Bucks animation students' work featured on TV

Our students' animation for the tech company Rocketseed has been featured on Chinese and French television. The network CNTV (China Network Television) has used some of the animation we did for Rocketseed in an English language news segment about start-up businesses in South Africa (Rocketseed is a South African company). We're proud that our students' excellent work is appearing on television, and reaching the widest possible audience.

To see the news item, copy and paste the link below into your browser.
http://english.cntv.cn/2014/08/05/VIDE1407204483721985.shtml

And in case you don’t want to watch the full interview, fast forward to 1.02 to see our bit.

There’s also a French version with a slightly different edit, shown in the video below



If it won't play for some reason, paste the URL below into your browser
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr89qmlHOmQ

Again, if you don't want to see the whole news piece, our bit starts at 2.00

To see the whole film we did for Rocketseed, click on this link. To find out about how we are finding work for our students and recent graduates at Nano Films, follow this link.  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 

Rocketseed Salesforce - our students' latest commercial project

One of the most effective ways that we can ensure that our animation and visual effects students at Bucks find work when they graduate is to get out there and find work on their behalf. Last year we launched Nano Films, a small animation business making short films for commercial clients. The budgets are not large but then neither are the films, and there is nothing like client-facing projects to give our students the vital experience they need to build a successful career.

www.nano-films.org

The video shown above was made for Rocketseed, an email company that specialises in clickable banners that supply sales data to businesses, helping get better and smarter at targeting new customers. Our students didn't shoot the live action but we did everything else: the motion graphics, the sound mix and the final edit. The job was designed and directed by Bucks graduate Monika Dzikowicz, the motion graphics was done by first year undergraduate Anton Alfimenko, and the music was by Bucks graduate Kris Allen.

Many congratulations to the three of them for doing an excellent job. We hope to bring in more jobs like this so that more and more of our students can start to polish their skills on live briefs, bringing in excellent experience and some extra income as well.

(Editor's Note: For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out Anton Alfimenko's recreation of Old Trafford, 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 specialist Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan.)

Learn Flash with Andy Sykes - free online video tutorials!

Andy's in the house

Right now our first year students at Bucks are learning how to use Adobe Flash, creating 2D animation as part of their first Introduction to Animation Module. As with all of our classes (and with higher education in general), the formal instruction is just the starting point for an in-depth understanding of the subject. Animation is a complex craft that takes time and patience to master, and we encourage our students to make use of all the resources available.

Fortunately, students today are blessed with an astonishing variety and breadth of web content, including free tutorials in just about anything one could ever want to learn. Flash is no exception to this rule. Below is a link to an excellent website which hosts a series of excellent - and highly recommended - free tutorials in Flash.

The site was built by Andy Sykes and is a superb resource for students. It won't surprise you to learn that Andy is not just an experienced animator but he teaches Flash at Universities around the UK.  All the videos are completely free and can be found here.

As with any online content, you should start with the simple stuff and build up. At www.hexjibber.com Andy teaches the basics, layering in more advanced material like walk cycles, lipsync, and other animation skills.

There is also a YouTube channel here where you can watch the videos.

Here at Bucks we believe that a good animator will have mastered the skills involved in doing both 2D and 3D digital animation. Most of the skills involved are highly transferable from one to another. A good animator must master timing and spacing, and must be able to give a performance. After all, we are entertainers, not robots. The software we learn is just a tool, not an end in itself.

On top of this, we're doing a growing number of small commercial projects, which by their very nature tend to be done in 2D, since there isn't time to build complex 3D assets. We've been using Flash for these paid projects, as a way of giving our students real-world experience, polished professional work for their demo reels - and a bit of extra cash.

All made in Flash

You can see our first film, for a global aid agency, here, and our second film, made for the tech company Rocketseed, here. 

---Alex

Rocketseed - our latest commercial project

Recently we have been tackling short commercial projects, working with some of the recent Bucks graduates, such as Monika Dzikowicz, Lydon Fleisig, Dave Berry, Paula Gillin and Allan De Leal.

Our latest film follows from our most recent project: "What is Wrong with the Global Development Oragnisation?", which is now competing for prizes in festivals around the world.  This short film - about the problems faced by all organisations trying to help out in faraway places - has now got an IMDB entry, so our students can now link to their own IMDB profiles.



What's the point of an IMDB profile?  - only that the IMDB is the first place that people look to find out what other film-makers have done. If you're serious about working in film, video or digital media - you want to be listed on the IMDB.

Our IMDB entry

At the top of this post is our latest completed film, Rocketseed Email Solutions.  Rocketseed is a tech company that offers clickable email banners, with built-in analytics so that a company's email can become an important marketing tool. The purpose of the film was to help their prospective customers understand exactly what it is that Rocketseed do, so that they can get their message across more quickly and effectively. Animation is a wonderful tool for taking complex ideas and getting them across in a simple, clear way.

Sound design was done by Kris Allen, and the sound recording work was done by Robert Brown. For the voice, we needed an older, female, actor - per the client's request - so we went with Bucks tutor Natanya Ford, who sent us a voice sample from New York City where she was organising an international sound design Expo.

The project was designed and directed by Monika Dzikowicz, who also did the finished edit, and all the storyboards. Animation was done by Lydon Fleisig, Dave Berry, Paula Gillin and Allan De Leal, and also involved one of my students from my online school www.animationapprentie.org - Pete Nicholson.

We're delighted to be able to help our recent graduates find paid work, developing their skills and improving their demo reels. It's also great training for their future professional life, much of which will be spent on client-facing projects, where there is seldom enough time to finish the job as you would like to see it done. But, somehow or how other, you just have to do it anyway.

Here's what the client had to say this morning:
"I just wanted to send a more formal thank you for the wonderful animation you have created for us. We really are delighted with it. Thank you as well for delivering such a quality production on time."

Congratulations to everyone who worked on Rocketseed for doing such a stellar job.

---Alex