B.A.F.

Today University organized a trip to the Bradford Animation Festival. As an animation student I felt more than excited to go, and I am glad I did. That was an amazing experience, not only was I in that type of environment for the first time, but also the things I saw and heard were very inspiring. The experience was one of a kind to say the least, but if I had to pick a highpoint of the festival I would say, that for me personally, the thing I will remember the most, is the interactive lecture we got about the movie “Hercules” and the CGI in it. The first thing about this that surprised me the most, that some parts of the movie were computer generated which I wouldn’t even would have thought to look for, that mostly being a lot of shots of Hercules when he was interacting to the CGI up-close. Not to mention the in-depth close look at how the work was made.

However that takes a back seat to the talk/ interview that was given to us by a well-known animator - Michel Ocelot. His talk was amazingly interesting it provided a detailed outlook into his work, the struggles he faced to keep his work authentic and not to mention what efforts he had to put in to make his animated movies face the light of day. This was probably the most inspiring/ amazing part of the trip to me, the lecture, and the two pieces of advice he gave us:

1. “If somebody is giving you a heads up on how to finish your work. And you don’t get the “Ah yes! That is a good idea!” feeling, Don’t listen to them and finish like you planned.”

2. “When animating an animator must remember to not kill themselves”