Tag Archives: BFX Festival

BFX Festival back in Bournemouth

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BFX banner 2015BFX Festival 2015 is taking place at the BIC with some of the biggest names from the VFX, animation and gaming world.

At the heart of the festival is BFX Core, for anyone with an interest in VFX, animation or gaming. A host of presentations will take place from international studios such as Double Negative, Iloura, Pixar and more.

For the first time ever BFX will be welcoming Walt Disney Animation Studios, all the way from California, we expect a presentation on their latest work which could include Frozen, Wreck It Ralph and the smash hit, Big Hero 6. There’s also Aardman, the company behind Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.

Frontier the team who created Elite: Dangerous, has built a uniquely diverse track record comprising of games series’. Find out from Frontier’s Chief Operating Officer David Walsh what it took to create this spectacular new multi-player instalment.

Running throughout the festival is the Walt Disney Animation Studios “Big Hero 6″ Concept Art Exhibition, to see the beginnings of the films ideas and design, a unique opportunity to see the journey from paper to screen.

The Workshops for BFX 2015 are set to be the biggest and best to date, from using Zbrush to acting for animation, there’s a host of different themes to get involved in. You will be tutored by some the best creative minds in the industry today!

Some of the workshops are free to the general public; others are included in the price of a Festival ticket, whilst some need to be purchased as a separate ticketed event. Workshops will take place on the 26 – 27 September 2015 and 3 – 4 October 2015.

Throughout the week there are a number of evening film screenings such as Interstellar and Mad Max:Fury Road for only £3. As a one off special event, film maker, Paul Campion is screening two of his films and presenting, The Devil’s Rock – Shooting a low budget horror film in 15 days, it’s completely free.

For more information and tickets, visit www.bfxfestival.com. Follow us on Twitter @BFXfestival.

BFX Festival draws to a close

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The BFX Festival came to an end following five days of movie screenings, animation workshops and industry insights into some of the best movies of 2014.

The Festival, in its second year, celebrated the best in animation, computer games and visual effects from the last 12 months, with talks and workshops from industry professionals offering a ‘behind the scenes’ look at how films and games are made.

Graduates and students from Bournemouth’s universities joined industry professionals and members of the public for the Festival, designed, in part, to inspire future generations to enter the booming creative industries.

This year, industry experts took to the stage at the Bournemouth International Centre to talk about their work on movies such as The Lego Movie, Maleficent, Godzilla and Guardians of the Galaxy. Legendary computer games such as the new installment of Elite (Elite: Dangerous) were also featured – with delegates learning about what it takes to create the visual effects for games and movies and just how much of our films are digitally created.

Framestore’s Ben Lambert, a Bournemouth University graduate, spoke about his modelling work for the Oscar-winning movie Gravity, which won the visual effects Oscar at this year’s Academy Awards. Another BU graduate, Miles Green, who works for Australia-based visual effects house Animal Logic spoke about his work on The Lego Movie and how they tried to stick to the limitations of the Lego world while creating the movie.

The Festival is the idea of the International VFX Hub; a collaboration between the award-winning National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at Bournemouth University and the Faculty of Media and Performance at the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).

Weekend activities had a more family-friendly flavour, as children and parents descended on the Festival to create their own animations, during a free workshop. Children were invited to make a model out of clay before using a stop motion camera to bring their creations to life. The talks and workshops were complimented with evening screenings of popular movies, including Maleficent and Frozen.

A special art exhibition, featuring concept artwork from 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent were also on display during the Festival, loaned from Walt Disney Animation Studios in California.

Sofronis Efstathiou, Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University and the BFX Festival Director said, “It was great to see so many people learning more about visual effects and animation and their importance in cinema, TV and game making.”

Sofronis continued, “BFX Festival 2014 was a great opportunity to review some of the best visual effects and animations from the past year – I was in astonished by the quality of speakers and their presentations this year, and delegates seemed to enjoy the range of activities on offer – from screenings and workshops to talks from industry professionals on movies such as The Lego Movie and Gravity.”

Bournemouth University has a long history with the visual effects industry, with many graduates going on to work on award-winning movies and games. Over 80 BU graduates worked on the film Avatar, while around 60 BU graduates were involved in the visual effects for Gravity.

Plans are already underway for the BFX Festival in 2015, and alumni are encouraged to join in, as Efstathiou comments, “We’ll be back again next year and would love our alumni to join us so watch out for communications about BFX in 2015.”

