Are Universities Failing the UK's Visual Effects Industry?

Pat Joseph, co-founder and chief creative officer of The Mill, certainly thinks so. In this post at the Televisual blog,  Joseph argues that higher education in the UK is not responding to the needs of the visual effects industry, and is not training students of the digital arts to a sufficiently high calibre. What can universities do to try harder?

Joseph argues that schools and universities are simply not doing enough. He says that "there is still a general lack of awareness about the VFX industry from a careers perspective. The explosion of content requiring sophisticated VFX needs has to be equally matched with suitably talented artists and it continues to be a challenge finding new talent to this high level."

Joseph then goes on to say: "My concern is that the British education system still isn't really laying out visual effects as a career option and so in turn, students aren't graduating with the right skills. Demand continues to grow, but universities that do train to industry standard, such as Bournemouth University, are struggling to meet it."

Pat Joseph isn't just complaining though; he also recognises the need for industry to do its part. As he puts it: "We need to continue to work closely with schools and universities in order to attract the best candidates and engage with them from a young age. So here at The Mill we really believe in backing and nurturing our talent as we want them to do the best work of their careers with us."

One of our animation classrooms at Bucks

Part of the problem, of course, is that visual effects is still a young industry, and most of the people who are very good at it tend to be out there doing it, rather than teaching it at university. In addition, the industry is something of a moving target; the technology changes all the time, and keeping up with the latest commercial trends isn't always easy, especially when university courses have to be both internally and externally validated in lengthy and rather bureaucratic processes.

That said, universities can and should try harder. Three years is long enough for an undergraduate to acquire the right skills, if only we focus on the skills that industry needs. Here at Bucks we have world class facilities - the Gateway building houses a vast array of media production disciplines.

Gateway - our new media hub

Our Animation and visual effects course launched in September 2013, building on a long tradition of animation at Bucks. We want to create the best visual effects course in the country, pushing our students to acquire exactly the sort of skills that are needed by studios like The Mill.

---Alex 

Framestore signs off on our new course

Head of Animation at Framestore Kevin Spruce has signed off on our new course at Bucks. We're thrilled that Framstore have OK'ed our course outline, and especially the module which focuses on creature animation, preparing students to be able to animate animals and creatures to a professional level, and preparing our graduates for work in the expanding animation and visual effects industry.

We hear a lot about skills shortages in industry, but there is no substitute for speaking to leading figures at our best companies to find out what skills they need, and where the shortages are. For many years animation schools have focused largely on character animation - that's the Pixar-style stuff, teaching students to give a character performance.

Creature work is a bit different. Companies like Framestore have to be able to re-create lifelike and photo-real animal and creature performance and then - and this is the really tricky bit - layer in a character performance on top. Think of the armoured bears in Golden Compass, animated by Framestore, and you start to get the idea of how difficult a task this can be.

We're aiming to give our students a solid grounding in this kind of animal and creature work, so that our graduates can take aim at the best visual effects houses in Soho, find employment, and build themselves a satisfying career.

---Alex

What's wrong with VFX training in the UK? - Creative Skillset has the answers

A huge part of our mission at Bucks is to make our course industry-relevant. We want our students to have cutting-edge skills so that they have the best possible prospects of finding exciting, challenging and well-paid work in the animation, games and visual effects industry.

With that in mind, I came to the Creative Skillset Tutor Day at BFI yesterday at the South Bank, to find out what we can do better here at Bucks to improve our course. The focus of Creative Skillset is the VFX Course Handbook (you can download a copy here), a detailed document painstaking put together by Creative Skillset in close consultation with the VFX industry to identify exactly what should go into an industry-relevant course.

Core Skills Handbook - worth a look

We've been paying close attention to the Skillset Handbook as we re-tool our Animation & VFX course, to make it more closely focused on the needs of industry. The Handbook is designed to be modular, so that relevant sections can be dropped right into a University course.

There were plenty of tutors present, also lots of folks from industry including Anna Swift, head of recruitment at Framestore, with whom we have been working closely to make sure that our creature animation module closely matches the needs of Framestore - and of course other VFX houses. Anna has been hugely helpful and I get the impression generally that industry is delighted to co-operate with Universities - if only we can reach out them and forge relationships.

The lectures focused chiefly on relevant skills - the most commonly used software (Maya for 3D work and Nuke for 2D compositing), and on what the universities can do to supply industry with graduates who are job-ready.

Skillset offers assistance, advice - and goodies, such as funds to send students off to conferences like  FMX (sadly no more cash is left this year), and a roster of VFX ready assets which you can access here. The Skillset website is a good place to start if you're looking to make sure your skills are up to date - their whole remit is to make sure that students are learning the right skills to get hired.

Overall, their tutor day was a great idea, an opportunity to meet the Skillset folks as well as other tutors and also a reminder that the needs of industry change constantly.  We at the universities need to be swift on our feet to ensure that we are offering students the very latest training and tools.

---Alex

Disney kills 2D Animation - Official

The Princess and the Frog - Disney's last 2D feature

According to an article in yesterday's Guardian, 2D animation is officially dead at Disney, the studio which took the medium to its greatest-ever heights. At the annual shareholder meeting in Phoenix Arizona, CEO Bob Iger said:

"To my knowledge we're not developing a 2D or hand-drawn feature animated film right now. There is a fair amount of activity going on in hand-drawn animation but it's largely for television at this point. We're not necessarily ruling out the possibility [of] a feature but there isn't any in development at the company at the moment."

It's a sad end to a great tradition. But at least it's official. I am still amazed at the number of animation students who believe that Disney is still in the hand-drawn animation business, and will be hiring animators for 2D features.

Here at Bucks we are making sure that all of our students learn skills which will get them employed in today's job market. That means using the latest software and giving our students all the vital skills they need to get find jobs and set up their own mini-studios. Soho VFX houses are constantly bemoaning the skills gap among UK graduates. It's time to fill those gaps.

---Alex

(Editor's Note: To find out more about how we're keeping on top of technology here at Bucks, you can read about how we are partnering with the animation industry, how we're talking to Creative Skillset to get early accreditation, and use our floating licenses for online tutorials - perfect for any student who wants to upgrade their skills.)

FLIP: The animation student who created his own job

FLIP: The animation student who created his own job:   Marc Godfrey is an animation student with a passion to work in the entertainment industry. At a time when finding work can be hard eve...

Who Wants a Career in Animation?

I've been doing a lot of talks lately at schools and 6th form colleges, getting the word out about our new animation and VFX course here at Bucks. So far I've been getting a great response, though it is tough for students to get a good feeling for what a career in animation might involve, and what the options are. And, in a fifteen minute pitch, there is only so much you can say.

Above is a 20 minute video which talks in a bit more detail about careers in animation. It explores some of the possible choices for a well-trained animator, some of the different kinds of careers available, and what sort of skills that a graduate will need to break into the industry.


Enjoy!

----Alex