Tag Archives: computer animation

BU graduates have animation selected for prestigious film festival

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A short film created by recent graduates from Bournemouth University will be shown at a prestigious international animation festival after being chosen from thousands of entries.

Espero? (Hope?) was created by Simone Giampaolo, Yifan Hu and Henrik Linnes as their final year project while studying at the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at BU in 2013.

It has been chosen for inclusion at the Annecy International Film Festival this June – one of just 201 selected films from 2,290 entries.

Simone, who studied BA (Hons) Computer Animation Arts at BU, said being part of the prestigious French event was an unbelievable opportunity.

“We’re thrilled about Annecy. It is one of the most prestigious animation festivals worldwide and we still cannot believe our work will be part of it,” he said.

“I remember attending the Annecy festival as a student a couple of years ago, when the idea of having a film in the official competition was still only a dream.

“Now that it actually happened, it really feels unreal. “

Espero? is the first 3D animated film fully dubbed in the universal language Esperanto. It follows the story of Mother Earth and shows what happens after she creates humanity.

Simone, who acted as director for the film, said: “The general aim of this project was to create a high-quality, funny, entertaining and educational animated short that presents in a sarcastic way how humanity has been affecting planet Earth over the centuries.

“I see animation as one of the most powerful mediums to reach a wide range of audiences, which goes from kids to adults. It allows you to talk about inconvenient and sensitive topics in a funny and relaxed way, which is much more difficult to achieve through life-action.”

Annecy is not the first prestigious accolade the film has gained. It has already been shown at more than 20 international film festivals and won several awards – including the Children’s Prize at the Dieciminuti Film Festival 2014 in Italy.

Henrik, who also did the Computer Animation Arts degree at BU, said: “It feels great! We put so much work and effort into this short so it’s really satisfying to know that people like it.

“It’s been going really well so far, so let’s just hope that good things keep happening.”

All three of the team – who received the prize for Best Major Project at their BU graduation ceremony – are now working at animation and production houses in London, and hope they will have chance to work together again on an equally successful project.

“It was amazing journey working with those two guys and I feel really lucky that our film has gotten this far,” said Yifan, who did the BA (Hons) Computer Visualisation and Animation degree.

“I’m very proud of our achievement and, as we are all working in London now, hopefully we will get a chance to work together as a team again soon.”

Watch Espero? (Hope?)

NCCA’s BAFTA success receives widespread local coverage

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The work of graduates and staff from the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) on the BAFTA-winning visual effects for the film Gravity received coverage across a range of local media.

Around 40 graduates from the NCCA – as well as current Senior Practice Fellow in Computer Animation Adam Redford – worked with effects house Framestore on the visual effects for the blockbuster, which won six awards at the 2014 BAFTAs.

Their success was picked up in articles by local newspaper the Bournemouth Echo and Blackmore Vale magazine – which both quoted MA Visual Effects graduate Sam Salek about his involvement with the film.

The story was also featured in news bulletins on local radio station Fire FM, while Sofronis Efstathiou, Framework Leader for postgraduate visual effects and animation courses at BU, was interviewed about it live on BBC Radio Solent’s Drivetime programme.

Sofronis told presenter Tim Butcher that Framestore have an outpost based near BU’s Talbot Campus, where some students and graduates worked on the visual effects for the film, and that the reputation for BU’s animation courses and graduates continues to grow.

“We’ve been around for about 20 years now, but over the past 6 or 7 years, every Oscar or BAFTA night we’ve seen our graduates either be nominated or certainly part of those films,” he said.

“We’ve got a big team here and we work very hard and speak to industry, having them feed into our teaching, so it’s good to see it’s working.”

He added that the visual effects industry – and the popularity of BU’s animation courses – continued to grow.

“It’s one of the best courses in the country…It’s a vibrant industry, it’s a creative industry around here – not just in London, but around the borough and certainly around the world it is doing very well.”

Listen to the interview in full (Starts 1 hour 35 minutes into programme)

BU graduates’ work on film Gravity featured in 3D Total

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The work of BU graduates on the visual effects for Oscar-nominated film Gravity was featured in an article in 3D Total.

