What Is It Like For Overseas Students Studying at Bucks? Radoslav Hristov Explains

From Bulgaria to High Wycombe. Image: Wikipedia

Radoslav Hristov is one of our newest students at Bucks, having come to High Wycombe from Bulgaria to study Animation and Visual Effects. We asked him to talk about what brought him to the UK, and what life is like at Bucks for students from overseas.

3D Model by Radoslav Hristov

Bucks: How did you find about about studying Animation & VFX at Bucks?

RH: I initially started looking for universities in Bulgaria, but unfortunately none of them had anything to do with 3D art and animation, therefore I looked up the course I wanted abroad, which then led me to Bucks.

Of course, there were many other universities to choose from, but it was the showreel that caught my attention. It is why I'm starting to think that showreels are important for catching new students' attention.

3D artwork by Radoslav Hristov

Bucks: How has your experience been so far?  

RH: The experience within the course so far is beyond my expectations, the lessons are very smooth and clear. It's like being in school, only 10 times more fun!

Outside Bucks has so far been a positive experience. Bulgarian students would be surprised at the climate changes here in the UK. Most people, including me, expect it to be rainy every day, but so far it's been quite sunny.

3D Artwork by Radoslav Hristov

Bucks: What has been the biggest challenge you have faced? 

RH: The biggest challenge at least for me and probably almost every Bulgarian student is to manage the standards of living and of course the currency ratios. I also find it difficult to search for any part-time jobs, mainly because I've never worked before and it is all new experience here.

High Wycombe Welcomes You

Bucks:. What can Bucks do to be more welcoming to students from overseas? 

RH: Perhaps Bucks could offer to students a guide/tour or someone who can personally show them around the university and possibly even around the town. Where and what they can do, because I've found it slightly difficult to understand most of the activities during the first 2 weeks. It could be of great benefit for new students to have all the information available to them.


Bucks: What advice would you give to other students from Bulgaria and other countries who would like to study at Bucks? 

RH: Advice: do not make the same mistake as I did. Be prepared to be able to cook and have working experience before going abroad. Otherwise you would find yourself in a difficult situation, far from your family.

Advice to students: Learn to Cook! Image: Wikipedia

Also, don't rely on financial support as you may or may not receive it. Be ready to search for part-time work, because it is unlikely that you will be able to keep yourself going for the next three years without any income.

Money: Always a challenge

However, other than the financial issues new Bulgarian students are likely to have, I think Bucks is an amazing university with talented people and awesome tutors!

Some of my past work can be found here: http://achkata1990.wix.com/radoslavmodelling#!content/c189b

radoslavmodelling | CONTENT
achkata1990.wix.com

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.
 

Enterprise at Bucks - animated by Anton Alfimenko

Enterprise at Bucks is the department of our University which is dedicated to helping students learn real-life skills. Stuff like how to set up a business, how to invoice a client, and how to survive in the commercial world. Many of our students will launch their own freelance careers (even if they also have a day job) when they leave uni - and a good working knowledge of the realities of the marketplace is a vital tool for survival.

To help get their message across about how they can help our students, Enterprise at Bucks has created a short film to communicate clearly what it is that they do. The animation was done over the summer vacation by our very own Anton Alfimenko - now entering his second year of studies at Bucks. Scroll down to see the finished film.





Partnerships like this between staff and students are one of the many ways that we build on relationships within our university. It also helps to get our students experience on live briefs for clients. Every time you do a freelance job, you get better at it, and you gain a better understanding of what it takes to launch a freelance career.

Enterprise at Bucks

To see more about Enterprise at Bucks, and how they can help you start up your own small business (no business too small!) visit their page here.  You can also email Lydiah Igweh at Lydiah.Igweh@bucks.ac.uk


For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. 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. And don't forget to see the simulation work of our students done in RealFlow. To see our student demo reel, click here.

