BBC Ignite Welcomes Animation Pitches

BBC "Ignite" deadline is 8 February 2024 at 2pm

BBC Children’s Animation are seeking submissions for fresh, bold and innovative animation ideas. The scheme is called "Ignite" and the deadline is 8 February 2024 at 2pm. 

For all our students at Animation Apprentice who have been working on short films - this is a perfect opportunity to pitch your materials to the UK's biggest broadcaster.

BBC Ignite Seeks Fresh Animation Ideas

BBC Ignite wants your pitches

BBC Children’s Animation are seeking submissions for fresh, bold and innovative animation ideas. The scheme is called "Ignite" and the deadline is Midnight on 1st September 2021. 

For all our students who have been working on short films for the past couple of years - this is a perfect opportunity to pitch your materials to the UK's biggest broadcaster.

Successful pitches will be given a "fully funded development opportunity" to bring their project to the small screen.

You don't need to have created any finished animation for your project; more important is an idea of the stories you want to tell and who the main characters are.  To see more, follow this link.

Nik Couzens Junior Animator at BBC Studios

Many congratulations to Nik Couzens, who has recently started work as a Junior Animator at BBC Studios. Nik took our 30 week course at Animation Apprentice, working hard to develop his demo reel and apply for work in the expanding UK animation industry. 

BBC Studios is "home to the very best of British creativity". It is UK’s "most-awarded production company" and also a "world-class distributor" of original creative content.

We are delighted that Nik has landed his first job in the animation business.

Free Sound Effects From the BBC

For our student film-makers, one excellent (and free) resource for sound design and sound effects is the BBC Free Sound Effects for Film-Makers.

Around 16,000 BBC Sound Effects have been made available by the BBC in WAV format for free download for use under the terms of the RemArc Licence. The Sound Effects are BBC copyright, but they may be used for personal, educational or research purposes, as detailed in the license. We're recommending this for all our students.

Great Reference for Animals and Creatures from the BBC and Getty Images

Here is some great reference for animators, specialising in animal locomotion and behaviour, from the BBC and Getty Images.

The site is easily searchable so, say you need some reference footage of a cheetah running, it's all very easy to find. You can easily download the videos as .mp4 files, and then open them up in QuickTime so you can step through them frame by frame.

BBC Uses Animation to Teach Philosophy

The BBC has done a series of a short animated films to illustrate the History of Ideas, a courageous and bold way of trying to make philosophy accessible to a broad audience. The idea is to use cartoons to make relatively complex ideas easier to understand.  Here at Animation Apprentice we applaud this innovative use of animation to bring tricky ideas to a wider audience. Animation used to be a tiny cottage industry, but now it's everywhere, a universal medium growing in popularity and used in many different media.

Marc Godfrey Animator at BBC Bitesize

BBC Bitesize

Marc Godfrey was one of the first students to sign up for our course at Animation Apprentice.

He is also one of the most dedicated, and we are proud that his dedication and commitment to the craft of animation has been recognised by the industry in the form of a job witha new Glasgow-based company "Once Were Farmers".