Computer Animation Arts

Dear all - I'm thinking ahead to 2015 and our potential field trip destination. I'm championing Barcelona - for lots of reasons, but also because the Pixar exhibition is going to be there in Feb 2015. I've had some quotes in from various travel companies and the best deal so far is £310 for a Tues - Sat duration inclusive of air travel, coaches, excursion/entrance to the Dali Museum and likewise to the Pixar show... I just want to gauge interest from you all as soon as possible, because we always need to move decisively to get the best price. It would be a shared trip with the Theatre course, so we'd be looking to fill 30 places with our students... Let me know your interest via a comment and spread the word. Thanks.

August is a tricky month, what with everyone clinging onto the holiday mood, but with one eye on their calendars because they know .  They know busy times are looming.  They know the wheels are  moments from turning.  People are poised to power-up again, and no more so on Computer Animation Arts , as September sees the kick-off of the new academic year... But we're not there yet.   This edition of the PWTM is more of an amuse-bouche than a main course, reflecting as it does the more relaxed pace of the Summer holidays, but reflecting too that none of us truly disappear into a box over the holiday period. Our all new first years are yet to enrol, but many of them are already getting stuck into their inaugural Summer Challenge.  They're already sending me their blogs - the first batch are available here - and below is a sneak peak at some of their creations; so from left to right, we have thumbnails from Charlie Serafini (44,48), Kayliegh ...

Nat: Sunday was my first full day off since we arrived in Vancouver, so I wanted to see some of the lovely sights I'd heard all about.  Figure 01. Woke up with the light, I still had jet lag at this point and this was the view just from laying in bed. Figure 02. Breakfast, flavoursome organic cherries After a chilled out (rush free - from not having a shift) I took a walk around and snapped some cool pictures from within the area. I was heading to the harbour to find out times and prices of the sea-plane tours as that's my idea of fun. Figure 03. Vancouver Art Gallery Figure 04. Near Vancouver art gallery Figure 05. The Winter Olympic torch in early light Figure 06. Reflective buildings Figure 07. Knobbly trees I got to the airport and the flight I was hoping to hop onto didn't have any takers and as I was on my own they wouldn't book just one person, but luckily the flight half an hour later had a space so I went ...

Nat: Saturday 9th August was another free day for Ernesta, with Kym and I scheduled for some more pre-conference shifts.  Figure 01. Saturday morning shot of the view Figure 02. Ornate tram There was a big mess up with the shifts on this day as the places we were supposed to be working decided they didn't need volunteers for the first couple of hours, so the people on Kym's shift were moved to the place where my shift was supposed to be which left all of my people without anywhere to work and so there was quite a bit of sitting around and Team Leaders unsure of where to put us. After an hour though somebody grabbed me to help hand out work passes to the exhibitors that were starting to arrive to the conference. This was a nice, easy and relaxed task which allowed me to read my book between checking people off the list.  Figure 03. Nat's new morning shift A couple of exhibitors kept coming out into the foyer to test the controls of their quad...