Fancy a bit of a challenge this summer? It always helps to have material on your showreel that is extra-curricular, and if you are not a student, this is a good way to make the wider world know about your imagination and talent. Skillset are happy to support grass roots ventures such as this from AWFM. 

Animation Forum West Midlands and the organisers of Flip Animation Festival have teamed up to launch The Great Animation Challenge! Several up and coming bands are making a number of tracks freely available for animators across the UK to download and animate to, with the best and brightest screened at Wolverhampton’s Light House cinema on 21st July 2009. Midlands‘-based bands Pram (Domino Records) and Epic 45 (Make Mine Music) will be joined by last year’s Levi’s Ones to Watch tips Laurel Collective (Double Six) and Beat To Paris. To enter the contest, simply:

• download one or more of the tracks below

• create a music video that uses animation for that track

• upload the finished video to The Great Animation Challenge Vimeo Group anytime before the 6th July deadline

• contact david.luke.allen@bcu.ac.uk with your full name, email address, phone number and the title of your short

 The animators behind the best shorts will then be contacted in July for a screening copy of the piece.  The contest is open to animators across the UK and the winner of the best short will receive a subscription to Imagine Magazine and a copy of The Imagine Animation Directory following screenings at the Light House Cinema in Wolverhampton on 21st July 2009. The tracks can be downloaded by right-clicking on the links below and clicking ‘Save Link As’:

Pram – Sirocco (aif)
Epic45 – In All the Empty Houses (mp3)
Beat To Paris – Neon New (wav)
Laurel Collective – Fax of Death (wav)
Laurel Collective – Hindenburg Mile High Club (aif) 

You can find out more details on the AWFM site http://www.animationforumwm.com/