Bucks Animation & VFX Demo Reel 2014

We present our latest demo reel showcasing our students' best work from this past academic year. Among the students whose work is featured here include Monika Dzikowicz, Anton Alfimenko, James Hatton, Jack Strood, Georgia Nicholls, Tosin Oluyadi, David Wheeler and Stacey Houston. Music is by Bucks graduate Kris Allen. Congratulations to everyone who contributed to this latest selection of work done here at Bucks. We're proud of what all our students have achieved, and we look forward to seeing even more ambitious and challenging work in the future.

Gateway - our shiny new media hub

One thing that really stands out in this compilation is the sheer variety of work being done here at Bucks. 3D animation, 2D hand-drawn animation, stop-motion, Visual Effects, Motion Graphics, RealFlow - our students are exploring their talents and developing their own personal style in the medium of their choice.

Sound designer at work at Bucks

One of the best things about studying at Bucks is the sheer range of media resources available - guaranteeing a wide variety of work and collaboration between different disciplines. This is something that we strongly encourage. After all, your time at university should be about exploring your own creative choices, making mistakes, finding your voice, and getting better and better at what you do.

In the end, we want all our students to be creative artists. Employable, yes, skilled, yes, but above all - artists.

To see our 2013 demo reel, click here.  To see more examples of our students' work, check out the first exercise done by our new students here. Also, take a look at the animation of Jack Strood, as well as our latest commercial project for Rocketseed, our short film done for a global aid agency, and take a look at the excellent work of some of our recent graduates, such as designer Monika Dzikowicz, architectural visualisation specialist Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan. Also check out the work of Andy Thomas here.

Rebecca Rochon of the Bucks Learning Development Unit congratulates our students

Rebecca Rochon of the Learning Development Unit (LDU) has formally congratulated our students for their excellent work on a short animated film for use at Bucks. The film, How to write a Lit Review, was completed earlier this year, and aims to help students who are struggling with the process of researching an academic report.

Rebecca wrote: "I wanted to express my thanks on behalf of the LDU for the work you put into the animation How to do a Lit Review.  I have it banked as a teaching resource, it will be built into the LDU organisation on BlackBoard for students, and LearnHigher will be incorporating it into their website for the new academic year."

The film was not a paid project, but each of the students involved received an amazon voucher, and a certificate of appreciation recognising ‘outstanding contribution to the Learning and Teaching Directorate’, signed by the Director of Learning and Teaching at Bucks.

For more about the film (and to watch it), see our blog post here. 

---Alex

To see the impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out SuperFergy in 3D by Anton Alfy, see the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. 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. And don't forget to see the simulation work of our students done in RealFlow. To see our student demo reel, click here.

Student Showcase - Graphic Design and 3D Visualisations by Luke Winn

Treehouse project by Luke Winn

Luke Winn has just completed his studies at Bucks, specialising in graphic design, 3D models and architectural visualisations, and recently exhibited his best work at the Bucks end of year show. We asked him to talk about his work, and what he learned during his time at Bucks.

Design by Luke Winn

Bucks: What kind of work have you specialized in during your final year at Bucks, and what are you most proud of?

Luke: During my first two years at Bucks I did not really know what I wanted to specialise in, so heading into third year I definitely put some pressure on myself to decide. I really enjoy Graphic Design and I think that is what I feel I'm most effective doing. At the same time I enjoy 3D work as well; combining the two helped me to complete all three of my final year projects this year.

Out of all three, I am probably most proud of the Tree Pod. This project definitely combined both areas of interest I have.  I also created a brochure to advertise the Tree Pod itself, as a graphic design project.

Architectural visualisation by Luke Winn

Bucks: What software have you used to create it?

Luke: I used mainly 3DS Max to create the structure itself, using inspiration from other sources, mainly a similar treehouse I discovered online by Joel Allen named the "Hemloft" which I used as a major influence when designing an alternate version of a tree pod. I also used Photoshop to merge the object into the background image with a little help from fellow classmates Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. I also created a small animation to show the construction of the pod from start to finish.
You can find that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqseVyzs-CI
Or better, yet, watch the video below:


Bucks: What have been the highlights of studying at Bucks?

