Bucks student wins prize for animated short

One of our first-year animation students recently won a prize at the Bristol Festival of Football Ideas, for a short film created here at Bucks.

Bucks animation student Anton "Alfy" Alfimenko was awarded a prize at the Bristol Festival of Football Ideas for "Super Fergie in 3D", his animated tribute to retired Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who appears as a video game character winning endless footballing triumphs. Anton's film, hosted at YouTube, scored over 300,000 hits, and won him international attention from fans of Manchester United. Now he has seen his work recognised by the judges of FOFI, the Festival of Football Ideas.

To see Anton's prize-winning film, click on the link below. And to find out more about Super Fergie, read our interview with Anton here.





Here at Bucks we encourage all our students to enter animation and film competitions whenever possible. Even if you don't win, you learn a huge amount by entering, and the mere fact of competing helps every artist to raise their game and strive to be the best.

To Anton, we offer our warmest congratulations, and we look forward to seeing what he does next. We have many talented students here at Bucks, competing at the highest levels in international competitions and in many disciplines around the world.

---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.)
 

"Charlie & Yip" wins Best Animation at the British Animation Film Festival

Charlie and Yip

"Charlie & Yip", a short film directed by Bucks animation tutor Alex Williams, and animated by Tumblehead Animation in Denmark, has just won Best Animation at the 2014 British Animation Film Festival. The short was screened on June 8 in London at the Empire Leicester Square, competing with dozens of other shorts in three successive screenings over the course of the day.

The British Animation Film Festival (BAFF) 2014 was held at the suitably opulent Empire Leicester Square in London, a glorious Victorian baroque theatre turned picture palace, originally built in 1884.

Empire Leicester Square. Photo: Wikipedia

Like any short film, Charlie and Yip was a group effort, and a ton of work. A lot of artists put a great deal of hard work into it. Here's a message of thanks from Producer Nathan Erasmus, who worked with Alex to make the film happen:

"Thank you to the very special people who voted for this. You know who you are. Also congrats to Gravy Media director Alex Williams and his ex-students the very special Tumblehead from Denmark for doing such a fantastic job and earning your votes for best short at the 2014 British Animation Film Festival."

Charlie and Yip was made by Tumblehead Studios in Denmark, founded by the very talented Magnus Moller and Peter Smith, both graduates of the Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark, which has been a growing source of animation talent for some years.

Tumblehead did the final design work, the modeling, texturing, rigging, animation, lighting and rendering (which was done in Arnold). To see more of their excellent work, check out their website at www.tumblehead.com.

Voice talent was provided by Lizzie Waterworth Santo, an actor with a very wide range of vocal skills. The kids in class were voiced by students at the American School in Surrey.

Lizzie Waterworth Santo

The film's success also owes a huge debt of thanks to the West Danish Film Fund, who gave very significant support for the film.

Sound design was provided by the very talented Vanesa and Dominique at Tate Post in Soho.

Charlie and Yip is really a teaser for Alex's feature film project, My Haunted House, which is being developed at Gravy Media. The film is currently in re-writes with writer Tim Lebbon, aiming to take the project to Cartoon Movie early next year, looking for finance, co-production partners and distribution.

My Haunted House

Meanwhile, where will be a free My Haunted House game at the iTunes store soon, where you can view the short, alongside some free mini games.

You can also see more at the website www.myhauntedhousethemovie.com.

And to see the short, just see the video below:



My Haunted House - Teaser from Tumblehead on Vimeo.


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.

Sofa.com competition - last call for entries - £3,000 prize!

Last November Sofa.com launched a student animated film competition titled ‘Filmed with Happiness’. Anyone who is studying or working in film making, animation or television is invited to submit a short film (15-30 seconds long) for children, based on the theme of "happiness".

The winner gets £3,000 in cash - and the chance to boost your profile with a little help from the sofa.com PR agency. There are also three runner-up prizes of £1,000 each. The deadline for submission is 31st March, and - perhaps most interesting of all - one of the judges has recently been confirmed as Peter Jackson, he of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings.

Peter Jackson is on the judging panel

The winning animation will be shown online and in all of the company's showrooms in the children’s area.

As well as the first prize of £3,000, three runners-up will also win a £1,000 cash prize.

Here at Bucks we strongly encourage our students to enter film competitions, not just because it's awesome to win, but because the process of taking part will teach you so much. You learn project management, working together as a team, and how to make a film with a practical, client-focused outcome. All of which is to say, it will help you raise your game and become a working professional.

You can find full details of the competition here:

(Editor's note: For more on the mechanics of group projects, see this post. To see how a short film gets made, read this piece here. Having trouble getting your story figured out? Read this post on storytelling. )