Pantomimes and circuses, by Joan Beales, 1954, collection of London Transport Museum

MA Character Animation students are keeping busy with exciting external projects with the London Transport Museum and the Royal Shakespeare Company

For the ‘Moving Posters’ project, students will be creating animation inspired by 10 historic posters designed by former students or staff from CSM. Their animation work will be featured alongside the original posters in an exhibition in the Window Gallery at CSM in May and will be available to download in the London Transport Museum via QR code on mobile phones by the end of March.

Students are also working with Professor Shelley Page, of Dreamworks and the Royal Shakespeare Company to create a series of ‘Micro Short’ animations for the World Shakespeare Festival, part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. When completed, these short films will be displayed on plasma screens in the RSC theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon as part of the festival and will also be projected onto the wall of the foyer.

Find out more:
- Course Leader Birgitta Hosea’s ‘Expanded Animation’ blog
- MA Character Animation course page

Martin Clapp’s film The Magic Piano made the Oscar Animated Short final 10 shortlist. Martin has worked in the animation industry since graduating in 2000, mainly with 3D computer animation. He also worked on the 2006 Oscar winning film Peter and the Wolf, produced by Breakthru Films.

Find out more:
- MA Character Animation course page

Last night Lowe and Partners announced the winner of the inaugural Nova award at the Lethaby Gallery in the new Central Saint Martins building at King’s Cross. Chairman of Lowe and Partners, Tony Wright presented the award and a cheque for £6,000 to Isak Akerlund for his animated film, ‘The Art of Darkness’.

The graduate of PG Dip Character Animation was inspired by Henri Rousseau’s 1891 painting, ‘Surprised’ and Joseph Conrad’s novella, ‘Heart of Darkness’.

The two runners up received a £2,000 prize each for their work – ‘The Knitting Craftsman’ by MA Industrial Design graduate, Jan Rose and Ryohei Kawanishi’s BA Fashion Knit collection. Jan Rose’s ‘Urban Pouf’ is part of his graduation project, ‘The Knitting Craftsman’ which is a response to the ongoing trend of amateur craft making and professional rapid prototyping.

Ryohei’s collection of finely crafted outsize garments represents international politics, terrorism, the role of media in representing images of war and conflict, as well as the role of the internet in the new age revolution. Raluca Popa MA Fine Art, Pip Jolley BA Jewellery Design, Shaun Samson MA Fashion Menswear, Natasha Farrar BA Graphic Design and Oleg Mitrofanov BA Fashion Communication and Promotion were all commended.

Tony Wright, Chairman of Lowe and Partners said: “We created the Nova award precisely to help uncover fresh new talent like Isak, Ryohei and Jan. It’ll be interesting to see their careers take off from here.”

Professor Jane Rapley, Head of Central Saint Martins, said: “We are delighted that Lowe and Partners have recognised the potential of our graduates in creating the Nova Award and enabled us to create such a diverse and fascinating mirror of our DNA in this wonderful space.”

Winner, Isak Akerlund said, “I feel very honoured to be selected out of so many talented artists at Central Saint Martins and to be part of the first “Crossover” exhibition. My graduation project has been a labour of love. The NOVA award gives me a chance to keep on developing my film and I am very grateful to Lowe + Partners for the opportunities this prize gives to me.”

‘La Messicole’

Congratulations to Central Saint Martins MA Character Animation graduate Hannes Stummvoll, whose graduation film, ‘La Messicole’ has been officially selected in the Animation category for the prestigious Rushes Soho Shorts Festival.

This animation was created as part of a live brief for the National Gallery and was inspired by Paul Gauguin’s ‘Harvest: Le Pouldu’ (1890). With a painterly aesthetic created through digital tools, it features Chloé daydreaming during the wheat harvest and explores the boundaries between fantasy and reality, work and play, visual arts and music, wheat and poppies.