For more information about the BFX Festival, or to keep up-to-date with the latest information about next year’s Festival, visit www.bfxfestival.com.

Oscar-Winners and Disney are Hitting Bournemouth

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Top experts specialising in visual effects and animation will be hitting Bournemouth this month to spread their knowledge at the BFX Festival organised by Bournemouth University (BU). Guests to the festival can look forward to a series of workshops, expert talks and screenings of films such as Maleficent. The event aims to celebrate the British talent in visual effects, animation and games whilst educating its guests.

The director of the event, Sofronis Efstathiou, is ‘delighted’ to be hosting the second BFX Festival after the success of last year. He endeavours to encourage the local community to visit the festival saying: “There is truly something for everyone from industry experts to hobbyists, animators to technical directors.” The event will be held in the Bournemouth International Centre from the 24th to 28th September.

Other masterminds present at the festival will include graduates from BU who were part of the team behind the visual effects in the Oscar award winning film ‘Gravity’. The brilliance behind Disney’s animation will also be revealed in exhibitions held over the course of the festival with artwork from Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent.

Naturally, the event has sparked up interest amongst many media outlets such as BBC Radio Solent and ‘The Daily Echo’. Gaming blogs such as ‘The Bearded Trio’ also ran stories on the event. The event was also mentioned in the online gamer’s website ‘Gamasutra’ where Bournemouth Council Councillor Lawrence Williams says: “We are delighted to support the BFX Festival. It is a fantastic opportunity for people starting their career to speak to the experts and gain insight and inspiration to enter the industry.”

By Charlotte Cranny-Evans

Charlotte is a graduate of Budmouth College in Weymouth, who is working at Bournemouth University in the Press and PR Department. She joined BU on a Sir Samuel Mico Scholarship, which provides 10 students from the college with work experience for four weeks over the summer.

Visual Effects and Animation Festival returns to BU

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The BFX Festival returns to Bournemouth this summer to celebrate British talent and creativity in animation, computer games and visual effects and inspire the next generation of people to enter the booming industries.

Last year’s BFX Festival was a fantastic celebration of visual effects, animation and games and this year’s event is aiming to build that success, with experts and enthusiasts from across the UK and beyond presenting an amazing selection of material and leading a range of Festival activities that will appeal to all.

Tickets are now on sale for the Festival, which will take place across four days from 24-28 September 2014, hosted at the Bournemouth International Centre.

Talks featuring movie titles such as The Lego Movie, Gravity, Maleficent, Godzilla, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Edge of Tomorrow will be on offer, giving delegates an insight into the range and quality of visual effects needed to create such blockbusters. Legendary computer games, such as the new instalment of Elite from Frontier Developments, called Elite: Dangerous will also be presented.

As well as talks from industry experts on some of this year’s best VFX and animation there will also be a large concept art exhibition direct from the vaults of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures; featuring concept artwork from the movies Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent.

A series of workshops will be available for those wishing to explore animation and VFX techniques further and a number of family activities are also on offer, including children’s animation workshops and public cinema screenings. Talks and workshops have been created with all levels of expertise and knowledge in mind, and the Festival is open for all members of the public to attend.

The Festival is being organised by the International VFX Hub; a collaboration between the award-winning National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at Bournemouth University and the Faculty of Media and Performance at the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).

Sofronis Efstathiou, Senior Lecturer at Bournemouth University and the BFX Festival Director said, “We are delighted to be hosting the second BFX Festival this year and to celebrate the best VFX and animation in the world. There is truly something for everyone; from industry experts to hobbyists, animators to technical directors. Come and learn more about this amazing industry and the hard work that goes into creating some of your favourite movies and computer games.”

Companies such as Animal Logic, Framestore, Double Negative, The Mill and MPC will be speaking at the Festival, along with Festival partners The Foundry, Chaos Group, Next Limit and AMD.

At the heart of the Festival is the BFX competition – where students from around the country will be competing to create the best animation and visual effect from a selection of briefs and screenplays given to them. The competition, which is held on Bournemouth University’s and Arts University Bournemouth campus, replicates a film studio with participants working in groups of up to six to create a short visual effects or animation sequence. Teams are mentored throughout by industry practitioners, with a panel of industry judges picking the winning team and awarding prizes.

