Alice in Wonderland transformed into a YouTube vlogger, Homer’s Cyclops as a cartoon alien and HG Wells’ Time Machine re-imagined as a wardrobe – these are the finalists in the UKs first ever visual effects and animation competition for students.
More than 100 people from universities around Britain pitched for the chance to be one of the ten finalists in the contest, hosted by the National Centre for Computer Animation at Bournemouth University.
Over the next six weeks the ten teams will turn their pitches into short films, based on one of five passages from classic literary works.
Winners will be announced in at a special ceremony during the BFX festival in September.
Sofronis Efstathiou, academic at the NCCA and Festival Director said: “The quality of submissions by all the applicants was impressive and the amount of commitment shown by the teams was nothing short of extraordinary, particularly as many of them were undertaking major projects and exams at the time.
"We are very lucky to have some of the UK’s best animation and VFX students taking part in this inaugural event and mentoring provided by some of the finest studios in the world. “
Karl Wickens, Head of 3D at Double Negative who helped choose the finalists, said: “It was great to see the breadth of projects that the entrants had proposed. There's a great range of styles and content; all of the teams have a challenge ahead that is going to make for an interesting and exciting competition."
The teams, from Bournemouth University, AUB, Ravensbourne, Lincoln, Portsmouth and South Wales, will be mentored by industry experts as they turn their initial pitches into finished sequences.
The competition aims to replicate the experience of working on a live studio and is part of A Bigger Future, a three-year film industry project aimed at making the UK the world’s leading talent hub for visual effects.
To see all the pitches from the finalists, go to http://www.bfxfestival.com/competition/bfxshortlist13/
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