Computer Animation Arts

The exciting opportunities are coming thick and fast today! Here is your chance to work with multi BAFTA winning Blue Zoo Animation Studio - the very same studio that visiting alumni Leo Tsang is now working at. The internships start in June and last between 6 - 8 weeks, and are paid at around £277 a week. There are vacancies available as follows - Maya Rigger Storyboard Artist Visual Development Artist Maya Animator 3D Artist. You can read more about the programme HERE and apply HERE You will need to submit your showreel/portfolio, CV and a covering letter describing what you hope to get out of the internship and what you feel you will be bring to the opportunity and to the team. THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATIONS IS 1st MAY. Good luck!

Back in February, I introduced Manchester based Kilogramme Animation Studio; since then, I have been conversing with Director Jon Turner, and he has been keeping an eye both on the PWTM and your individual blogs (see, I told you people were looking! ;)  Anyway, Jon says that there is now the potential for CAA students to undertake short-term work placements over the summer - exciting stuff! :D You can see my original post on Kilogramme HERE If you are interested, you should contact Jon Turner directly, at jon.turner@kilogramme.co.uk for more information. Obviously, it goes without saying that you want to present yourselves to him in the best possible light, so a brief (spell-checked!) introduction, and a stunning showreel :)  Good luck! 

Now's your chance to showcase your work, promote yourself to industry, and potentially win a valuable and recognised award...There are prizes galore to be won, including gadgets, hardware and software, not mention paid internships with some amazing companies! What are The Rookies? Here's what they say...   'The Rookies – sponsored by Autodesk – is an annual awards and mentor platform open to young creatives in film, animation, games, VR, motion graphics and architecture visualisation. For students, The Rookies offers them a “stamp of approval” as they transition from school to production, enabling them to have their work seen, graded and commented on by industry heavyweights. As well as find out where they stack up against their peers. For studios and recruiters, The Rookies is the place to find outstanding emerging talent. The end goal? Launch young creatives into careers. The Rookies is essentially becoming a recruitment tool for stu...

​ What is Anifest? Canterbury Anifest is an award-winning animation festival and the largest event of this kind in the South East. It’s a great community event that invites people of all ages to come and experience the magic of animation; allowing them to get involved with something out of the ordinary. With its range of workshops, masterclasses, talks and films, it has something for everyone. Anifest also caters for specialists and those in the industry, featuring national and international awards, and guest speakers from some of the biggest names in animation. Canterbury Anifest is returning in spring 2019, but in the meantime, they are holding a character design competition - see  HERE for details! 

Could you make a difference to a new student's experience of life at UCA?  Do you want to enhance your CV with voluntary experience? We would like student volunteers to be Campus Buddies, to support next year’s new students who experience anxiety or social and communication difficulties, with some of the social aspects of settling into university.  Training provided  No previous experience necessary  Gain a nationally recognised volunteering certificate  Time commitment: about 5 hours during Fresher’s Week 2018 and up to 1 hour per week in Term one.  Interested or want to learn more?  For more details email: campusbuddy@uca.ac.uk or visit: www.uca.ac.uk/student-services/campusbuddy (web page should be available as of the 28th March)

CALLING ALUMNI!  The Arts Council have released details of grants of between £2000 and £10000, that are available for creative practioners with at least 3 years experience outside of the formal education system. This is what the Arts Council say - Welcome to Developing your Creative Practice. Developing your Creative Practice supports the development of independent creative practitioners. This programme will give individuals the opportunity to apply for £2,000 to £10,000, to take a dedicated period of time to focus on their own creative development, and take them to the next stage in their practice.  We would like to see applications for development activities from practitioners working in any of our supported disciplines, where a clear development opportunity has been identified. This could be for a period of research, time to create new work, travel (including international working), training, developing future ideas, networking or mentoring. Dev...

