This week our HE Visual Effects students have the opportunity to go to Bournemouth for the Visual Effects, Animation and Games Festival – showcasing the best games, films and animations from 2016. They’re also checking out the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic, founded by George Lucas, and Frame Store who’ve worked on blockbuster hits like the Harry Potter series and Gravity.
The students are travelling tonight and will wake up tomorrow to visit the CORE day of Bournemouth’s Visual Effects, Animation and Games Festival (BFX) during which they will be meeting some of the leading visual effects companies. They’ll also get the chance to see an evening screening of the film that won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects this year. Read on to find out more about the BFX and the CORE event…
What is the BFX?
The BFX was set up to celebrate the visual effects, computer games and animation industry, showcasing the very best, hoping to attract the next generation and share the latest knowledge. The festival opened in 2012 to show off the creative industries, but to also highlight the amazing new talent coming through in the UK as well as to inspire the next wave of talent. It has been hugely successful, gaining loads of support and now has some amazing partners including; Double Negative,Framestore, Moving Picture Company, The Mill, Cinesite, Creative Skillset and BAFTA.
What’s going on this year?
This year’s festival programme promises to provide loads of variety, as well as a fantastic line up featuring the creative minds involved in Finding Dory, The Jungle Book and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Let’s take a look at this years events…
BFX PRO
BFX PRO returns with a great line-up of panel discussions and poster sessions aimed to showcase the latest innovations and practices from the creative industries over the past year. Guest speakers focus around the theme ‘Tomorrow’s Innovation in the Creative Industries’ and will provide an insight into the industry. Rob Pieke of MPC who worked on The Jungle Book will present an overview of the technology and work flow improvements which allowed the design to match the directors beautiful vision for the jungle, as well as managing the complexity of over 1200 shots. Check out the 2016 line up to see who else is part of this amazing event.
BFX CORE
This unique four day programme is aimed at students, professionals and hobbyiests, featuring some fantastic speakers from the top studios around the globe – presentations, screenings, workshops and a career hub will provide insight into behind the screens activities of some of the biggest films, television series, commercials, games and software. Our VFX students will be meeting with Pixar, Blue Zoo, Frame Store and Cineaste to see their recent work on their latest projects – Cineaste talk about the making of Independence Day. They’ll also watch an evening Screening of Alex Garland’s Ex Machina with a Q&A with the team behind the visual effects.
Thursday’s visit to Soho in London
The students will wake up on Thursday for the return journey back to Confetti but not before they travel to Soho in London to visit the offices of two highly rated visual effects companies who’ve worked on many blockbuster movies. They’ll get the chance to meet their teams to speak about the work they do and their recent projects. The visit will give our students an insight into the VFX industry and tips on how to boost their career prospects.
Industrial Light & Magic
George Lucas founded ILM in 1975 as a division of his film company Lucasfilm. It is considered the leading industry-standard production house for computer graphics in film. Our students will look at the work the company has produced, including the first partially computer-generated main character, the T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day; the first computer-generated photo-realistic hair and fur (used for the digital lion and monkeys) in Jumanji; and the first computer generated character to have a full human anatomy, Imhotep in The Mummy.
Frame Store
Frame Store are a British company who specialise in visual effects and work across several different areas of the media: feature films, commercials, music videos, feature animation and digital. In 2008, they won their first Oscar for Best Digital Effects on The Golden Compass. For the film Gravity, it took the team three years to complete the techniques realised by VFX supervisor Tim Webber. The film won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 86th Academy Awards. Our students will look at the day to day running of the company, as well as the latest projects they’ve worked on including their latest project – studying the behaviour of a live fish to explain, in visual terms, the water-resistant properties of the new £5 bank note material.
Brian Hurst, the Visual Effects course leader believes the trip will be very beneficial to the students. He said:
“From this trip the students will be returning to Confetti with a head full of dreams and a newly invigorated desire to succeed in the realm of Visual Effects and Post Production.”
We hope our staff and students have an amazing time and remember, anyone can go to the BFX festival so if you fancy a trip down south it’s highly recommended and something you won’t regret!
If you’re interested in studying VFX at Confetti check out our FE and HE VFX courses and book an open day today.