London-based effects house Framestore worked on the visual effects for the film, which has been nominated for both the Oscar and BAFTA for visual effects, and the article highlights that a number of graduates from the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at BU hold key positions at the company and worked on Gravity.

The article includes interviews with NCCA graduates including Ian Comley, who is now Framestore’s look development lead and worked on making sure that the texture and lighting of the effects in Gravity were as realistic as possible.

He said: “My year at Bournemouth was packed with lectures ranging from cinematography, through animation and rendering to the mathematics for inverse kinematics.”

Also interviewed was one of Framestore’s resident paint and roto artists, David J Nolan, who completed the MA in Digital Effects at BU.

David, whose work on Gravity involved converting live action sequences to 3D formats, said: “Framestore decided to open an outpost office in Bournemouth, and I was hired as a junior paint and roto artist,

“This meant that I hit the ground running immediately after finishing at the NCCA and was able to put my new-found knowledge into practice, working on some very big projects.”

Another graduate featured in the article was Framestore’s digital modelling supervisor Ben Lambert, who helped oversee all of the visual effects for the film.

He graduated from the BA in Computer Visualization and Animation at the NCCA in 1999, and said his time at Bournemouth University was invaluable.

“The course gave me a very broad overview of all areas of 3D and animation,” he said.

“I think it’s important for artists to have a wide range of skills and versatility, it means they can work at both larger and smaller studios. I think the programming aspects of the course have surprised me with how much I’ve had to now use in my day-to-day job.”

Read the 3D Total article in full

Find out more about the National Centre for Computer Animation at BU 

Adam Twycross and the UK videogame industry on BBC Radio Solent

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As many queued for hours to get their hands on the latest Grand Theft Auto video game, BU’s Adam Twycross – an expert in computer animation and video games – talked on BBC Radio Solent about the computer game industry in the UK.

Grand Theft Auto is just one of the games franchises produced in the UK, and Adam, a Demonstrator and Lecturer in Computer Animation at BU, told presenter Alex Dyke that while the UK video game industry only employed around 7,000 people, it generated more than $5.2 billion last year.

“They really benefit from the fact that you can do it on a much smaller scale with a much smaller team and have just as much impact in terms of economic value and cultural value as if you were working on a movie or television,” he said, adding that video games companies could be found up and down the country.

He told Alex that BU computer animation graduates went on to work in both TV and film and the video game industry, with around a 50/50 split.

“I think one of the reasons that we’ve had a lot of success here in Bournemouth in the video games sector is that it’s an extraordinary industry which meshes together maths and programming and physics with art and animation,” Adam said.

“You’ve got a huge, broad range of skills which go into a single game and that’s what we try to replicate at Bournemouth where we teach our artists not just how to animate and create artistic things but also the programming and maths.

“So we traditionally have produced the individuals that the video game industry likes to have.”

Adam added that he believed the games industry in the UK would only continue to grow and diversify, reaching out to different audiences and demographics.

“It’s almost hard to imagine how big it can get,” he said.

Listen to the full interview

BU virtual reality bystander research featured on BBC London TV news

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Richard Southern, Research Lecturer in Computer Animation at BU, was featured on BBC London TV news talking about using virtual reality to investigate the bystander effect.

Richard and a team from BU have been working with University College London to create a virtual reality simulation of an altercation in a bar, to see how people react when they witness a violent situation.

Participants wear special glasses which create a 360 degree virtual experience, and are confronted with a conflict between two men in the bar – one of whom is wearing an Arsenal football shirt.

The research found that people were more likely to intervene if they were fellow Arsenal fans or if the simulated person made eye contact, seen as an appeal for help.

BBC London reporter Sara Orchard tried out the simulation, for a report which appeared on both the lunchtime and evening bulletins.

Richard said: “A lot of people were frustrated that they couldn’t intervene, but I think in general, most people were surprised by how emotionally involved in the event.”

The research is now being looked at for potentially uses by the prison service, the Ministry of Defence and the police.

You can watch the BBC London report here.