Animators captivate industry audience

14/05/04

Animators captivate industry audience

Screen productions developed by final year design students have gone on show at multimedia giant Bloomberg. Twelve short films put together by a group of illustration and animation undergraduates are being shown in the restaurant at the company’s central London headquarters. Made up of more than 8000 frames, they will run on a continuous loop for three months.

The project got off the ground after Bloomberg representatives heard about the success of illustration and animation graduate Sumito Sakakibara, who last year won a prestigious Royal Television Society National Student Award. They contacted senior lecturer Damian Gascoigne and commissioned his students to come up with a series of one-minute films for a three-screen video wall at the company’s Finsbury Square offices. As part of their brief, the young designers had to present their storyboard ideas and moving images to a team from Bloomberg. “The company’s representatives were very impressed by the professional quality of the students’ work,” Mr Gascoigne said.

Project participant Mark James created an animation depicting the adventures of a cat being pursued by an evil magician. “The fact my work was going to be seen by animators at the top of their profession was a major incentive to do well,” the 22 year old said. “My main objective was to find the best way to utilise the three-screen format at the Bloomberg base.”

Course director Brian Love said the project would improve the students’ chances of securing top jobs once they graduated. “Their links with Bloomberg will really strike a chord with potential employers. The project was a fantastic boost for the students’ portfolios and they have gained enormous confidence from the whole experience,” he said.