Luke: Wow - there have been a lot! I took the role as student rep for our course during the last two years of the course. This worked out really well, as I felt like I could help make a difference when other students on our course had issues or questions. all in all it was a very good experience. I have made some excellent friends here at Bucks, and many I will keep in touch with for future projects. Also, I became so much more confident by working at my first real retail job during the last two years. There were so many more highlights - too many to list here.

Graphic Design by Luke Winn

Bucks: What sort of work do you hope to do now that you are about to graduate?

Luke: I think first I'm going to work on my portfolio, and then look for some graphic design work or some 3D design work whilst doing it. I also have a lot of side projects I'm going to work on, such as maybe filming some sketch comedy with others, as well as some small individual design projects.

Graphic Design by Luke Winn

Bucks: What advice would you give to a first student at Bucks to get the most out of their time at Uni?

Luke: University is such a change for some people, and it can be a struggle to adapt. If this is the case then I encourage any student with any issues to go to the counselling department. I went for different personal reasons during my time at university and it was probably the best decision I've ever made. They are supportive, flexible and just there if you need them. It's definitely worth it, even for an issue you may not think is overly important - if it's effecting you, then try and get it sorted.

I would also say - don't get too caught up in the workload. Split it evenly and organize it, then spend the rest of the time going out to the SU, sports, whatever. That doesn't mean don't work at all... it just means don't get too absorbed in it so that you lose all ability to communicate with the outside world.

Also, don't always rely on others to finish their part when the final deadline comes around. If you are in a group project, do you own part to make it work, but also make sure the rest pull their weight. Take control of the group if you have to and tell others to communicate to you on a regular basis on their progress. If not, then the whole project might fall apart.

You can see Luke's work at his website here. For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out SuperFergy in 3D by Anton Alfy, see the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. 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. And don't forget to see the simulation work of our students done in RealFlow. To see our student demo reel, click here.)

Student Showcase: Jack Strood introduces "A Spring in her Step"

Jack Strood, one of our final year animation student at Bucks, presents "A Spring in her Step", a short animated film about a girl who wins a dance competition only to find that her celebration is short-lived, as she is faced with a demanding life challenge. The film combines stop-motion techniques with 2D animation, to create a unique blend of different styles. We asked Jack to tell us about the film and how he put it all together.







Bucks: What is your film about? 

Jack: "A Spring in her Step" is a stop motion short film: When a girl wins a dance competition, her celebration is short-lived - with the arrival of another demanding life challenge. 

Bucks: What inspired you to make it? 

I chose stop motion animation as a style, as I did not gel well with computer animation. In my dissertation, I described the main styles of animation - and 3-D CGI was just one of them. The one animation that inspired me through the course of the project was the classic TV series Paddington Bear. This series of short animations that came out in the 1980s echoed my own personal interests really well. 

My own academic background is more of an art, sculpture, media and film setting, so Paddington Bear’s style of drawn background with real puppet animation stood out as a supreme highlight to me. To see characters and sets created with known materials that anybody can relate with, that move and tell a story; it’s the closest thing to magic that I know. I feel that the audience may have ‘CGI fatigue’ nowadays, so watching real-life, psychical objects animate, (hopefully) will resonate more with the audience. They know, almost instinctively, how much work and time it took to sculpt each part.

Set from "A Spring in her step"

Bucks: What were the biggest challenges you faced along the way? 

Jack: The lowest point of this year-long project was when I came close to a breakdown at the end of my second Negotiated Project at Bucks. My problems began when I could not get Laura (the girl character) to form correctly, and her clothes began to unstitch in front of my eyes - all after five hours of hard work. Nothing was going right; I did not have any proper animation tests, and only a half-attempt at a set. Worse, I was severely behind schedule. I travelled home and worked on a monumental catch-up session that lasted a solid fortnight. I started a blog on blogger (http://jackstrood.blogspot.co.uk/) to post everyday for motivation, morale and time management - and I haven’t looked back since. 