Year 2: Toolkit 2 Overview Above is an overview of where you all are currently with Toolkit 2 (Drawing, Animation, Maya) based upon your 'checklist' submission. In some cases classes are currently active and in other cases the classes are finished. The percentages listed are calculated based upon both instances (see column titles). However, in all cases you are free to improve any part of Toolkit 2 for the final submission at the end of the year. Remember, this is just a snapshot of now and with effort you can change these percentages quickly. Pipeline 1: Please note that 'Pipeline 1' contains vital information that you will rely on in year 3. It contains 55 tutorials and is approximately 72 hours long. If you leave this tutorial to the end it is highly unlikely that you will complete it. Losing important information in the process. Character design: Feedback (from Justin) for your character design submission will be posted on your blog's on Monday....

An interesting little article by the seasonally named Brigitte Hyacinth, author of The Future of Leadership: Rise of Automation, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.   Here are a few of the sensible thoughts she shares... At number 4. ... Rejection and Failure will strengthen you .  Failure is not the end. Few things in life are certain but failure is. Although it leaves a sour taste, failures are the pillars for success. You gain experiences you could not get any other way. Additionally, rejection is unavoidable in a creative life. Learning how to deal with rejection early on, will keep you from plummeting into a place of immobilizing despair. Rejection hurts but don't dwell on it. If you focus on positive thinking, even the harshest defeat is only a stepping-stone. At number 6. ..Surround yourself with people who will motivate you and push you to grow .  Teamwork and networking is key. Part of your success is dependent on the people y...

Some exciting news, ladies and gentlemen...  On Friday 23rd March we have a special guest lecturer paying the CAA base room a visit for some show and tell  - Tim Napper , freelance creature designer and concept artist - the talent behind those extraordinary crystal foxes in Star Wars - The Last Jedi . You can see Tim talking about his designs for Star Wars in this little featurette.  Need I say your attendance is mandatory?   Tim Napper @ 4.30pm / Friday March 23rd / CAA Baseroom

Final acting class date change. Your final acting class will now take place on Wednesday 18th April not Wednesday 11th April. This change is designed to give more time to prepare your acting task and to give you time after the Easter break to meet up in the University. Please use your extra time wisely. Please note. Anyone who is absent today (Wednesday 21st March) will need to email me (apostings@ucreative.ac.uk) to be assigned a group to work with for your acting task. Your final class is where you will submit your task as a piece of performance. Please remember your acting class is part of your Toolkit 2 assessment.

Maverick Media in London, are currently looking for a Junior Art Director/Designer to join their award winning studio. Working as an Art Director/Designer, you’ll be creating a variety of content for some of the biggest game titles. As part of the Creative Team you’ll be a part of the whole creative process from briefing through to final delivery. ABOUT MAVERICK  Maverick make great award winning trailers, TV ads and design for the world's most prestigious video games developers and publishers including EA, PlayStation, Pokemon, Namco, SEGA, Nintendo, SquareEnix, Capcom among others. Expect a great working environment, a fun and dynamic team (and Beer-O-Clock every Friday)! More details  HERE Email your CV and showreel with the Subject “Art Director/Designer” to info@maverickmedia.co.uk .  SPREAD THE WORD!  

Friday 23rd March: 'Toolkit 2' Progress Report Please note, your current timetable reads 'Premise' Progress Report on Friday afternoon, however this should read 'Toolkit 2' Progress Report. This is an online update of your progress for Toolkit 2 containing links to all of your progress so far from the beginning of your year 2 . Including links too... Drawing: Life Drawing, Character Design, Mudbox, and Sculpting. Maya: Pipeline 1: Character Setup (all tutorials) and Lighting & Rendering 2: Arnold (all tutorials). Animation: 3D Body Animation (poses/weight lifting task etc), Infographics (title credits), Acting, and 3D facial animation.  Please be as detailed as possible including detailing any outstanding work. This will help you when you arrive at the final submission at the end of the year.

