Festival programme
Monday 28 October
10:00am – 5:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Amy Ash, Freelance Character Supervisor/Artist
Masterclass – Concept sculpting for characters in Zbrush
Level: Intermediate
In this masterclass I’ll show how I create concept sculpts of characters for animation, showing the techniques I use in Zbrush as well as talking about my philosophy and workflow when trying to create compelling characters.
10:00am – 5:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Victor Perez, Visual Effects Supervisor | Master of Light
Masterclass – The Art and Science of Photorealism in Compositing
Level: Intermediate
With over 27 years of experience in the VFX industry, Victor will guide participants through advanced techniques for blending live-action footage with CGI elements seamlessly. Attendees will explore the fundamentals of light, texture, color, and depth that define photorealism, as well as the technical processes that bring these concepts to life in post-production. Victor will also share insights from his work on major Hollywood films, highlighting the critical role of precise compositing in creating believable worlds.
12:00pm – 1:00pm and 1pm – 2:00pm | PG307 Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Fast Sculpting Competition
Choose one of the two sessions to attend. You will be given a brief, time to prepare and 30 minutes to sculpt a model in ZBrush, the best sculpt wins! Winners will be announced at the BFX Awards Ceremony.
1:00pm – 2:15pm | Cobham LT, Talbot Campus
Panel – NCCA Alumni
BU students are invited to an engaging panel discussion featuring alumni from the National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA). Hear firsthand about their diverse career journeys since graduating from BU, and gain valuable insights and practical tips for your own career path. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from those who have successfully navigated the industry!
2:30pm – 3:45pm | Cobham LT, Talbot Campus
Brenda Ximena Roldan Romero, 3D Animator | Framestore
Talk – How to prepare your portfolio for the BFX Recruitment Day
BU students are invited to join this informative session designed to help you prepare for Recruitment Day on Friday, November 1. Get expert guidance on effectively communicating with potential recruiters and refining your portfolio to make a strong impression. This is a great opportunity to enhance your skills and boost your confidence.
4:00pm – 5:00pm | PG307 Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Game Jam voting session
Game Jam participants are invited to come along to watch and vote for their favourite submissions.
Tuesday 29 October – Speaker Series
10:00am – 10:15am | The Hilton, Bournemouth
BFX Festival Directors Welcome
Welcome, and thank you for joining us! Our Festival Directors will kick off this year’s BFX Festival, providing you with a brief overview of what to expect from BFX 2024. Get ready for an exciting and inspiring festival!
10:15am – 11:15am | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Sophie Spalding, PR/Marketing & Business Development Executive and Jane Paton, 2D Lead Compositor | Union VFX
Talk – Poor Things: Building the Surreal
Yorgos Lanthimos’ multi-award-nominated feature Poor Things has left audiences pleasantly disturbed. Join Bournemouth University Alum and BAFTA-Winning Visual Effects 2D Lead Jane Paton for a deep-dive into how visual effects can bring worlds of pure imagination to life.
10:30am – 11:30am | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Jules Darriulat | Framestore
Talk – Concept Art for the film industry
In this talk, Jules Darriulat will break down the concept art workflow utilized at every stage of a movie production cycle. From the initial pitch and pre-production phases to the intricate VFX work, expect a comprehensive showcase of diverse examples that illustrate the true breadth of concept art in film and TV.
11:30am – 12:30pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Ian Comley, Visual Effects Supervisor | ILM
Talk – A long time ago in a freezer far, far away
Award-winning Visual Effects Supervisor Ian Comley has delivered widely acclaimed, boundary-pushing imagery, creatures and digital humans for projects including ABBA Voyage, Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy, Paddington and Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity.
Nominated for Academy and BAFTA Awards for his work on The Creator, he’s also a multiple Visual Effects Society Award winner. Alongside supervising character-driven projects and a background in Look Development/Shader Writing, he has spearheaded global studio pipeline and technology at both Framestore (Head of Pipeline) and Industrial Light & Magic (CG Technology Supervisor).
12:00pm – 1:30pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Will Studd, Director & Creative Generalist | Aardman. Damian Hook, Head of Short Form & Advertising | Blue Zoo. Nexus Studios (TBC)
Screening and Panel – Animation in Advertising
Does animation help with advertising? What styles work better to sell? What skills are required for those who study animation courses and want to work in advertising? This panel will discuss these questions and more.
12:30pm – 1:30pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Greg McKneally, Head of CG and Ryan Knowles, Creative Director | Electric Theatre Collective
Talk – Coca Cola – The Heroes
‘The Heroes’, Marvel comic book icons are brought to life in various styles by Electric Theatre Collective, from 1980s Juggernaut, to the contemporary watercolour and pencil cover-art look for Daredevil. Join the multiple VES award-winning team of Creative Director Ryan Knowles and Head of CG/ VFX Supervisor Greg McKneally, to discover how they mixed cutting-edge CGI techniques with classical 2D Animation artistry and Compositing craft to create this epic spot.
