The festive season is upon us and Bournemouth has decked itself out with the return of its Christmas Tree Wonderland and market. Adding to the decorations this year are a series of projected animations, created by BA (Hons) Animation Productions students from Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).
Working on a live brief with Poole-based projection mapping and visual arts specialists, Light Art Creatives, the 10 students created several Christmas-themed animations to be displayed on Bournemouth’s high street until the end of December as part of the town centre’s festive celebrations.
“As a local business, we think it’s really important to showcase and utilise local talent," says Julian Dorrell, Director of Light Art Creatives. "We project on anything from castles to tanks, and at events like car launches, weddings, and even on aeroplanes. In town, we’re best known for our work on Bournemouth’s buildings and for this project, I really wanted to invite these talented students in to work with me.
“The students were excellent from start to finish, they worked so professionally, and I was very impressed with the high standard of work and the level of effort. I would love to work with AUB’s students again on even bigger projects in the future!”
Lucy Turner, Senior Lecturer on BA (Hons) Animation Production, adds, “To get the opportunity to work on live briefs is so important for our students. It means they can see what it’s like working in the ‘real’ world with the support of us here at AUB and industry professionals such as Julian.
"For this live brief, the students were also lucky enough to be mentored by Lauren Habgood, an exceptional 2D compositing artist, while they were developing their work.”
Graduating from AUB’s BA (Hons) Animation Production course in 2014, Lauren comes back frequently to AUB to deliver a compositing course and was delighted to support the students on this animated projection project.
“Compositing is all about making the final product look really pretty," she explains. "We add lighting and atmosphere, elements that evoke feeling.
“I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the students’ work and their professional skill level, so very impressive. And for me, it was intoxicating being immersed in a project with AUB students again; their passion, vibrancy, and love for the craft is so infectious."
Desirée Scheper, a third-year BA (Hons) Animation Production student at the time of the project, and now AUB alumna, comments, “This was a really fun project to work on. I love animating animals so as soon as I heard about this project, I was in! I worked on the animation for the Goose Conductor in the animal march as well as a handful of other animations like the Antler Lights, and the Ice-skating scenes.
“We were a mix of first, second, and third years and it was great working with new animators and lovely getting to know them. I love a challenge so picked a style that I don’t usually work in and off we went. I’ve also never worked on an animation that’s designed to be used in lots of different spaces, so that made the design aspect more interesting too."
The students’ animations were also projected onto AUB’s campus buildings for the Winter Market on 4 December and will be displayed on Bournemouth’s Primark on Commercial Road until 31 December 2024.
