From time to time I like to dip my toes into the animation industry's fantastic atmosphere to remind myself why I do all of this and what better way to do that than to go to a festival. I've been to many in my time, very few will live up to my earliest memories of the Cardiff Animation Festival before I'd even done my degree in animation.... purely from a nostalgia point of view. But since then I've had the privilege  of being able to present my work and represent my trade in order to meet other fine animators. Below here are some notes on just a few of those events.

Stratford-Upon-Avon College - Animation Lecture - UK - 12th Jan 2009

I went over to Stratford-Upon-Avon College to spend the day teaching and talking to the students about animation, filmmaking and games development. I've had a lot of positive feedback so it sounds like it was a worthwhile experience for everyone. We went over my work, discussed story development, I crammed in a teaching session on walk cycles and belted through a load of quick tips in Maya for things like rigging, blend shapes and the curve editor. We also tackled things like career advice. They made up a display in their library for the event and I'm intrigued to see what they do with all the video interview material. Here's a link to the presentation and the course, as well as their own write up of the day. I wish all the best for the students, and hope they have fun with their new tricks of the trade.

BAF - Animation Festival - Bradford, UK - 12th to 15th Nov 2008

I was at BAF 2008 talking about my 'Life as a Freelance Animator'. As one of the only speakers not representing a company it gave me the opportunity to talk about a lot of issues that most of the other speakers weren't addressing and as such it went down very well. I also took the opportunity to catch up with some old friends and regular faces at BAF and tried to see a few things, although unfortunately I didn't ultimately have enough time to really make the most of it. Still, I'm a firm supporter of the event and I can heartily recommend it... make sure you check out Alan's writing workshop too (unless you're of a shy disposition!).

Siggraph - Animation Festival - LA, USA - 11th to the 15th Aug 2008

A great week in LA. Lots to see and way too much information to absorb. There were loads of great companies there both showing off there work and looking for talent. I went to a few surprising talks and few duds, but that's what you expect. Ed Catmull gave a great, and very honest, talk on the business. There was an interesting forum-like chat about retaining talent, and a frank chat with the director of The Clone Wars. After three or four days though it all get exhausting and it's hard to get the most out of it, so I'm quite sure I barely scratched the surface of even just the things I'd have been interested in. The XSI party was a surprise too and all in all it was a great week.

BAF - Animation Festival - Bradford, UK - 14th to the 17th Nov 2007

This year's Bradford Animation Festival was a really good event. I didn’t get to spend as much time there as I’d have liked but I had a good time while I was there.

Firstly I managed to catch the presentation on Stardust by one of Double Negative’s Head of 3D. He really knew his stuff and managed to field some interesting questions about the way the VFX industry works in Soho.

Then I went along to the Curry Quiz night, which was really good fun. Our team won third place and picked up some suitably trashy prizes for our efforts.

On the second day I got to see Red Star’s ‘The Curse of Skull Rock’. Their Creative Director put on a very interesting presentation about doing stereoscopic theme park films. I was impressed by what they’d achieved in a short period of time with very little man power and I wish them the best of luck with it.

After that I caught the BAF awards ceremony which had a number of short films on display. There was a very funny Russian children’s film that kept the audience laughing (even with subtitles) and I was particularly captivated by a dramatic film about a Priest that accidentally killed a young girl by running her over, and his encounter with a creepy man out to get revenge. It was a bit of a shock when the lights came back up and we all remembered we were at an awards ceremony, which just shows how well it captured our imaginations and sucked us into its story.

BAF - Animation Festival - Bradford, UK - 15th to the 18th Nov 2006

Aside from my involvement on the Steering Committee, presenting and sitting on a couple of panel discussions... this is a great festival with lots to do and see. I watched Monster house again (still excellent) and I wish I could have stayed longer. And I'm not just giving it a glowing review just because I got loads of freebies out of it!

CGI Festival - Computer Graphics Festival - London, UK - 7th Dec 2004

A little less than I was expecting but still a good day out.
The one thing that stood out was a presentation from the lead animator from an EA shooter. It was a spirited presentation about how they approached their animated army men. The poor guy had to field some tough topical questions about EA's working practices and his personal choices about his career in animation but he did a decent job of answering without letting things get awkward, and continued to roll with the punches. Thumbs up, well done!

Glamfest - Student graduation show - Cardiff, Wales - 2004

I returned to the yearly event that's held at the end of my old animation courses' year; the Glammies, or Glamfest as it's now called. Another ex-student, Ryan, and I put on a presentation to show people what it is we do in the games industry and in particular Rare. We were in awe of the scale of the event the the college put on. A huge (and very tall) hall was kitted out with two raised cinema screens over a stage. It was a whole day of show floor stands (of which we were one) and numerous presentations from various studios and individuals in and around the animation industry to an audience of hundreds. The place was crawling with industry names and students (even a few that had sneaked in from other courses in the country). There was a debate in another building (which we volunteered to be involved in), and when we returned the hall was filled with large tables so that everyone could sit down, eat and watch a screening of student films. At this point the big event started, the awards ceremony (one of which we judged and presented). The whole thing ended with a party and a band. What a day! You'd be forgiven for thinking that this was an industry-wide event but believe it or not, this was an invitation only student graduation event! Wow. It's come a long way from the days that we hosted the awards in a Cardiff cinema, and I thought it was a big deal then.

Ryan and I were there in a recruiting capacity too, so it was great to have a chat to all those eager students, we looked at some work and dished out plenty of dodgy career advise! e looked at some work and dished out plenty of dodgy career advise!

We were also there to push the games industry upon the unsuspecting animation delegates and students. There wasn't really that much representation from other games companies, so our presentation went down quite well. It wasn't the kind of thing you get to see much of at these sort of events (by that I mean major animation/film festivals!).

Siggraph - Science and Computer Graphics festival - San Diego, USA - 2003

I went to Siggraph for the first time ... and it was - good. There was a great talk on robotics that featured speakers from NASA, Sony and Digital Domain amongst others. They brought in various working robots too, which was really cool. The audience was of course asked not to take pictures... which was completely ignored when they ended the presentation and debate with a demonstration of all the robots on the stage. The entire audience clambered forward and started snapping away over the top of everyone else's heads! It was fantastic. I think some were even broadcasting the news and pictures from their laptops during the event! I've got some photos too... naughty, naughty.

Animated Encounters - Film and Animation festival - Bristol, UK - 2003

I visited the Bristol animation festival for Rare as a recruiter. I setup shop with a laptop on some of the tables and talked to a load of interesting students and veterans. Even managed to hire a couple!