1:30pm – 2:30pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Tamar Chatterjee, Head of CG | Equity Investor and Partner in the Creative Technology sector. William Foulser, VFX Supervisor | beloFX
Talk – Crafting the VFX of ERIC: Teamwork in a Time of Change
Join us for an in-depth look at the visual effects work on ERIC, Netflix’s gripping crime mini-series starring Benedict Cumberbatch. In this talk, VFX Supervisor Will Foulser and CG Supervisor Tamar Chatterjee will share stories from the trenches—how they, alongside the team at beloFX, tackled the intricate visual demands of the series while navigating the turbulence of a challenging chapter for the VFX industry. Audiences can expect an engaging behind-the-scenes glimpse into the creative processes, technical solutions and cross-studio teamwork that made the visual effects of ERIC possible.
2:30pm – 3:30pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Owen Jones, Head of CG | Outpost
Talk – Unleashing Knuckles: the Anatomy of a Dynamic Character Performance
Dive into the VFX behind the Sonic the Hedgehog spin-off, Knuckles, with Outpost’s Head of CG Owen Jones. Owen reveals how the team crafted bespoke character animation and developed nuanced facial performances to bring a depth to a well-known character while remaining true to the original films. Owen also takes you behind-the-scenes of creating Knuckles’ iconic red energy FX, built additional 3D assets and more.
4:00pm – 5:30pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Liz Peach, Lead Artist and Internal Communications Artist | Random 42, Munrostudios, Tangerine (TBC)
Panel – Visualisation
Skills that computer animation students pick up in their studies can be applied beyond animation, games and visual effects industries, for example in visualisation. Experts from different visualisation companies will discuss their pipeline, challenges and skills required to work in the area.
7:00pm | Share LT, Talbot Campus
Union VFX
Short introduction and Screening – Poor Things (18)
Wednesday 30 October – Speaker Series
10.00 – 11.00 | The Hilton, Bournemouth
David Mourato, Character Animator | Fortiche
Talk – Workflow and process of creating a shot
In this session David will show you the general process and approach when he wants to create a shot. His work overall is realistic/stylised animation so based on that you will see the process and the workflow that he uses on either personal or professional work.
11:30am – 12:30pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
HaZ Dulull, Director / Producer in Film, TV and Games | Hazimation
Talk – Blurring the lines between Film and Gaming with Transmedia
HaZ takes you on a candid journey through the production of Max Beyond, an animated feature created entirely in Unreal Engine. Discover how HaZimation pushed the boundaries of realtime to bring this film to life, and how that catapulted them into the world of PC and console gaming. But they didn’t stop there—HaZimation’s early adoption of UEFN, made them one of the first third-party studios to develop an original IP within Fortnite. Learn how they transformed a single story into a cross-platform entertainment universe!
11:30am – 12:30pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Foundry
Talk – Mari software
1:00pm – 3:00pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Foundry
Demonstration – Mari software
2:00pm – 3:00pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Gaven Gravesen, CEO & Co-founder | RADiCAL
Talk – Revolutionising Previs: Streamlining Film & Game Production with RADiCAL
In the fast-paced worlds of film, animation, and game development, pre-production can be an expensive bottleneck. In this talk, discover how RADiCAL transforms the previsualisation process with real-time motion capture and 3D drag-and-drop scene design, eliminating the complexities of storyboarding, lookdev, scene composition, and collaboration for remote teams. Whether you’re in the studio or on set, RADiCAL puts the power of previs at your fingertips. Join us to see how it works and explore how you can leverage RADiCAL to transform your creative process.
3:30pm – 4:30pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
RaDiCAL
Demonstration – Markerless motion capture technology and real-time collaboration
BFX Film Festival
3:00pm – 5:00pm | Poole Lighthouse
BFX Film Festival Screenings and Awards
5:00pm – 6:30pm | Poole Lighthouse
Exclusive Screening of The Flow
Thursday 31 October – Speaker Series
10:00am – 11:00am | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Simone Giampaolo, Series Director and Joel Veitch, Showrunner/ Creator | Rather Good
Talk – Bad Dinosaurs – The Making of a Netflix Hit Show
The journey of ’Bad Dinosaurs’ from the initial shorts through to delivery of the Netflix show ten years later.
11:00am – 12:00pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Luk Aeterna
Talk – Science in VFX
12:00pm – 1:00pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Nedy Acet, Senior Character Animator | Pixar
Talk – Inside Out 2 Character Animation
Nedy Acet will talk us through some of his IO2 animation work seen through different animation stages.
