Bucks Animation Student Kalim Momen is Rusty - For a Day

As everyone at Bucks knows, Rusty is our official university mascot, the big furry character with antlers who welcomes you to our University Open Days and to Freshers’ Week. This week we did some filming for a short video about life at the university, and we needed someone to play Rusty. Fortunately, Kalim Momen, one of our 2nd year animation students, was game to try out the Rusty suit, and see what life is like as a loveable cartoon deer.

Kalim gets suited up

Animators sometimes forget that we are actors too. Unlike most actors, we act out our performances (for the most part) with a mouse, or a pencil, and most of our work is done in our imaginations. If we act something out, it is generally for reference only. The final product will be the animation itself.

On this occasion, Kalim had to try something different – using his body to become the character, like regular actors do. To get into the part, he had to get dressed up in the Rusty costume - which took a lot longer than you might think.

As it turned out, Kalim was a great Rusty; he quickly got into the swing of things, doing silly walks, hugging visitors, and generally putting a smile on everyone’s face. Rusty is the official mascot of the Bucks Students' Union, and the SU could not have been more helpful getting us up and running.

Kalim also discovered some other things about spending the day as a cartoon buck. Big antlers make it hard to fit through doorways, and even on a cold day in November, the inside of a thick fuzzy deer suit gets very, very hot indeed.

Suited at last!

I know this from personal experience because years ago I got to play Goofy at DisneyWorld. Out in the Florida heat and humidity I thought I was going to boil alive. Twenty minutes was enough for me. Kalim on the other hand managed well over an hour – a fine achievement of endurance.

Rusty gets a big hug. Go Rusty!

In the end, we got the footage we needed, and Kalim got some great experience being an actor and performer. Now all he has to do is apply those skills to his animation....

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.

Activities Week Comes to Bucks! - Monday November 17th

Activities Week at Bucks

Monday November 17th is the start of Activities Week at Bucks - a chance to explore the many and diverse aspects of life at the university, and tackle something new, exciting and different. It's all organised through the Bucks Student Union and forms part of the Bucks Big Deal - which aims to offer our students great value for money, making sure you're not confronted with unexpected costs or extra expenses. Best of all Activities Week is a chance to try your hand at stuff you've never done before.

Some of the activities this year include:

• Dance lessons
• Metal casting
• Learn sign language
• Spanish lessons
• Rock climbing
• Bubble football
• Ceramics
• CV writing
•  First Aid

The activities are many and varied and all are free. Be warned though - the popular sessions will fill up fast, so book early. But most of all - have fun! It's a break from your regular classes and a chance to try something completely different.

To find out more, visit the official site at http://www.bucksstudentsunion.org/news/article/6013/Activities-Week/

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. 

The Cheapest Way from High Wycombe to London - Revealed at Last!

Bucks SU Inter-Campus Link Bus

Getting to and from London can be expensive for our students in High Wycombe, but finally we can reveal The Cheapest Way to travel from High Wycombe to London. Instead of taking the train from the main station, all you have to do is catch the free Bucks Students' Union Inter-Campus Link Bus. It goes to (and from) our High Wycombe campus to the Uxbridge campus. From Uxbridge, catch the Tube from Uxbridge station into Central London on the Metropolitan line or the Piccadilly line using your Oyster card. If you travel off-peak, a return ticket to central London is just £6, and you won't pay more than £8.90 for a whole day's travel within the capital.

London - just £8 away. Photo: Wikipedia

To find the free shuttle bus, follow this link.  And to see a timetable of when the service runs (every half hour), follow this link which connects to a PDF timetable.

You will need one of these

Why travel to and from London? Because that's where the animation and visual effects industry is to be found. Wycombe has many pleasures, but show business is thin on the ground here. If you are looking for VFX events like Blue GFX, or seeking an internship or a job  - you've got to get yourself to London (and back). Luckily, we're not far away. 

Wycombe train station. Fast trains to London - but pricey. Photo: Wikipedia

Of course, the most direct and speedy way is to take the train from Wycombe Railway Station to Marylebone; there are two fast trains every hour, but if you're counting the pennies (and most of our students are) then the free Students' Union Inter-Campus Link Bus is a very cost-effective way to make the most of all that the capital has to offer. And you get to ride in a Mercedes Benz.

The journey time is around 25 minutes, depending on the traffic. Note that the last bus home to Wycombe from Uxbridge is at 9.15pm, so don't be late.

To check the latest prices on tube tickets, visit the official tfl page, or this handy page here.

