Computer Animation Arts

Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen, this is it - the big one. The Fantastic Voyage  project is your opportunity to pull out all the stops and accomplish something extraordinary - your first cg animation.  This project is a culmination of all you've learned since week one of term one and you need to think creatively, ambitiously and you need to be determined from the very outset to make the best work of which you're capable.  You are not simply being asked to satisfy a year one project brief. You are being challenged to make others take your creative potential seriously, to put your money where your mouth is - to shine. This is about you and them - the audience. You need to get them on side. You need to make them love your vision. You need to win the prize, seal the deal, steal the show. This isn't about grades or what your tutor might think, or what your classmates might think - this is about the client and what they  think! I will be looking...

Canterbury Anifest is back!   8th and 9th March What is Anifest? ​ Canterbury Anifest is an award-winning animation festival and the largest annual 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. Find out more  HERE

This is a reminder that you're submitting your Soundscape project to your blog only on Tuesday 12th March by 1pm.  Your submission post should be labelled accordingly: Blog submission - Soundscape.   Your submission post should only include the following: Your Soundscapes x 3 Your 'Sonic Concept' documentation (i.e. choose a method by which you can best articulate the ideas driving the design of each soundscape as a response to the image that inspired it; it might be a short written statement of intent, a 'word cloud' or text combined with supporting influence maps... Be imaginative and communicative). For your reference - the requirements of the brief:  You are asked to produce 3 x 30 second soundscapes in response to the images allocated to you at the briefing, which should demonstrate clearly your understanding of the principles of sound design and the ways in which its careful consideration can enrich time-based narrative structu...

Yes, you know what these black and yellow numbers mean... You have just 74 days remaining until final submission or 2 months and 12 days . If you're not animating already, you should move heaven and earth to ensure you're animating your first shot by Monday. Animation will eat time - and very good animation will eat lots of it. Your priority now is to give your animation duties as much time as humanly possible. Do whatever it takes to get there and get started, for this is where the magic happens!  

A analysis of Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) by  Matt Zoller Seitz at Rogerebert.com Other Chapters: Chapter 1: Bottle Rocket (1996) Chapter 2: Rushmore (1998) Chapter 3: The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) Chapter 4: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou (2004) Chapter 5: The Darjeeling Limited (2007) Chapter 6: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Chapter 7: Moonrise Kingdom (2012) Chapter 8: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Happening today in Lecture Theatre 1 12:30 - 14:00 Learn how to 'fine-tune' your profile, and promote yourself on a one page CV. Everyone welcome! 

For those of you experiencing difficulties registering with the UCA Job Teaser website, make sure that you use the @uca.ac.uk email, instead of the old @ucreative.ac.uk one. Thanks to Graeme for bringing the issue to my attention!

What follows are instructions for your crit presentations and reminders of what you need to present and submit. Please use your social networks to ensure everyone has seen this information and understood it. Any queries, please leave a comment and I'll clarify where necessary. In response to the three story components given you at the time of briefing, you are asked to pre-produce an original two minute animation.  Your pre-production is to be submitted in 2 parts; 1) Pre-Viz, to include: a) 2d animatic with soundtrack & transitions. b) Maya pre-viz with soundtrack & transitions 2) An ‘Art Of’ publication, to include: a) concept art : environment design b) concept art : character design c) concept art : prop design d) Final environment designs e) Final prop designs f) Final character designs (character sheets) g) Final presentation storyboards h) Final script You are asked to produce a comprehensive blog archiving and annotating your creative developme...

Today's exciting work experience opportunity comes to you courtesy of Superspline Studios in beautiful Leamington Spa.  They are offering a 3 month paid internship, starting in May (with some flexibility on start date). Find out more about the work placement, and apply HERE!

I bloody love this! ENOUGH from Anna Mantzaris on Vimeo .

Please could the students who expressed an interest in the work experience opportunity at Bloc Digital, make sure that they have checked their UCA email for further instructions... if you could reply to my email so that I know you have seen it, that would be great - Thank you!

Over the next day or so, I will be bringing you some exciting work experience opportunities, so keep your eyes peeled!  In the meantime, be thinking about making sure your blogs are up-to-date and professional looking, and likewise any other platforms you share your work on.  Remember, first impressions count! 

Today is launch day for the Internal Student Survey 2019 .  The short version is the ISS is the opportunity for current year 1 and 2 students to feedback to the University about their experience at UCA so far.  Your feedback is valued very highly by the University. You can access the survey   here .     Your login details for the survey have been emailed to your UCA email accounts - please check - you'll need the username and password it contains. Okay - so what does the survey entail? 30 core questions relating to the following aspects of the student learning experience: Teaching on my Course (Are you learning stuff and is it challenging?) Assessment and Feedback (i.e. blogs/tutorials/OGRs/crits/proformas/chats in the refectory...) Academic Support  (quality of feedback/availability of help etc.) Organisation and Management (timetables & communication between staff & students etc.) Learning Resources (spaces, kit, li...

You'll soon be invited to complete the Internal Student Survey (ISS).  The ISS asks current students for a rating of their satisfaction via multiple choice questions for the following areas:  1) Teaching 2)  Assessment and Feedback 3)  Academic Support 4)  Organisation & management 5)  Learning Resources 6)  Personal Development 7)  Overall satisfaction with the quality of your course 8)  Students’ Union There are also free-text questions which ask you to feedback on your course and university experience. Improving the student experience is a key strategy to our development as a University. The survey is crucial to our understanding of what you think about us. It informs us of the things we're doing well and where they need improving. Your feedback is used to improve the student experience. Results become part of formal monitoring processes within the University.   Put simply, UCA takes your feedback via th...

Friday 1st March 2019 is your Contexts 2000 Word Written Assignment OGR Your OGR is to be presented as a single Scribd presentation on your blog, beginning with your name, date, and project title. Save your documents as PDFs before uploading to Scribd, as this should mitigate against formating glitches. Your OGR presentations should be uploaded to your blogs by Friday 1st March. Written feedback will follow as a comment on your OGR post and will take between 2 - 3 days. Contexts OGR:  What do you need to present? Your introduction (completed). A paragraph-by-paragraph plan for your main body to include supporting quotes, paraphrases and illustrations. A completed research proforma (at least 12 entries). In short, I should be able to look at your OGR and see your argument, use of supporting evidence and structure very clearly before you commit time and energy to writing every word - and thus be able to feedback, trouble-shoot and fine-tune usefully. ...

The Careers & Employability SPECTRA programme is a series of events including talks and workshops, designed to help you progress in your career. Are you considering being self-employed or freelancing? This workshop will take you through the pros, cons and things you need to know before you get started. An Introduction to Freelancing Wednesday 6th February 14.00 - 15.30, Lecture Theatre 1 All students welcome! 

This month's Computer Animation Arts Post With The Most is like browsing the shelves of a library. Indeed, we have so many student 'Art Ofs' for your leisurely perusal you might need two cups of tea and an entire packet of biscuits to see everything on here. Art Ofs are our way of celebrating the full scope of creative work undertaken by our students as they take their ideas from those first nebulous projections in their mind's eye to something concrete, polished, fit-for-purpose, professionalised and shareable.  Let them serve as a rebuff to those funny ideas some people have that on a course specialising in production for 3D animation it's 'the computer' doing all the work!  Ha! Take even the shortest time to flip through some of these publications and you'll see at once our students are formidably powerful in terms of imagining story worlds and their respective inhabitants - oh yeah, and they can build and animate all this stuff too! ...