For your information... the CAA Computer Suites are open for business during the Easter Holidays - except for Friday, March 30th and Monday, April 2nd.  Your working day will be between 10am & 5pm.  You need to consider this access to be 'self-directed' as opposed to 'taught', but your tutors will, of course, endeavour to be as helpful and as available as possible.  During the second week of the holidays, you will need to sign in at reception on your way in and out - I'll provide registers accordingly.  

The SE10 Film Festival has been set up by film students at the University of Greenwich; it 'aims to collaborate and unite students and film enthusiasts around Great Britain to celebrate the works and talents of young artists of today and tomorrow.' The festival is a one day event, held on the 12th May,  and will include special guest speakers, live screenings of your films and presentation of awards.  It is open to any student currently resident in the UK, and can include coursework or personal work, with a maximum running length of 15 minutes. This would be a great opportunity for you to get your work out to a wider audience, and is something extra to add to your CV !  Submit your entries  HERE

Some exciting news, ladies and gentlemen...  On Friday 23rd March we have a special guest lecturer paying the CAA base room a visit for some show and tell  - Tim Napper , freelance creature designer and concept artist - the talent behind those extraordinary crystal foxes in Star Wars - The Last Jedi . You can see Tim talking about his designs for Star Wars in this little featurette.  Need I say your attendance is mandatory?   Tim Napper @ 4.30pm / Friday March 23rd / CAA Baseroom

Three cute educative films made for the Royal Observatory Greenwich for British Science Week - our CAA year 1 students should take a look at these in terms of engaging use of typography, imaginative transitions and keeping the educational stuff nice and pacy...

Some supplementary Contexts stuff courtesy of Kath... Adaptation Marvel Comics Black Panther http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/ct-black-panther-novel-20180226-story.html https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/11/black-panther-review-marvel-chadwick-boseman-wakanda Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sxQ8otiTHI https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/04/peter-rabbit-review-james-corden-twerking-bunny-beatrix-potter http://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/peter-rabbit-review-1202686875/ A Wrinkle in Time https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/movies/a-wrinkle-in-time-review-ava-duvernay-oprah-winfrey.html http://variety.com/2018/film/reviews/a-wrinkle-in-time-review-disney-ava-duvernay-1202720497/ Persepolis https://www.theguardian.com/film/2008/mar/29/biography https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY Key Reading : Adaptation https://lucian.uchicago.edu/blogs/mediatheory/keywords/adaptation/ adaptation | The Chicago School of Media Theory l...

Below are the remaining time-slots available for one-to-ones with Kath Abiker this Thursday morning. If you haven't put your name against a time, then please do so by leaving a comment on this post with your name and the time by the end of tomorrow.  The tutorials are taking place in the Sound Recording studio at the end of the Lwr 4th corridor.   Many thanks. 9.30-9.40              9.40-9.50            Ollie 9.50-10.00           10.00-10.10        Alfie 10.10-10.20        10.20-10.30        10.30-10.40        Frankie 10.40-10.50        Tia 10.50-11.00        Juanjo 11.15-11.25        Annie 11.30-11.40        Dante 11...

Tuesday's Sculpting Class: The sculpting classes will begin on Tuesday 13th March. The groups (1 and 2) are detailed on your timetable.  In terms of what you will need to bring: 1) Printed out character images (above/ as we discussed in class). Including a front, side, and perspective views (where possible) scaled to approximately 7-8cm. Information on the choices are detailed in the full presentation available here . If you want feedback on your character choice upload your images to your blog with an @Alan. 2) Clay (Supersculpey) & Milliput: Both of these are available to buy from the University stores (in the theatre department). You will only need half a pack of Milliput so again you will may wish to share. 3) Tin Foil: You won't use a whole roll so you may wish to share this with another person. 4) Tools: A pair of pliers (you may wish to share these), an old drawing compass, and a sculpting tool. All of these items are detailed in the presentat...

CAA Yr 1 & 3 / 60 Days or 1 month 29 days CAA Yr 2 / 59 Days or 1 month 28 days