BFX Competitions
BFX Competition
The 2022 BFX Competition is a short animation competition. Unlike other animation competitions, participants will be provided with scripts, prepared by charity organisations, to implement in the form of animated movies during a 9-week online production period. During this time, all participating teams will benefit from virtual mentor sessions with industry professionals and regular online meetings with the charities they choose to work with. The normal length of the resulting film is 30 seconds. The competition is open to teams consisting of UK Higher Education students.
There are awards for the winner and runner-up for the competition, as well as other awards for various categories, such as Best Design, Best Character Animation, Community award for the most impactful film etc. All winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony at the BFX Festival in November 2022 where your movies will also be screened. You’ll be able to choose if you and your team attend the awards ceremony in-person as part of the 2022 BFX Festival.
We are delighted to be working with the following charities this year:
Firmitude
Firmitude is building a non-elite sporting community, focused, but not exclusively, around women’s beginner football. Firmitude provides opportunities to a forgotten generation of women to play the game that is familiar to all. These individuals want to play for varied reasons, including relating to their children through the game, finding friends through play, and building confidence through learning something new.
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority
Pembrokeshire Coast National Park is special and we believe everyone should be able to enjoy it’s landscape, wildlife and heritage. Being a coastal National Park we have some amazing beaches and have a small fleet of beach wheelchairs servicing them. These beach wheelchairs help people with disabilities or limiting health conditions have a day out at the seaside with friends and family and experience the wonder filled coast.
Planet Purbeck Youth Group
The Planet Purbeck Youth Group (PPYG) is an environmental voice and action group for young people in Purbeck. This group is run by young people for young people! It’s a place to share the youth’s voice, come up with ideas and make real change! The ages of the group are secondary school and sixth form ages.
Sign-up deadline: 1 May 2022
What should the team size be?
Are there any restrictions on the team members?
Can students on a placement year participate?
How long do we have to create a short film?
Are there any restrictions on the software?
Are there any restrictions on the format (2D/3D?)
Why should I participate?
What are the prizes?
Who are the mentors?
OK I’ve signed up what do I need to do next?
How will the voting work?
When will the results be announced?
How will we work with the mentors and charities?
How can we attend the awards ceremony?
I have another question but it is not listed here.
BFX Easter Jams
The 2022 BFX Easter Jams were co-organised with the Bournemouth University Animation Society and were open to all Bournemouth University students.
All participants benefited from two two-hour Zoom sessions with industry mentors. The winner and runner-up of each category was announced in late May and awarded Amazon vouchers. Winners will also be listed and mentioned at the BFX Festival 2022.
Themes
The BU Animation Society brought their passion for environmental change and encouraged awareness for a sustainable future to this years BFX Easter Jam theme. Inspired by one of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, this years theme, Life on Land, juxtaposes last years, Life Below Water. For each category there was a sub-theme. Deforestation was explored in the category Modelling/Texturing; Extinction in the category Lighting/Rendering; and Invasive Species in the category Real-Time Art.
Categories
Modelling/ Texturing – participants created their concept art and modelled the object given the specific theme. The submissions included the design stages as well as a turntable of the resulting object.
Real-time Art, supported by Epic Games – participants created a short cinematic trailer based on the theme. It could have been an animation, environment design, or even shader-development as long as it is rendered in Unreal Engine as a cinematic piece. Participants were free to use any publicly available assets.
Lighting/ Rendering – participants created a CG image, given the theme. The goal was to set up the lighting, compose and render the scene to achieve the best quality of the generated imagery. Participants were free to use any publicly available assets or make their own
Competition now closed for 2022