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Festivus! Thursday

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Festivus 5th October Festivus is back! London's regular animation networking event is an opportunity for our students and recent graduates to get to know people in the animation industry, find out who is hiring, and where the jobs are. There will be a number of guest speakers, including folks from Blue Zoo, one of the UK's leading animation studios. What is Festivus all about? Festivus is all about meeting people in our industry, networking, and - of course - enjoying a pint with friends.  It's is an opportunity to meet people from London animation studios, see what job opportunities there are, and even get some showreel feedback. Why go along? As ever, we recommend our students attend events like this. There is no better way to build contacts and connections in our industry, and find out where the opportuntities are in today's market. Where Ground Floor, The Comedy Pub, 7 Oxendon Street, London , SW1Y 4EE. Nearest Tube Station: Picadilly Circus
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Meet Tuna - Free Maya

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Modelled by Ugur Ulvi Yetiskin, and rigged with AdvancedSkeleton, this well-crafted character rig looks to be a good option for students studying character animation. If you have any notes on how to use Tuna, please add them to the comments section below.
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Transform Manipulator Problem

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Maya 2018, like all new recent releases from Autodesk, can be a bit buggy. Many students downloading this latest release of the 20-year old software package have experienced a problem selecting the Transform Manipulator on their character rig, meaning (in plain English) that you can't move your characters around. The problem The problem is simple. You open up Maya, import your character rig, but when you try to use your mouse or tablet pen to selecting the the Transform Manipulator on your character rig, you just get a weird marquee select instead. You can't select the handles, and you can't move your characters around. The solution Click on the the Preferences button on the bottom right hand corner of your screen. In the pop-up window, search for Display (top left) and click on it. Now look for Viewport 2.0 and, under Rendering engine, change the dropdown menu to DirectX 11. Re-start Maya, and this should fix the problem - for now at least.
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VFX Festival -

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 Just like last year, Escape Studios will be showcasing the best of VFX, Animation, Games and Motion Graphics. There is no better way to find out about the latest trends in our industry, who is hiring, and what skills are in demand.  We strongly encourage all our current, past and future students to attend. Come and find out what the future holds for our industry. What's on display? Spanning four floors over two days, the festival will feature three dedicated exhibition hubs, covering Education, Technology and Industry. The schedule will be packed with a series of leading industry talks and showcases from across the VFX, Animation, Games and Motion Graphics sectors.  VFX is a constantly changing landscape. Last year's "big thing" is this year's old news. So come along, and find out about the latest trends in our industry.  35 - 47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA. Nearest overground train station is Shoreditch High St. Nearest Tube is Liverpool St - a...
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Counsel Wins CAT

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which are sort of like the Oscars for cartooning. The Cartoon Art Trust supports the Cartoon Museum in Bloomsbury, hosting the CAT Awards Dinner to raise funds for the museum and keep its doors open. At the dinner were some of the finest cartoonists in the UK - Matt Pritchett, Mac of the Mail, Nick Newman (who co-writes Private Eye), and plenty of politicians and lawyers to dig deep into their pockets to support the good cause. Cartoon Museum I'm not sure I felt entirely worthy of the prize. After all, surrounded by so much talent, you can't help wonder if others are more deserving. And I wasn't the only one. who does the daily political cartoon for The Times. In his acceptance speech Brookes said "I was going to say I don't deserve this award, but then I'd run the risk of everyone agreeing with me". Which is sort of how I felt on the night.   has been in the pages of The Times for almost 25 years, so it's probably a longevity award ...
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Second Club Comic

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Animators from all over the world participate, animating a character speaking a line of dialogue, which is provided on the first day of every month by the club. What is the 11 Second Club? It's a monthly free animation competition. Participating animators can share their progress with one another and critique each other's work - just like in a real animation studio. At the end of the month, all the participants vote for the submission that they consider the best for that month.  The idea of the 11 Second Club is "to give animators a chance to practice their skills in a fun, challenging environment". What is the dialogue for this month? This month's competition is an eleven second piece of dialogue, but it mainly consists of one word "Jesus", which comes at the end of the line. Until that point, there is a series of weird noises, suggesting that something nasty is happening. Watch the clip above and you'll find it just over ...
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Animation Apprentice Animals

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Check out our latest Animals & Creatures Reel, featuring work by many of our talented students. Animators aren't just technicians, they are entertainers, and the job of the animator is not just to master the art of animal and creature locomotion, but to craft an interesting and compelling performance. Congratulations to Joris Van Laar, Lee Caller, Dave Novis, Celine Sakr, Ramakrishna Maccha and Victoria Bailey on their excellent animation.
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