Students from the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) at Bournemouth University (BU) have been invited to design their own animations for three charities, as part of a BFX competition.
Students will work collectively in small groups to produce a 30 second animation to advertise each of the charity’s missions. The three charities benefitting from the finished animations this year are: Firmitude, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority, and Planet Purbeck Youth Group.
Speaking about the competition and their involvement, Julia Galbenu, Engagement Officer at National Trust Purbeck said: “We wanted to advertise our environment youth group to get more people involved in the environment and this was a great way of doing it.”
Students will have to follow a brief given to them by the charities and have nine weeks to produce a finished animated video sequence. They will be judged on their ability to make full use of their visual effects skills from modelling, lighting, animation and storytelling.
During this time students will be given access to mentors who work for established companies in the animation industry to help them through the design process. Last year’s mentors from the visual effects industry came from ILM, MPC, DNEG, and included a number of NCCA alumni who have taken part in the competition in previous years and are now working within industry.
BFX Director and Principal Academic in Computer Animation, Oleg Fryazinov said “Each year students have the pleasure of supporting and engaging with local and national charities, with the final animation communicating their mission and values to a wider audience.”
Last year’s winner was an animation designed for local charity The Footprints Project, who help to support people rebuilding their lives in communities across Dorset and Hampshire.
Awards for best design, best character animation, and a community award for the most impactful film are some of the categories students can showcase their skills in. All winners will be announced at the awards ceremony at the BFX Festival, where the animations will be screened.
The BFX Festival is the UK’s largest visual effects, computer games and animation festival and will take place from 8-13 November, with talks and technical masterclasses delivered by some of the biggest studios from around the world.
This year, BFX Festival talks will be delivered at BU’s Talbot Campus. BU students will be invited to attend talks in person or virtually while the public can buy tickets to attend virtually. Masterclass spaces will be limited and available to the BU community, as well as the public, to attend in person.