The competition is currently underway, with teams from 10 higher education institutions taking part, competing for a variety of award and prizes across a number of categories, with winners due to be announced during the Festival itself.

Tickets for the BFX Festival can be purchased on Eventbrite with Early Bird discounts available.

More information about the BFX Festival (including ticketing), and the BFX Competition, can be found at www.bfxfestival.com.

BFX Festival highlighted twice in the Bournemouth Echo

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Bournemouth’s visual effects and animation festival, the BFX Festival, was held at Bournemouth University recently, giving students a behind the scenes look into the digital effects used in some of Hollywood’s biggest movies. The Festival’s success was highlighted during two articles in the Bournemouth Echo.

Peter Truckel, director of the VFX hub at Bournemouth University, told a gathering of industry experts and students how 50 per cent of graduates entering special effects and animation jobs in London’s Soho come from BU.

The Dean of the Media School, Stephen Jukes was hoping to “inspire and foster talent” by trying to bring higher education and the industry together. He said in the Echo, “We want to celebrate and promote Bournemouth and the conurbation and it’s growing role in the industry. A lot of the industry is beginning to setup here”.

The team Poseiden, made up of Bournemouth University students, won the best film prize at the event sponsored by Total Film magazine. In addition The Blonde Rangers team, a collaboration between Bournemouth University, Arts University Bournemouth, and Edinburgh University students, took four awards.

Willi Geiger, the digital supervisor for some of George Lucus’ most iconic movies, said to the Bournemouth Echo, “I’m blown away with what they have achieved”.

By Peter Blackhall
2nd year student at Bournemouth University, BA Public Relations

BFX Festival opens in Bournemouth

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The BFX Festival, a festival that celebrates the visual effects industry in the UK, has opened in Bournemouth.

The four day Festival includes talks and workshops by industry professionals as well as demonstrations of visual effects tools and a showing of the film Rush at Empire Cinema in Poole. It is being hosted by Bournemouth University, the Arts University Bournemouth and a number of other partners.

Opening the Festival, Alex Hope, Managing Director and Co-Founder of British visual effects company Double Negative, was quick to praise Bournemouth University for providing an exceptional quality of education in visual effects to prepare graduates to contribute and work in the industry.

Alex Hope said, “15 per cent of staff currently working at Double Negative are Bournemouth University graduates, this works out at 140 or 150 members of staff.” Alex also pointed out that current Double Negative staff member Alex Lockley, who was awarded an Oscar in 2011 for visual effects work on the film Inception, was also a Bournemouth University graduate.

The Festival runs from 25th – 29th September 2013 and more information is available on the BFX Festival website.

New student visual effects competition – now open for entry!

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BFX is a 6–week team competition for visual effects and animation students from around the country hosted by Bournemouth University and AUB in July and August 2013. Groups will be competing to win an internship at a leading UK film and visual effects studio and all works will be screened at the BFX festival taking place in Bournemouth in September 2013!

The competition aims to replicate a film studio working on a live project with participants working in groups of up to six to produce a highly polished short visual effects or animated sequence. Teams will get to select their own brief from a number of pieces of classic literature and will be mentored and monitored by industry practitioners throughout the competition. A panel of carefully selected industry judges will have the task of picking a winning team.

Sofronis Efstathiou, BFX Festival Director said; “BFX competition presents the opportunity for students to be mentored by the very best VFX animators, producers and artists in the UK. Working on a live brief in a collaborative manner within an intense competitive environment will add invaluable experience to all participants CV’s; and for a lucky few a coveted internship will help kick start their career.”

Supported by the Creative Skillset Film Skills Fund as part of A Bigger Future 2, BFX competition is free to enter and participants will receive accommodation and a stipend towards living expenses. Industry partners so far include The Mill, MPC, Double–Negative, Framestore, and Cinesite some of whom will be offering internships to the very best individuals.

BFX competition is now open for entry and applications must be received by 26 April. Applicants must be 18 years or older currently studying, or recently graduated, at a UK Higher Education Institution (university or Art College).

To find out more about how to apply to BFX visit the BFX website.

BFX Competition is part of a larger festival taking place in Bournemouth 25 to 29 September, which aims to celebrate British talent and creativity in animation and visual effects. The event, in its first year, is being organised by The International VFX Hub; a collaboration between the award–winning National Centre for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University (NCCA) and the Faculty of Media and Performance at the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).