1:30pm – 3:00pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Simon Devereux, Founder & Director | ACCESS:VFX
Panel – The (un)traditional roles in VFX and animation and how to find your own path into the industry
You’ve heard of animators, VFX Supervisors and compositors but how about render wranglers, shader writers and interaction designers? The creative industry requires hundreds of roles – each as important as the next – to collaborate seamlessly in order to deliver extraordinary, large-scale projects on time. This educational and aspirational panel, led by Simon Devereux, will discuss those roles less commonly in the spotlight across immersive, VFX, animation and gaming industries, as well as the different pathways to help you get there.
3:00pm – 4:00pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Paul Silcox, VFX Director | Lux Aeterna
Panel – Indie VFX
2:00pm – 3:30pm The Hilton, Bournemouth
Angus Bickerton, Visual Effects Supervisor | Freelance
Halloween Special
Talk – The Visual Effects of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
4:30pm – 5:30pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
Shelley Page
Screening – Eye Candy Show
6:00pm – 7:00pm | The Hilton, Bournemouth
BFX Awards Ceremony
Participants of the BFX Competitions, along with their friends and family, are invited to attend the BFX Awards Ceremony where winners will be announced and awarded prizes.
Friday 1 November
10:00am – 4:00pm | Sound Stage, Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Recruitment Day
This is a great opportunity to meet and network with recruiters. Find out what it’s like to work in the industry, bring your portfolio and showreels along, and get ready to tell them why you should be hired.
10:00am – 1:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Nedy Acet, Senior Character Animator | Pixar
Masterclass – Entertainment in Animation
Level: Intermediate
Define and Explore multiple ways to push the entertainment
10:00am – 5:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Jahirul Amin, Founder | Cave Academy
Masterclass – Lighting Fundamentals
Level: Beginner
In this masterclass, we’ll go through the process of capturing real-world reference, including HDRIs for lighting, geometry reference and a backplate, to then incorporate a digital asset into a VFX shot. We’ll look at working with the grey and chrome ball, and a colour chart for calibration and how we can take advantage of AOVs and render layers to give us more control in compositing.
5:30pm | Share LT, Talbot Campus
Nedy Acet, Senior Character Animator | Pixar
Short introduction and Screening – Inside Out 2 (U)
10:00am – 1:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Melania Fodritto and Jemma Tansley, Compositors | Outpost VFX
Masterclass – Set extension and blue screen compositing workshop
Level: Intermediate (but beginners welcome)
In this Masterclass we are going to composite a shot from a critically acclaimed show Outpost has created the VFX work for. We are going to explore production techniques for preparing compositing templates, understanding the difference between creative and technical compositing, working with blue screen plates, and integration of set extensions and matte paintings.
Saturday 2 November
10:00am – 4:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Family Day
Specially designed for kids aged 8-16, the Family Day will be packed with fun interactive workshops, from Character Design, Virtual Sculpting and Stop-motion animation to Gaming and VR. The programme also includes an exclusively curated programme of animated short films to watch and enjoy.
10:00am – 1:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Jahirul Amin, Founder | Cave Academy
Masterclass – Anatomy for Modellers
Level: Beginner
This masterclass is for anyone who is new to the study of anatomy or for those looking for a refresher. Whether you are studying for film VFX, animation, games or traditional art, this course will sharpen your observation skills and bring informed realism to your work. We’ll begin by studying the skeleton and muscles of the torso, and following on from this we’ll then jump into ZBrush to sculpt a torso using a series of photographic and illustrative references.
10:00am – 1:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Tom Minor, Senior Software Developer, Arnold for Houdini | Autodesk
Masterclass – Arnold Shading Tricks
Level: Beginner
Learn how to:
- Develop Arnold materials in Houdini Solaris and USD
- Leverage the latest Arnold features – including the new OpenPBR surface shader, NPR (Non-photorealistic rendering), prettier clouds (scattering diffusion in volumes) and more
- Build an understanding of how to write your own OSL patterns
- Share assets and materials between Houdini and Maya
- Optimise your renders (so you can avoid working in the labs all night to hit your assignment deadline)
10:00am – 5:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Ace Ruele, Director | Creature Bionics
Masterclass – Acting for Animation and Games
Level: Advanced
The session will focus on animators understanding the performance side of motion capture for video games. It will give them insight and additional skills when creating animations involving character movement.
10:00am – 5:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Leonid Jacobson, Freelancer | Local Void Pictures
Masterclass – Before VFX: How on-set decisions shape post-production
Level: Intermediate
2:00pm – 5:00pm | Poole Gateway Building, Talbot Campus
Jahirul Amin, Founder | Cave Academy
Masterclass – Photoreal Automotive Shading and Lighting
Level: Intermediate
This masterclass will teach you how to create textures, shaders and render photoreal vehicles. We’ll start by prepping our vehicle before moving into the texturing and shading process. Here we will create a series of car paints, leathers, veneers, metals, plastics and other shaders. Following on from this, we’ll create a full CG studio setup and cover the process of rendering out multiple elements that we’ll then be able to push in post.