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.

BU animation lecturer featured on Guardian website

Bournemouth University lecturer Sofronis Efstathiou has given advice to budding animators on the Guardian website.

Sofronis, Programme Leader on the 3D Computer Animation courses at BU, spoke to the Guardian Witness section of the website to ‘give his tips on how to get started in animation – and what makes a great animation’.

Guardian Witness encourages readers (or, in this case animators) to send in their own content to be shown on the website, and previous campaigns have included picture and video projects. This is the first time the Guardian Witness pages have run an animation feature.

Sofronis said in the feature, “My students love creating characters and worlds for them to inhabit – character and environment creation tends to be a very symbiotic process. The best way to develop those skills is by creating your own short animation projects.”

To read the section in full, including all of Sofronis’ tips, or to submit your animation to Guardian Witness – check out the Guardian website.