UK Creative industries are "worth £71.4 billion per year"

Creative industries are worth £71 billion a year

The UK Creative industries are "worth £71.4 billion per year", according to the UK's Business Secretary Vince Cable. In an article in Wired news two days ago, the British Government announced a big new investment in a NextGen Skills Academy to help close the skills gap in creative industries in the UK.  The story was also covered by the BBC. What does this mean for students at Bucks? Hopefully, big new opportunities in employment in the future.

Vince Cable

Cable also added that: "Visual effects and games in particular are a great British success story. But if we're to maintain our cutting-edge position, we need to make sure that we have the talent and skills the industry needs."

Plus, the industry is expanding fast. According to a a report from Ukie and the innovation charity Nesta, there are currently some 1,900 games businesses in the UK - an astonishing number in an industry that is only likely to increase in size.

Arts minister Ed Vaizey described the creative sector as "a powerhouse within the UK economy" but said employers often found it hard to recruit staff who were up-to-speed with the latest technologies.


Here at Bucks we teach cutting edge skills with the latest software. If you're interested in getting the training you need to become a great animator, and take advantage of the opportunities now on offer in new media industries, come in and visit us on our next Open Day, and discuss how we can help you start your career in creative media.

---Alex

Does Education Encourage Creativity - or Kill It?

Sir Ken Robinson. Photo: Wikipedia

Sir Ken Robinson is an educator who believes passionately in the importance of teaching creativity in our schools. In an interview on Radio 4 yesterday morning, he talked about why he thinks our system of education is broken and needs fixing. Robinson argues that creative thinking and creativity are a vitally important - and widely neglected - part of our education system. Dance, he says, should be as important as Maths, of equal value and time in the curriculum. If you missed him on the radio, you can watch his fascinating (and very entertaining) 2007 TED talk below.

Robinson argues that the stuff we learn today in school is geared to the needs of the 19th century economy, when universal education systems were first being built. This is a curriculum which is out of date, and ignores the needs of the 21st Century economy, where creativity and the ability to invent new ideas are the paramount skills needed.




Here at Bucks we believe that creativity can be taught. Studying 3D animation and the digital arts is not just about learning the right tools and which buttons to press. Yes, technical expertise is necessary, but creativity matters too. Good digital artists are just that - artists. Inventive, creative, funny and entertaining artists.

Every great project begins with an idea

London's visual effects houses charge far more than their counterparts in Asia. How can they afford to charge a premium? The answer lies in a unique blend of technical excellence and creative talent. The perfect digital artist knows the software inside out - and also knows what to do with it. Clients come to London because they get - and expect - something extra.

Technical excellence and creativity

Pleasing clients is what commercial artists do for a living. This means coming up with ideas, creative solutions, ways to make the client look good. Creativity and creative thinking is at the very heart of the process.

Learning animation isn't just about technical excellence - though this is also vital. It's about coming up with great ways to apply what you have learned. Creating great projects is what we aim to do here at Bucks. Our university was recently ranked among the top ten creative universities in the UK.  In addition, we are currently ranked number one in terms of facilities spend per student. This is probably because of the huge recent investment in the Gateway Building, a creative media hub which hosts the most modern facilities money can buy.

Gateway Building

We have motion capture, TV cameras, Green Screen rooms, Computer rooms, a dance hall, performance facilities, recording rooms and sound mixing suites. All of it is state of the art, and the opportunities for collaboration between departments are huge. Creativity and creative thinking are at the very heart of what we do.

---Alex

For more about 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. And find out about how our online video tutorials work

What is Cartoon Forum, exactly? Deadline: 27 May

What is Cartoon Forum? Only Europe's biggest TV pitch-fest for animation. If you have a project in your head that you would like to submit to producers, business angels and broadcasters, Cartoon Forum is the place to be. The deadline to submit your TV project is 27 May. So, you have just under two weeks to sharpen your pencils and polish your pitch.

To get started, visit the Cartoon Forum application page. This supplies full details of how to enter, and the link to the online form.
The details:

The 25th Cartoon Forum, the co-pro and pitching event for animated TV series, will take place from 23-26 Sep 2014 in Toulouse (France), gathering 850 animation professionals, including 250 buyers.

To find out more, watch these videos

- Why attend? Interviews of participants

- What is it? User guide

Got questions? The person who runs Cartoon Forum is Annick Maes, Cartoon Forum Director, and you can reach her by email:
forum@cartoon-media.eu
or by phone: +32 2 242 93 43

http://www.cartoon-media.eu/cartoon-forum/cartoon-forum-2014.htm

Even the mighty Peppa Pig began as an idea....

Here at Bucks we encourage all our students to pitch ideas for animation, for TV series, for movies - anything that gets you thinking about the creative side of animation. Becoming an animator is not just about learning your craft, it's about thinking, creating - coming up with ideas. Who knows? Your idea could be the next Peppa Pig, Bob The Builder, or Teletubbies.

So what's stopping you?

----Alex

Editor's note: For more on Cartoon Forum, see our previous post here, and also here. To find out about how an animated TV series get made, see our transcript of a lecture by London's Blue Zoo, To read about Cartoon Movie, where you can pitch animated movies, see this post.

Tonight! Bucks Enterprise Creative Talent Showcase - Thursday 6th March at 6.30pm

Calling all animators - don't forget to come along tonight on Thursday 6th March to support your fellow student Ben Gray in the Bucks Enterprise Creative Talent Showcase. Ben's game Moonbeam was shortlisted for the Talent Showcase back in February, facing off stiff competition from undergraduates all across the University, Ben was competing with students from other creative disciplines such as product design, dance performance, stand up comedy, fashion, art fixtures and film-making.

Arts4Everyone Centre, Desborough Rd, High Wycombe. Source: Google Maps Streetview

The big show takes place on thursday night at the Arts4every1 Centre, Desborough Road,
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP11 2PU. It starts at 6.30pm and ends at 10.30pm. Tickets are free, but you will need to log in and register here.

Full details can be found at the Enterprise at Bucks website here.

To get to the Arts4Everyone building (which looks like a lot like a converted Methodist chapel) from Bucks New Uni, all you need to do is walk up Desborough rd, past the Eden centre on your right (the big shopping mall). According to Google maps, it's a nine minute walk.

A short walk up Desborough Rd

So now you know. It's free, you know where and when it is - you have no excuses not to go along and cheer Ben on!

---Alex

(Editor's Note: For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood. Also take a look at the work of Andy Thomas here, 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 designer Monika Dzikowicz, architectural visualisation specialists Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield, Jaffar Ali and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan.)

Failing Faster

The idea behind this excellent four minute video, spotted by Bucks graduate Monika Dzikowicz, is that since all of us are likely fail in almost everything we do (at least at first) the key to success is to fail faster.  The argument runs like this: no idea comes out fully formed, it needs to be tweaked, revised and perfected, but you have to get it out there to see how best to improve it.


The guys who made this are game designers, so their view is that if you don't keep testing your stuff, you will never create a good game. Of course, the principle goes way beyond games - it applies to just about anything that any of us do. Your ideas don't have to be perfect, you just have to get on with things. With is another way of saying - stop agonizing - and just do it.

Of course, this is one of the great things about being at university. Your work does not have to be perfect, or even near perfect. You just have to keep doing, and trying, until, at the end of your three year degree, having made plenty of mistakes along the way, you start to do seriously good work.

So keep at it, and trust in yourself - you will get there, and you will succeed in the end. What we all need to do is learn to fail faster.

---Alex