes of imagination, the creativity of children, and the inspirations we take from our memories and from everyday life.

The film was produced within the scope of the online competition - The Animation Talent Award  2013. It was designed, directed and animated by Monika Dzikowicz. Music was by Boris Nonte, and the Executive producer was Paolo Polesello.

To see the film, which runs about two minutes, see below:


 
Miracles & Inspirations - animated short film by Monika Dzikowicz from Animation Talent Award on Vimeo.

We strongly encourage all our students to enter competitions. Even if you don't win, you gain invaluable experience just by competing. There is nothing like a competition to make you raise your game and try harder; ultimately this is how digital artists improve their skills and forge successful careers in creative media.

You can read more about Monika's work here.  To see more work by our talented undergraduate students and recent graduates, see this recent post about the art of Sabah Masood. Also check out the work of Andy Thomas here, and see our latest commercial project for Rocketseed, our short film done for a global aid agency, and take a look at the excellent work of architectural visualisation specialist Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan.

Annecy Replay - see what you missed at the world's biggest animation festival

Annecy is the world's biggest and longest-standing animated film festival. Hosted in the idyllic Alpine village of Lake Annecy, the setting could not be more beautiful, and the hotels could not be more booked up.

For those of you who missed animation's annual international shindig, either because you couldn't get a room, or you booked too late, or you simply didn't get around to it - visit this page to see the highlights. And make a point of going next year. It's a great place to see excellent work, meet other film-makers, catch up on the latest technology breakthroughs and - who knows - maybe even win a prize.

Why animators should go to FMX on April 22

FMX is the place to be if you want to break into the visual effects industry. It takes place in Stuttgart every year - this year from April 22-25. It's a big, bustling, crowded, brain-boiling congress of people who work in the global visual effects industry, getting together for their annual shindig. Everyone shows up - and there are lectures, screenings and panel talks on every imaginable aspect of the visual effects process.

For students, it costs €150 to get in to the whole event (€75 for the day), plus you will have travel and accommodation to deal with. But as a window into the VFX world - there is nothing like it. It is the biggest event in the Europe.

And it's not just about gawking and window-shopping. There is business to be done as well. Make sure you polish your demo reel and your online portfolio - all the big VFX houses will be there in force, competing to hire the best graduates and spot the new rising stars. It is a perfect opportunity to chat to recruiters and find out what they are looking for, what the latest trends are in the business; what skills are in short supply.

I went to FMX a couple of years ago, and I simply could not believe the breadth and scope of the event. After all, who thinks of Stuttgart when they think of visual effects? But Stuttgart is to VFX as Annecy is to Animation, and as Cannes is to film. It is, quite simply, the place to be.

And no, you don't have to speak German. Almost everything is conducted in English. And, nowadays, the Germans speak better English than we do.

You can see the FMX website here for more details.

---Alex

Bucks Animation students visit Blue GFX at London's South Bank

Blue GFX Expo is the annual London showcase for the visual effects industry and the software that drives it, sponsored by (among many others) the software-wizards Autodesk - who make Maya and 3DStudioMax, and much of the other software that we use in the VFX industry.

Housed slightly incongruously in the vast and rambling Edwardian County Hall building on London’s South Bank, the Expo was marvelously hard to find, but highly rewarding to attend.

Visual Effects Artists aren’t generally the best speakers. Most of us talk in a strange form of jargon that is only intelligible to fellow sufferers of the VFX virus. How many digital artists can explain what they do to their Mum before her eyes glaze over and she says "that's nice, dear" before changing the subject?

Demonstrating software can be a dry business at the best of times. It isn’t a recipe for crowd-pleasing speeches. Still, with so much of our industry being technology-led, it’s essential to keep up with the newest releases, lest you get left behind in the race for pipeline efficiency and a speedy workflow.

Yesterday's river View. Earth hath nothing to show more fair...

The Expo was housed in the magnificent County Hall building on London's South Bank. It was built between 1911 and 1922 in the Edwardian Baroque style, the last gasp of high imperial self-confidence before architecture fell under the spell of modernism.

County Hall

Today, County Hall hosts an odd variety of attractions including the London Eye, The London Aquarium, a couple of hotels - and the London Film Museum.

Grand staircase at County Hall

Since the Expo took place next door to the London Film Museum, the corridors were filled with bits of old movie sets. Here's one from one of those end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it pictures that comes out every summer.

Lady Liberty is in the house

BlueGFX was excellent; a showcase of talent, including presentations from some of the very best animators and visual effects artists working in the UK today.

A number of the presenters were showcasing VRay, a relatively new rendering system that aims to render everything you need - faster better and cheaper than ever before. We saw amazing clips from the Elder Scrolls. We ogled at beautiful breakdown reels showing how CG elements were combined with live action to produce stunning visual effects work. Digital doubles, CG environments, smoke, hair simulation. Everything is faster, cheaper, quicker, bringing film-quality visual effects to episodic TV and games. 

IKEA Chair - real, or CGI? Who can tell?

But it's not just movies. Even your friendly local IKEA catalogue is now one third fakery. That means IKEA are photographing digital furniture in 3D software, rather than shooting the real thing. But why go to the trouble? Because its easier and cheaper, and the viewer can’t tell the difference. Plus, they can adjust the renders to suit local tastes. The kitchen of a Hasidic family in Jerusalem will look different from that of an uptown Manhattan socialite. Rather than re-build a real kitchen, you simply adjust a digital one. Quicker, cheaper, and more flexible.

The UK's largest TV animation studio

I got to meet Tom Box and Adam Shaw, the creators of Blue Zoo, who gave an excellent presentation on how they started up their studio from scratch in 2000, having just graduated from the National Centre for Computer Studies at Bournemouth University - an inspiring story for talented graduates everywhere.

And what an incredible opportunity for our students to meet the founders of one of London's leading animation studios. How often do you get the chance to talk in person with the people who - a few years from now - will be looking at your demo reel and deciding whether or not to offer you a job?

We also heard a fabulous talk by Framestore's Diarmid Harrison-Murray who directed the excellent title sequence for Skyfall. It took me back to some not-so-happy memories of Soho VFX work as he explained having to work 3 days without sleep in order to get the job done on time.

So secret even the artists weren't allowed to know

And, astonishingly, the team at Framestore were not even allowed the hear the music for the title sequence until near the end of production - it was too secret to let the artists hear it. But how can you possibly animate a musical title sequence without the music - and still do a brilliant job?

When he was asked what was the biggest lesson he had learned in visual effects, he said this:

"You have to get used working with clients. They will routinely mess up your beautiful work, make stupid changes. Being able to do this - and not scream into a pillow - is a vital skill to learn. And that goes for all client work".

Amen to that.

---Alex