Animation Forum West Midlands has partnered with Young Animators West Midlands, a new community for younger animators and creatives founded by young AFWM member Nathan Wilkes. "Young Animators WM (YAWM) is a group set up by myself with the help of another local young animator Sam George," says Nathan, 16. "In setting up YAWM, we aim to help anyone under 16 years old to understand and participate in the excitement and joy of animation. [More]

Animation Forum WM have teamed up with Dice Productions and Flip Festival to bring you three consecutive nights of fantastic animated short films this February, for the British Animation Awards Public Choice Screenings.

Three seperate programmes of screenings the best UK animated films of 2010 and 2011 will be screened Thursday 9th, Friday 10th and Saturday 11th February, from 7pm each night at The Custard Factory Theatre.

Tickets can be bought in advance online for £5 per night using the Eventbrite form below and include a free drink courtesy of Flip Animation Festival. Attendees can also buy tickets for all three screenings if they prefer for a reduced rate of £12.

Our Shorts on Walls screenings will be returning once more to this year's Flatpack Festival (14th-18th March 2012), which naturally means one thing: we need your animated short films sharpish.

Shorts on Walls gives Midlands animators and studios the chance to screen their latest animated works and mingle with fellow animators over a beverage of their choosing.

Long-time Animation Forum WM members, The Brothers McLeod recently picked up a BAFTA Children’s Award for their work on a BBC Learning animation.

AFWM caught up with writer of the duo, Myles McLeod for a quick chat about the win. 

"If there is no change, the UK’s animation sector is likely to continue to contract. More players will exit the business, and the survivors will gradually do a diminishing number of projects," according to a new report on the state of the British animation industry and the case for its support by Animation UK.

Animation UK was formed in 2010 to represent the UKs animation industry. They campaign for fairer trading conditions for UK animators and to help protect or increase the ownership if IP. Its aim is to work with the Government to get the best possible trading conditions for UK producers.

Red Bull is offering animators the chance to have their own creation showcased in cinemas nationwide.

Canimation is a nationwide, multi-genre, creativity contest to find undiscovered talent. Not only do animators get the chance to win a screening of their production, there are many more prizes up for grabs.
There are three categories of animation; stop-motion, CGI and drawn animation. In addition, there are two ways of entering the competition; student or ‘open’ route.

Masters from the animation world will be in Wolverhampton this weekend. Bill Plympton, Cosgrove Hall, and Aardman will all be gracing Light House with their presence at Flip Festival 2011.

Animators and fans can attend the Flip Festival at Light House, Wolverhampton from Thursday 27th to Saturday 29th October.

After graduating from university, most students wouldn’t know where to begin in setting up their own company from scratch. Animation specialists Sector5 Studios are the product of four up and coming individuals, who wanted to take their careers into their own hands by doing just that.

“We were talking about it casually during university but we discussed the idea more seriously during our third year. There were originally five of us hence the name ‘Sector5’ [due to commitment issues one member had to leave the team but they remain good friends]. The name however, stuck with us” said Ravi Maheru, 3D Animator for Sector5 Studios.