The film has also been screened at many other international festivals including: 5th China International Student Animation Festival 2010; 12th Puchon International Student Animation Festival 2010 South Korea; Busan Universiade for Digital Content 2010 South Korea; Animac Catalonian Festival of Animated Film 2011 Lleida, Spain; Pictoplasma 2011 Festival for Contemporary Character Design & Art Berlin, Germany; arte KurzSchluss 2011 online short film competition Germany / France; 7th International Short Film Festival Detmold 2011, Germany. In addition, Hannes will be showcased in the Summer 2011 edition of Imagine animation magazine.

Visit:
- Rushes Soho Shorts official selection
- MA Character Animation course page

The Internet Advertising Bureau’s 120 Hours (of digital display) is a frenzied carnival of creativity, celebrating prodigious digital display ads. Centred around an art exhibition of the best digital ads, this is all about the digital creative industry.

Enter the IAB’s 120 Hours (of digital display) Creative Genius Award. IAB are asking the greatest creative minds to step forward and forge miniature works of art in any medium – photos, drawings, poems, watercolour, video etc – using online and mobile ad sizes as the canvas. Entries will be judged by a panel of senior experts from the creative industry. Two winners will receive the first IAB 120 Hours Awards, at the launch night of the 120 Hours exhibition, April 6.

Visit:
- More on 120 Hours (of digital display) exhibition and award
- The IAB website

Ignasi’s final degree film Saint Christopher Carrying the Infant Christ has been selected by the International Festival of video and digital Arts and nominated for the Metropolis awards.

Ignasi’s film was the result of a collaboration with the National Gallery London. The winning work will form a special 25 minute program to be broadcast on Metropolis, a programme on the premiere Spanish TV channel TV2.

- Watch Saint Christopher carrying the infant Christ
- Visit the PG Cert Character Animation course page
- Visit Ignasi’s website

PG Dip Character Animation alumnus Jats Gill is launching his first vinyl art toy series comprising over forty custom artist designs that he describes as twisted and seductive.

You can see them in the exhibition Bitbots Jinny: The Bewitched Forest on from 10 to 30 September 2010 at 1.11 Kingly Court, London, W1B 5PW.

Visit:
- Bitbots’ website
- PG Dip Character Animation course page

Not one but four different alumni of PgDip Character Animation have been nominated for awards in the prestigious Soho Rushes Shorts Animation Awards.

2009 Graduation films by Anna Fyda (‘Secret Santa’) and Phoebe Boswell (‘The Girl with Stories in her Hair’) have been nominated alongside films by alumni Milo Waterfield (‘Lobster Club’) and Peter Baynton (‘Save Our Bacon’).
(more…)

Pg Dip Character Animation student Joanna Czajka has a picture called ‘Jenny builds her sky’ featured in the 20/21 Art Fair at Royal College of Art.

It is shown and dedicated as a donation to Too Many Women, an organisation supporting BreakThrough Breast Cancer. The photo-montage features fellow student Jenny Lewis.

Visit:
PG Dip Character Animation courser page
20/21 International Art Fair

Broccoli Soup by Silvia Bartoli

Two of the top graduates from Pg Dip Character Animation have had their graduation films shortlisted for prestigious British Animation Awards.

‘Broccoli Soup’ Directed by Silvia Bartoli has been nominated in the ‘Best Student Film Category’ and ‘The Girl with Stories in her Hair’ Directed by Phoebe Boswell has been nominated both in ‘Best Student Film Category’ and also for a ‘Public Choice Award’.

You can vote for Phoebe’s film when it’s screened at the BFI on Thursday 18 February 18:20 NFT2 or Sunday 28 Feb 20:20 NFT2 as part of the British Animation Awards 2010: Programme One.

These two films were created in response to a brief from the National Gallery to create a short film inspired by a painting in their collection.

Visit:
Examples of Central Saint Martin’s student films for the National Gallery
PG Dip Character Animation
British Animation Awards website
BFI Animation Awards programme website