Bristol gets a grip on animation
The South West the ANIMATED Region
The South West has established itself as a nationally and internationally recognised centre for both the production of and training in animation.
Bristol is the largest centre of animation activity in the region. Most significantly it is the home of the now world famous Aardman Animations.
Aardman, founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1976, started off in Bristol creating stop-frame animations for BBC children's programmes, including the Plasticine character Morph. Commissions for BBC and Channel 4 followed, including animated shorts based on real-life conversation pieces. They produced the enormously successful feature film Flushed Away (2006) which followed hard on the heels of Wallace and Gromit and the Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005).
Bristol is, however, also the base Bolex Brothers creators of the animated feature Magic Roundabout and many other innovative productions. In addition the city is home many other animation companies such as A-productions, Jelly TV, Rubberductions, Eggtoons, Collision Films and Big Squid among many others. The thriving animation culture in the city also means that new and innovative companies are always coming on stream. Animation in the region is not limited to Bristol though, look across the South West and you will find thriving companies such as Honeycombe, Spidereye and King Rollo.
The City also boasts one of the leading international festivals of animated and live action short films. The Encounters Festival. This annual gathering of short film makers is a key showcase for the animation industry on a regional, national and international basis.
The South west is incredibly proud of its tradition of producing world class animation. Skillset works with partnership with agencies such as South West Screen and the Media Clusters across the region to help the industry remain competitive in the global marketplace by maintaining and improving our highly skilled animation workforce.
The Bristol School of Animation
In 1998, the Bristol School of Art, Media and Design (University of the West of England) was approached by Aardman Animations to set up a training programme for its employees to get the studio working at maximum capacity for the Chicken Run feature. "The training programme we put together is what is now our three-month professional training course open to all," says Louise Jennings, marketing officer. The training programme is now developed in consultation with representatives from Aardman , BBC Bristol, Bolex Brothers, Fictitious Egg and 4:2:2 to ensure it is providing the skills training that is relevant to the industry. "Students are attracted to Bristol and our courses partly thanks to the reputation of the professional training courses we run but also because of the reputation of Bristol as a centre of animation," adds Jennings.
For further information please see the links listed:
www.422.com/ws2/index.php
www.aardman.co.uk
www.aproductions.co.uk
www.bigsquid.net
www.bolexbrothers.co.uk
www.collisionfilms.com
www.eggtoons.com/
www.encounters-festival.org.uk/
www.honeycombanimation.co.uk/
www.jellytelly.co.uk/index.htm
www.kingrollofilms.co.uk/
www.rubberductions.com
www.spider-eye.com/
www.uwe.ac.uk/amd
