On the set of CITV's Compost Corner

Here is CITV's animation maestro and Creative Producer, Westley Wood on the set of 'Compost Corner'.

Westley is one of the industry advisors to the BA Animation course and we are working closely with the industry to make sure our graduates have all the skills and knowledge to pursue a career in animation.

I took this picture after meeting up with Westley in CITV's studios in MediaCity this morning.

If you haven't seen Compost Corner, check out the Facebook page here!

The Making of a Cartoon for TV

I was looking through some old videos and came across this gem...a video of yours truly explaining to Fern Cotton how to do animation! This was made back in 2003 when I was directing a cartoon series for Top of the Pops Saturday called PopSkool....anyone remember that? They were a bunch of short cartoons about a school where pop stars learned how to become famous by established masters of pop. Ozzy Osbourne was the headmaster and stars like Kylie, Robbie Williams and Janet Jackson were the teachers and pupils included Busted, Blazin Squad, Atomic Kitten, Britney Spears etc...Those were the days when I had bleached hair too!!

New Animation Course gets Academic and Industry Approval

The new animation course is on target to commence enrolling students from September 2015, and has now been given the stamp of approval from both academics and representatives from industry at a validation committee.

This is fantastic news for us, as this means we can now fully get the ball rolling to build a brand new animation studio in the School of Art.

One of the industry representatives, Mike Robinson, from Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick, was particularly impressed by the Art School and the plans to build a course that CHF and indeed the rest of the Manchester animation community could work with.

Applications to start the course in September are now invited, and the course can be applied through UCAS using the course code D367

40 New Animation Jobs to be Created in Manchester

The new BA Animation course was officially launched to the industry at 'Manimation', the Manchester Animation Festival, held at Media City on 20th November.

Course Leader Andy Wyatt (pictured conducting an online interview with Craig Fletcher, CEO of Multiplay at Manimation) announced Manchester School of Art's exciting plans to start a long-awaited dedicated animation course in September 2015.

The event, which was supported by the School of Art was a day of presentations, panel discussions and networking events. Perhaps the highlight of the day was the key note address by our friends from Dublin, Brown Bag Films, whose CEO Cathal Gaffney announced the studio plans to expand their existing Dublin and Hollywood workforce of 160, by opening a studio in Manchester, creating 40 new jobs for animators. We will be working with Brown Bag to make sure that we create the sort of graduates that they would like to employ in the future.

Key creatives from some of the top animation, visual effects and games studios in the UK were at MediaCity to discuss the future of animation, including Cubic Motion, the Composer Works, Mackinnon and Saunders, CBeebies, Multiplay, Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick, Brown Bag Films, Adobe, British Film Institute, Mainframe, Rights TV, Next Gen Skills Academy, 422.TV, The Brothers McLeod, The Peel Group, Compact Media Group, Peachy, RealtimeUK, Fettle, EON Reality, ToonBoom, CITV plus many many more.

More information and the official event blog can be read here;

http://www.thechildrensmediaconference.com/events/manimation-2014/

For more information on the new animation course contact Andy Wyatt here

Design Your Future - London Excel Exhibition Centre

Nice to meet so many people at the UCAS 'Design your Future' event today at the Excel Exhibition Centre in London. If you missed us there, we will be at the Design your Future event in Manchester on 24th-25th November at the MCCC

The interest in the new animation course has been amazing.....and we've met some really talented folk.

Also we have an open day coming up on 29th November. Come along and say hello :-)

Manimation, the Manchester Animation Festival

Manimation Returns to BBC Salford


Thursday 20 November 2014
BBC Bridge House, Salford

Manimation Fusion will be a full day of sessions on all aspects of the animation industry including TV series, movies, commercials, VIS FX, apps and games – with the chance to meet key players in broadcasting, producing and funding.

PLUS the added bonus of Manimation Inspiration – an evening of creative conversation and networking, which is a FREE event in collaboration with the Next Generation Festival. Full details of speakers to follow soon. Book Now


Register now for the return of the popular Manchester-based workshop and networking event – Manimation.

Manimation 2014 is organised by CMC with support from MMU and supported by MIDAS.

60 Years since Animal Farm

It is now 60 years since the UK released it's first animated feature film 'Animal Farm' produced by the Halas and Batchelor studio in 1954.

Todays news on the BBC celebrates this, here.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-29845321

The UK animation industry has grown since then and now it employs 1000's of people across television, games, visual effects, film, new media and advertising.