Another option - Bus 740 and A40

If the free bus doesn't suit your timetable, don't forget there is a public bus from High Wycombe to Uxbridge. It's the 740 and A40, run by Carousel, and costs £4.30 to go to Uxbridge. These Carousel buses run much earlier than the free shuttle, from around 5.30am, so if you need to get to London early,  this is the way to go. You can find out more here.

---Alex

The Bucks Learning Partnership Agreement

The Learning Partnership Agreement is a formal agreement thrashed out between staff and students here at Bucks. It sets out what you can expect from the staff, and what staff can expect from students. The document was produced jointly by students, the Students' Union, and the University, and gets reviewed and updated each year. Why is it important? Because it sets out in detail what exactly you can expect from the university.

Every felt badly treated by a member of staff at Bucks? Show them the agreement. The first line of "Our commitment to you" reads as follows: "Everyone working for the university will treat students and colleagues with courtesy and respect". Next someone gives you the brush-off, quote the Learning Partnership Agreement to them. Other staff duties include being "punctual and well-prepared", and to "provide a stimulating physical and virtual learning environment".

On the other hand, the agreement also sets out your duties and obligations as a student. Among these duties are: "to be punctual and well-prepared for all scheduled learning activities". Next time you stroll in late without having completed the assignment, consider that you might not be fulfilling your side of the bargain.

Late for submitting your work? Once again, the learning agreement states that you will "submit assessed work on time".

Here at Bucks we're trying out a new way of teaching. It's called "flipping the classroom", and it involves using precious classroom time for workshops, not for lectures. The idea is that you watch the lecture before coming to class, and then get the most out of classroom time for one-on-one feedback. We have literally hundreds of videos on animation hosted at Vimeo. Watch the videos, learn at your own pace, and you can't fail to master your craft.

But the system only works if you actually do the work in advance. Come to class without having done the work, and you are not really getting the most out of your time at Bucks.

Careers in media are competitive, and the digital arts are no exception. Standards are rising every year not just nationally but internationally, and to be able to compete for entry level jobs you need to be working at a professional level by the time you leave university. This means not just completing the assignments which are set for you, but going beyond the brief and absorbing as much as you can not only from the lecturers at Bucks but from your fellow students and also from online tutorials.

We want you to be the best you can be, and to graduate already deeply immersed in the professional world of the digital arts. But to do that we need you to practice hard, and commit to your studies.

For more on the Bucks Learning Partnership, follow this link.

And, to see the whole document, see below:

---Alex

Wanted: Student Reps: Reward - £100

Fancy being a student representative? Now is your chance! The election is organised by the Bucks Students' Union, and nominations to be a student rep closes on 6 March at noon. The actual voting takes place from March 10-14. And student reps get to enjoy more than just the fruits of democracy - a £100 reward is available. To collect your £100, you have to attend a training day, attend two Programme Committee Meetings (PCMs), fill out a couple of evaluation forms, and also give and receive feedback for your class. Overall you will be expected to dedicate around 10 hours across the course of the year.

You can find more information here: http://www.bucksstudentsunion.org/elections

Sign up today for life drawing at Bucks!

Calling all Bucks animators and digital artists! Today is the day to sign up with the Bucks Students' Union for their life drawing classes. We strongly recommend that everyone sign up. It's great skill to acquire and will help all our animators become better artists. Drawing skills help with design, storyboards, thumbnails - all necessary parts of the animation process.

Full details below. Sign up now and don't wait - these classes are popular and will fill up fast!



Life drawing classes will be running from Tuesday 28th January 5pm-7pm for 8 weeks. To sign up to the activity, students will need to email Kate Blythe (kate.blythe@bucks.ac.uk) with their full name, student ID and contact number on Tuesday 21st January from 9am.


The Rules:
1. Only one person and can sign up per email.
2. Spaces will be allocated on a first come, first served basis
3. Spaces are limited and, if there is high demand, there is a good chance that some students will not get a space.
4. If the student manages to get a space they will be asked to pay a £10 commitment deposit into the Student Union reception.
5. It is important that students can commit to 6 out of the 8 weeks as if anymore of the sessions are missed then they will not receive their deposit back.
6. Any students who do not secure a space on the course will go onto the reserve list therefore is anyone does not pay their deposit or drops out, then they will be offered the space.

For more information, contact  Kate Blythe, Student Activities assistant.

t: 01494 601 600 | e: kate.blythe@bucks.ac.uk
Bucks Students’ Union, Queen Alexandra Road, High Wycombe, Bucks, HP11 2JZ

www.bucksstudentsunion.org

Time to put down your Wacom tablets and sharpen your pencils!

----Alex