Thought Bubble

Over the weekend just gone, I attended the yearly ThoughtBubble event in Leeds. I had been recommended to go by some of my classmates for the past two years, so thought it was finally time to see what the fuss was about.

ThoughtBubble turned out to be a great place for networking - every artist there had business cards available for people to take, which I truly took advantage of. This has lead to giving me lots of new contacts/art blogs to look through, just incase I want to collaborate in the future.

My mountain of business cards!

Another good aspect of this convention is the panel talks; the one I went to involved each speaker illustrating onto a projection, whilst talking about their experiences in art - things that inspire them, work experience, and general chat. It was enjoyable to listen to them, though I wish some of the things they said were more useful to me as an artist trying to get into the industry.

Overall it was a very enjoyable experience; it was easy to talk to the artists at their stalls, as well as seeing the variety of artwork that's being made is really inspiring to put my work out there. If I get the chance to go again next year (or in a few years) I'd happily visit this convention again.

Short Course at Aardman

At the start of summer, I found a short course that runs at Aardman studios between September and December of every year, which focuses on character animation in either stop motion or Maya (of your choice). The main tutor is the lead animator at Aardman, as well as guest speakers and the facilities to practice animation as a profession.

This sounds like an amazing opportunity, however only 12 students are accepted onto the course every year. The course overview states that so far about 70% of graduates from their course have gone on to animate within the industry!

The course for 2015 is already running, however if they run the course again in 2016 it could be an option to apply for after finishing my university course... 

NFTS/Aardman Character Animation Course class showreel 2014 from Katie Daniels on Vimeo.

http://www.aardman.com/academy/

MA Courses

Now is the time to start thinking about my future... One of the options I have explored a little is taking an MA course after my current course finishes.

A lot of the courses seem to be general, exploring all areas of animation, just like the study I am currently doing; Some of them sound quite interesting but I'm not sure if they will just cover what I have already been taught at Leeds College of Art.

Most of the other courses specialise in 3D animation, sound design or Games development. This suggests what universities think the future in the industry will look like.

I have found a few courses that caught my attention, two in London, one in Loughborough. Each of them has a different purpose, to re-teach me the basics of animating in each technique, to purely focus on character animation (while teaching us to advance in each technique), and the one in Loughborough will explore animation as a therapy/assistant to health.

They all sound interesting, but I will need to do more research into the universities, prices and each city before making a decision.

The results of searching for 'animation' on ucas Post-Grad programmes