Thursday, October 24, 2013

Up and coming animation festivals

Last year I attended a couple of animation festivals - Bradford Animation Festival and Animex. I loved both and gained so much out of both. This year I'm only attending a few talks at BAF Game (mainly to help with my research for COP3) however I'm still planning to absorb all that I can and as I'll be attending some talks from animators I know that I'll get lots out of it. I think I'll also be attending some of the networking events held at both BAF Game and BAF - I'll be more prepared as I have complied a showreel that I'm fairly happy with and includes more highly polished animation than last year. I would also love to go back to Animex in February (money dependant) as last year it was invaluable. The range of speakers were great and I took something from each of them, even if they weren't an animator.

A recent festival that just passed was BFX held down in Bournemouth. This was the first year it had started up and it would have been nice to go however I had already moved back to uni and quite a few of the speakers I had already seen at Animex. It's definitely one to attend next year, especially for their careers advice and having industry people there to talk to about getting that all important job.

FMX is still on my list of animation festivals to go to but it's just the cost. I was annoyed that I didn't get the chance to go last year (and I doubt I can afford it this year) but there were some live streams that I got to watch so hopefully this year they'll be doing those again. It would be great to get myself over there as they too have a lot of industry professionals giving careers advice and there are many masterclasses and workshops.

There are a couple more conferences I would love to go to one day and I would have to save a lot up for this but it would be more than worth it. SIGGRAPH and CTN Animation Expo, both are world renowned and would be just incredible to go to. The speakers they have at each at always major industry professionals, people you look up and aspire to. Back in 2012, Glen Keane gave a talk on how he animated Disney characters (luckily I was able to catch this online) and it was so inspiring. It opened my eyes to the smallest things and I gained so much from it. That's what I love about festivals and conferences, there are people there that love what they do and have so much knowledge in their field, you can't help but be inspired and be motivated to do more and become the best that you can be.

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