I found myself saying ‘What should this look like?’, ‘How is this going to stand up?’ and my personal favourite ‘Why the HELL have I chosen stop motion?!’ The main decisions were ones were that I felt like I had to re-visit a certain area again, as the result previously didn’t quite cut the mustard. 

I had to re-visit the animatic three times to get the timing right and all of the shots correct, as this was a visual representation of the script - and the backbone of any animation. Another case in point is that I had to re-visit Laura’s whole character design from the ground up. Her face and head had to be re-worked, as it looked too plain and didn’t fit, but I soon realised that you could get more out of a wire-lined fabric dress than a heavy knitted one. Finally I had to re-build the camera slider rig as the older wooden one did not have enough stability.

Bucks: What advice would you give to any student at Bucks making a short film? 

Jack: Don’t avoid the obvious, indulge your obsessions and love what you’re doing. The tutors at Bucks are outstandingly supportive and even if they reply with harsh criticism, it means that they know you can take it - and that they believe there is great potential in you as a student and film-maker. 

There was a phrase that I used for self moral support throughout the course of this project: “When everything feels like an uphill struggle, just think of the view from the top.” I found this very supportive, as on every painful step of the project, I had to overcome my initial frustration barrier of plainly not knowing anything about the sub-topic I jumped into. 


Bucks:  What projects can we look forward to in future? 

Jack: An on-going personal project is self-betterment. When I leave university, I will be faced with the task of finding an appropriate job in animation. This will be my next project, as I will dedicate all of my time building up my portfolio, contacting studios and taking any unpaid work experience places out there just to build up contacts. Then, and only then, will there be a solid animation project on the cards, I wouldn’t like to lose momentum with my career.

 (Editor's Note: For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out SuperFergy in 3D by Anton Alfy, see the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. 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. And don't forget to see the simulation work of our students done in RealFlow. To see our student demo reel, click here.)

 

Bucks animators collaborate with the Learning Development Unit to create a unique film project

A group of our awesome animation students have collaborated with the Learning Development Unit here at Bucks to create a unique film project - How To Write a Literary Review. The project is aimed at students who are struggling with the challenging process of carrying out a literary review before writing an essay or dissertation, and aims to simplify and de-mystify the process. We asked the students who worked on the project to explain what they did, and how they pulled it off.






Bucks: What is the project about, and what made you want to take it on?

Jack Strood (director): This project aimed to produce a short animated film to educate students on the process involved in writing a literature review and how to approach the task. The project was initiated as part of the student-staff partnership project in animation, where the Learning Development Unit academics collaborate with Animation and Visual Effects students to produce fresh, exciting new work.

In this case, a group of five students worked together to write the narrative, character design, set design, the animation and finally the sound design for the partnership project. As students, we appreciated to be involved as this was the perfect opportunity to have a client-based project straight from university.

This provided us with the chance to present ourselves as professionals, work as a successful team, delegate roles and work around the client’s needs. The difference that this project has to a university brief is that this animation could possibly have a positive impact on other students writing their own literature review.

Bucks: What were the challenges you met along the way?

Jack Strood: This project came with many challenges; to work through a project challenge-free is very rare - and you are lucky if you do. The challenges came straight from the start. Even the approach to the animation had many different styles, and there were many possible potential story lines that we could have followed.

For instance, the design for the boat had around fifteen completely different designs; the main character went through countless clothing changes and the fish had many alterations before they were finished . These are all natural challenges that every animated project faces, but the main challenge without doubt was perfecting the script.

For students who would approach the task of writing a literature review for the first time, we had a duty to get all of the steps right. The script went back and forth between us and the Learning Development Unit to get the specific details correct on how to write a literature review. The animation course we study on includes a dissertation with a slightly different format, so we had first to educate ourselves on another style of work first before the production could start.

Bucks: What were the best and worst moments? 

Tosin Oluyadi (Lead animator)
As a team we had a lot of ups and downs. It was the first time working on a project together. I guess the best moments would have been the start of the project and just gathering all these great ideas. The worst moments mainly involved the challenges of effective communication between ourselves as a group, and sometimes with the LDU, which threw us back quite a bit in terms of the schedule.