Our animation programme leader Andy Wyatt was lucky enough to work for Halas and Batchelor in the early 1990's and remembers many of the original animation cells from Animal Farm in boxes, and at the time no-one knew what to do with them. Now fortunately, all the artwork has been archived and that part of our animation heritage is safe.

If you want to be part of the future of the animation industry, we are now open for applications to study animation on our BA Animation programme. Details on our new updated website here;

http://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/animation/

A Great Film to Show Off our Amazing Facilities

The Animation course is based in the Art School, and the animation studios can boast all the equipment, computers and industry standard software you are ever going to need to create some great animation. However as an art student, you will have access to a huge number of workshops, studios and equipment if and when you need it. Our technical team have produced an amazing video that shows off some of the stuff we have on offer.

Our Amazing Building...Come and See for Yourself.

The Manchester School of Art may not have won the prestigious Stirling Award for Architecture, announced in an award ceremony last night (well done Everyman Theatre in Liverpool), but we can be proud that our building was nominated and shortlisted as one of the 'six of the best' in the UK. 

It's going to be fantastic to have our new BA Animation course based in one of the UKs most beautiful buildings, listed alongside buildings like The Shard in London.

You can see and read about the building from an architects perspective here.

To develop creativity, an inspirational environment and space is critical, and if you come along to one of our open days, I will guarantee you will be inspired too. The open day tomorrow opens at 10am and Programme Leader, Andy Wyatt will be doing a presentation about the new animation course at 1.15pm, and he will also be around all day to talk about the course, and animation in general.

School Visit for an Animation Workshop

Animation Programme Leader Andy Wyatt and a team from Manchester School of Art visited Priestnall School in Stockport this week to talk about a career in Animation and also run an animation workshop where students created their own animations in the style of OOglies, one of the TV series that Andy worked on.

The animation was created by using some stop motion software apps installed onto IPads.

We are always happy to visit schools or colleges to talk to students (year 9 and above) about a career in animation, run animation workshops, or talk about animation in after school clubs.

Contact Andy Wyatt for more info.  http://www.art.mmu.ac.uk/animation/

Open Day on 11th and 18th October 2014

In 2015 Manchester School of Art will launch an exciting new BA course in animation.  The course will be very much about the future of animation: it will take all the traditional skills of drawing, narrative and character and look at how these might be applied to emerging digital platforms as well as in television, film, visual effects and advertising.

Manchester has a very proud history of animation, from Cosgrove Hall (Dangermouse, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Wind in the Willows) to Mackinnon and Saunders (Corpse Bride, Bob the Builder, Fantastic Mr Fox) Factory Transmedia (Strangehill High, Roary the Racing Car) and many others.

Former Executive Producer of the Simpsons, Josh Weinstein, said recently that he sees that there is the possibility that Manchester will overtake LA as a centre for creativity in the animation sector:

“The city was the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution and now I see it as being at the heart of a new revolution in the media industries, particularly animation.”

And he is not the only one: in the last 3 years BBC Children’s has moved its location from London to Manchester, partly because of the vibrant animation sector in the city. Industry links are an essential part of study at Manchester School of Art and the BBC, ITV as well as our locally based companies are already lending support for the planning and teaching of the new degree.

If you are interested in being part of this exciting journey and applying to be one of the first students in this amazing opportunity, please contact Animation Programme Leader Andy Wyatt a.wyatt@mmu.ac.uk for more details, or come and see us at one of our open days on 11th or 18th October.

You can book for an open day here http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/visit/

Programme Leader joins Simpsons writer at BBC writing event.

Manchester School of Art Animation Programme Leader Andy Wyatt (back row far left) joins a team of writers from the BBC's 'Writers Room' to discuss animation. The writers from all over the UK have worked on some of the nations top TV shows and were joined by Simpsons and Futurama writer and creator of Strangehill High creator Josh Weinstein (front row, centre). 

To all you budding new animation students out there.

This is very exciting news everyone! In September 2015 Manchester School of Art will be opening its doors to a brand new animation degree course...called (as it happens) BA ANIMATION. Manchester is a central hub for British animation and is home to many world famous animation studios and animators, and now of course home of MediaCity UK. This blog will chart the development of the new animation department and bring you news of what is happening...and perhaps you can be part of it. We are now accepting applications for the course through the usual UCAS route and we will be having open days throughout the year to come and meet the team, see the amazing facilities and find out more about the course.