The team

Bucks: What software did you use? 

David Wheeler (designer)
We predominantly used the Adobe Creative Suite for this project. Starting with the storyboards that were created in Photoshop. The Animation and typographic assets were made in Illustrator, and the 2D animation came all together in After Effects. The script was written and edited in Celtx and InDesign for the Learn Higher poster layout and design.

Bucks: What advice would you give to other students at Bucks looking to make a short film together?

Stacey Houston (Producer and Narrator): The advice I would give is this: schedule everything and stick to it. An unrealistic schedule can make hitting a deadline very difficult and stressful. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare everything, and take into account what every student in the group does in their free time. Be it work, hobbies, exercise etc. It all needs to documented before writing your schedule. There is always going to be at least one participant who can’t make it in or cannot deliver for some reason, so be prepared and give yourself plenty of time to recover for when issues occur.

(Editor's Note: For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. 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. And don't forget to see the simulation work of our students done in RealFlow. To see our student demo reel, click here.)

Bucks End of Year Show 2014 - starts Friday 13th June

The Bucks End of Year Show 2014 is almost upon us. Come along to our High Wycombe Campus and see what our talented soon-to-be-graduates have been up to. The show will feature plenty of animation and digital artwork, but it also includes the work done by all the other creative disciplines which flourish at Bucks. Film, TV, Music, Design, Fine Art, Sound design, Dance and Performing Arts - we have everything you need to make creative media under one roof. The show starts on 14th June and runs until the 19th. It's also a great opportunity to take a tour of our campus and see the award-winning facilities available to our students.

For full details of what's involved, and what is happening, see the flyer below:

Last year was a great opportunity to see the work of some of our most talented students, many of who are now forging successful careers in the digital arts.

Come by and check out what our students have done. And in case you can't read the fine print above, here are the opening times again:


Buckinghamshire New University is located in High Wycombe. Just look for the big blue building that looks like an old-fashioned TV set.

Our campus can be a little confusing to navigate when you come for the first time, so here's a handy map to help you find your way around.

You can see more about the show at the official website here.

(Editor's Note: For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. 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. And don't forget to see the simulation work of our students done in RealFlow. To see our student demo reel, click here.)

Student Showcase - David Wheeler takes on Premier nappies

David Wheeler is one of our talented third year students at Bucks, building a portfolio of work to start looking for freelance work and employment in the digital arts. He has developed some excellent skills in digital design and illustration, doing a good deal of design work on group film projects. He is especially proficient with Adobe Illustrator, which led to a recent freelance job for a manufacturer of baby-related products - Premier nappies. We asked him how the job went, and what he had to do to complete it.

Self portrait by David Wheeler

Bucks: You just did some freelance work for baby product manufacturer Premier Nappies? How did it go?

David: I felt it went very well, the company were very friendly, they understood what they wanted from me and it was fun to do!


Bucks: What was the brief?

David: The brief asked me to turn a bitmap PSD (Photoshop) file converted over to a vector illustration with some modifications to the original design along the way.

Adobe Illustrator

Bucks: What software did you use to complete it?

David: Adobe Illustrator (that goes for the rest of all my other illustration work too).

Bucks: What challenges did you meet along the way?

One of the first challenges I encountered was that the company wanted me to visit their office with a laptop, so they could see the illustration take place in front of them. Unfortunately, I don’t own a laptop, and use a desktop computer instead. So, bouncing files between me and the client took a bit of extra time, but it all worked out in the end.


Bucks: What would you do differently next time?

David: As much as I love freelancing from the comfort of home, it is definitely better to own a laptop packed with the Adobe suite just in case!

Summertime by David Wheeler

Bucks: What advice would you offer to students looking to take on freelance work at Uni?

David: Be confident in yourself and talents, know if you can achieve the task at hand and go above and beyond to make the client happy!

Hey Beautiful by David Wheeler

You can see more of David's work at his website here: 

----Alex

(Editor's Note: For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. 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. And don't forget to see the simulation work of our students done in RealFlow. To see our student demo reel, click here.)

Student Showcase - Kalim Momen explains snow simulation using After Effects

Kalim Momen is one of our talented first year animation & VFX students here at Bucks. One of the first year modules that all our students must complete in order to graduate to the next academic year is Broadcast Animation, which tackles the part of our industry that used to be known (rather dismissively) as flying logos. By definition, Broadcast animation counts as animation, just as important as character animation, creature animation - or any other kind of animation. Broadcast animation is where many of the biggest modern digital VFX houses got their start. The brief for Kalim and the other students was to create a title sequence, using Adobe After Effects, for a famous movie - using titles, animation and design to create a sophisticated piece of work, something that could have been used for the movie itself.

Kalim animated a title sequence for Edward Scissorhands

Kalim chose Tim Burton's Edward Scissorhands, a film that helped to define the director's style and also launched the career of led actor Johnny Depp. We asked Kalim a few questions about his project, and how he came to create it.

Bucks: Why Edward Scissorhands?

Kalim: The reason why I chose Edward Scissorhands for the assignment is that it was one of my favorite movies from my childhood.

Bucks: What software did you use to create it?

Kalim: The software I used to create my first broadcast title creation assignment was Adobe CS6 After Effects


Bucks: How did you create the snow effect?

Kalim: The snow effect that I used is located in Effects and Presets, in a tab called Simulation. It is called t2_snownight2. What you do is you go to the tab called Layer and then scroll down to New and then scroll down and click on solid. When you have clicked on Solid, make the new Solid black After you have done this, drag and drop the t2_snowynight2 trap code SD presets effect on the Solid. When you do this, you will be able to customize your snowflakes to be big or small and you have the perfect background that never ends. 

For the snow effect for the text in the video, first you will need a text: so you go to Layers, scroll down to New and click on Text.  When you have clicked on Text, a box will appear.  You write in any random name and, make the text colour white because you want the snow effect to look real before adding in the effect. 

After you have done those steps, you go to the tab Effects and Presets, type in the search bar "card wipe", and then click on Card Wipe Pixel Storm. When you have dragged and dropped on to the text, the next stage is the hard part - making it look like snow. To do this, first you go to the Effects window on the left side of the screen. Go to the card wipe master control and set the Transition Completion to 100.0%. Then go to the brackets (Card wipe) and go to Rows, and set it to 104, and then set Columns to 161, set Timing Randomness to 0.10. After you have done this you must add in the key frame for the transition completion, so you set a key frame at 0 and make the transition completion to 0.0%. Then, set another key frame at 20 or 30 and set the transition completion to 100.0% - and you will get a snow effect. 

Bucks What tips would you offer to anyone trying to do an exercise like this one?

Kalim: Stay calm and and keep trying again and again. Making this effect was not easy;  there will always be some problems in After Effects that can be difficult to overcome, but stay calm and you will eventually find the answer to your problem. 


Bucks: What were the biggest challenges in getting it done?

Kalim: The biggest challenges in getting this assignment done were the technical issues in After Effects that kept being a problem. For instance, when I was applying Effects in After Effects, the software kept on being difficult by closing itself down or sending up error messages. But I got through it all by remaining calm and, where necessary, asking a friend of a teacher for advice.

(Editor's Note: For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out the work of Jens Kopke,  Ben Gray's Moonbeam, and the architectural visualisations of Sabah Masood and Anton Alfimenko. 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. And don't forget to see the simulation work of our students done in RealFlow. To see our student demo reel, click here.)

Student Showcase - Animation with Realflow by Kalim Momen, Georgia Nichols and James Hatton

Recently our first year animation students have been experimenting with fluid dymanics, using Realflow to produce animation effects. The results have been excellent, all of which goes to show that technology is rapidly changing what we think of animation, and the way that the medium can be accessed by students. Traditional key-frame animation is just one way to make things come to life. Dynamics and simulation software should be as much a part of an animator's toolkit as motion capture or motion graphics - all part of the way we breathe life into our work.

What is Realflow anyway? According to Wikipedia: "RealFlow is a fluid and dynamics simulator for the 3D industry, created by Madrid-based Next Limit Technologies. Currently at version 2013, the stand-alone application can be used to simulate fluids, water surfaces, fluid-solid interactions, rigid bodies, soft bodies and meshes. Victor Gonzalez, Ignacio Vargas and Angel Tena were awarded a 2007 Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the creation of the RealFlow software application".

Below are two examples of our students' work which turned out especially well. The brief was to create an advertisement for a real product - showing how dynamics can be used in the commercial world. First up is an advert for Lush cosmetics by Kalim Momen:




Below is a commercial for for Powerade by James Hatton:




Finally, a commercial for hair colour by Georgia Nichols.


 
(Editor's Note: For more impressive work done by our students and recent graduates here at Bucks, check out the work of Jens Kopke,  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.)

Graduate Showcase - Jens Kopke on animation, awards, motion graphics and careers in digital media

Jens Kopke is one of our talented animation graduates from Bucks, who has since found work in his native Hamburg as a motion design artist at DeliPictures. His short film (shown above) was completed right here in High Wycombe and combined live action with visual effects and motion graphics, winning an honourable mention at the D&AD Awards. We asked Jens to talk about his film, what he has been doing since graduating from university, and what it takes to forge a successful career in digital media.

Bucks: Your student film at Bucks won a D&AD award - how did that come about?

Jens: First of all - I'm not really sure if an "honorable mention" counts as an award.  But the project came about like this: One of the modules in Bill Schaaf's course at Bucks allowed students to get credits for non-course-related activities like building up skills or entering the D&AD awards.  So I teamed up with Yonca Yilmaz, since entering D&AD was part of her Advertising course. After first getting the approval of our tutors, our enthusiasm helped us to keep to a tight schedule of seven or eight days from first drafts to final product.

We progressed really fast, but we only managed to get very little feedback from our tutors due to our short timing. Relying much more than usual on our own intuitions and experience, we focused on a final product that we both really liked. Without worrying about things like - how to impress the D&AD judges. Which, in the end, made us even happier, when we got the honorable mention from D&AD.

Bucks: What software did you use to put it together?

Jens: We used a combination of After Effects, Cinema4D and Photoshop.

Bucks: Did you collaborate with students from the film and TV department or did you put it all together yourself?

Jens: We did not collaborate with students from the film and TV dept, but we did have help from another student from the Advertising course, Dunja Opalko. Her talent with photography (and her own privately owned equipment) helped us to get some nice footage to work with.


Bucks: Since leaving Bucks, what have you been working on?


Navigon // Garmin: "The Navigon App" from DELI PICTURES on Vimeo.

Jens: During my studies at Bucks I successfully applied for a job as a Motion Design Artist in Hamburg, Germany, at DeliPictures, where I still work today.

Since then I have mostly been working on commercial projects like Navigon (http://vimeo.com/61517832) or Weight Watchers (http://vimeo.com/56621462). Luckily, at DeliPictures we are encouraged to experiment and work on self-initiated projects during work hours, such as this St Valentine's Day card that I created with a co-worker. (http://vimeo.com/59576403).



WeightWatchers Kampagne: Oliver Kahn from DELI PICTURES on Vimeo.


Bucks: What advice would you offer to any student at Bucks to get the most out of their time at University?

Jens: My advice would be twofold. Firstly, don't study to get a job, study to do something you really like to do. Secondly, what helped me most during my studies was getting out of my comfort zone and being interested in everything around me. Things like sitting in unrelated classes, using equipment you are afraid to damage, choosing projects that were way too big for me - and even failing from time to time - really helped to prepare me to handle difficult situations at work. In the end, Bucks New University had a lot to offer me.

(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 specialist Krsytof Michalski, Alex Whitfield and the 3D artwork of Mike Swan.)