Visit to Bradford Animation Festival 2013

In the interest of full disclosure I should let you know that I worked on the Bradford Animation Festival for several years, but in 2013 I finally got the chance to experience the festival in a new pair of shoes as a paying punter. Seeing the festival from this new perspective was a breath of fresh air and instead of festival-eve anxiety worrying about ticket sales, profit margins and delayed flights I was excited and looking forward to soaking everything up like a giant man-size sponge.

First up on my must-see list was Visual Design Director Viktor Antonov. Antonov led the design of the game environments in the seminal Half-Life 2 and more recently Dishonored but has also worked on films such as the stylish sci-fi thriller animation Renaissance. Antonov's presentation featured a plethora of jaw dropping concept art and sketches and he reiterated the importance of treating the environment as a lead character. Everything starts on paper and Antonov's aim is to always try and create an immersive setting full of character and intrigue just from sketches and paintings.

Concept art from Dishonored

One interesting point was how Antonov goes about constructing a new city. The city of Dunwall in Dishonored was heavily inspired by Victorian London. He talked about the way the buildings snake organically around the river and how this reinforced a classical, European setting. I thought this was interesting when he contrasted this design with the functional grid-like structure of modern, colonial cities such as New York and how the understanding of why cities are built the way they are leads to virtual environments that are utterly convincing.

Antonov also touched on the Dishonored character design and how his team has studied the Westerns of Sergio Leone and the faces of actors Charles Bronson and Steve McQueen to try and create slightly broken and memorable characters. This session made me want to revisit the world of Dunwall and play it all over again. I'd also heard on the grapevine that Antonov had been out walking in Bradford taking snaps of the local architecture so maybe we'll be seeing a few flourishes of Yorkshire in his next project.

Next on my hit list was illustrator and director Dave McKean. Actually, he describes himself as 'not really much of anything' but when pushed really he's just a storyteller using whatever means feel natural to get his story across. McKean's lucid and humble presentation style was utterly compelling and as he talked through his raft of portfolio images (or 'bunch of stuff' as he described) on his laptop I was transfixed. I'm a big fan of McKean's work on comics and children's books so seeing his surreal, slightly nightmarish illustrations on the big screen was wonderful. McKean traced his career through comic books and book covers and how working with writers such as Neil Gaiman, David Almond, Richard Dawkins and recently on Heston Blumenthal's new cook book is a constant inspiration.

Spread from The Savage. Illustrations by Dave McKean.

The next special guest was claymation maestro Lee Hardcastle. Based in Yorkshire, Hardcastle has rose to fame through his uber-gory and super fun animated short films that would make Wallace and Gromit blush. Funded through YouTube advertising it was refreshing to hear from a truly independent film-maker who is finding new ways to make money and do what they love. Hardcastle's session ended with a screening of his new 20 minute short Ghost Burger; a tale of two boys who hunt ghosts for burger meat.

In the evening the festival opened with a special 20th anniversary screening of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas. I'd never seen it on the big screen before so it was a joy to see the puppets and visuals in gorgeous digital clarity.

On the Thursday I popped back in the evening to catch a special panel focussing on the director Bob Godfrey and the people he worked with throughout his career. Probably most well known for children's TV series Roobarb and Custard and Henry's Cat it was interesting to hear about the far reaching impact Bob Godfrey had on the British animation industry in the 60s, 70s and 80s. After a quick intermission where Kevin Baldwin showed the audience how to draw Henry's Cat and Guardian cartoonist Steve Bell gave a crash course on his formula for sketching Maggie Thatcher, the event concluded with a screening of several rare Bob Godfrey films. My favourite was Whatever Happened to Uncle Fred - a short animation from 1967 narrated and drawn by a Godfrey's granddaughter about what happens when her dad goes on a business trip and mum's special friend Uncle Fred comes to visit.

Next on the schedule was Adam Buxton's BUG event. BUG is a live show hosted and curated by Buxton that features his favourite music videos. This special animated edition also starred internet animation superstar Cyriak. Well known for his creepy kaleidoscopic looping animations of cows and kittens, Cyriak has recently been commissioned to create music videos for the likes of Bonobo, Bloc Party and Hooray for Earth. Cyriak talked about his influences ranging from the Powers of Ten documentary short to Zbigniew Rybczynski's hypnotic animation Tango.

Adam Buxton was on typical hilarious form and BUG is an intoxicating mix of stand-up comedy and mind blowing visuals. As well as some his favourite animated music videos, Buxton also screened Western Spaghetti by PES which was one of my favourite films of the night.

Saturday saw the festival finale and the BAF awards. I didn't get chance to see any of the film packages this year so the awards event is always a good chance to catch up on what the jury have selected as the best films at the festival in 2013. Winner of Best Professional Film was Women's Letters by Augusto Zanovello – a sumptuous stop-frame animation about a battlefield medic. It reminded me a lot of last year's winner Oh Willy, another stunning stop-frame film made entirely from felt.

I didn't get chance to see as much as I would have liked, but the line up for this year's BAF was a corker. One thing that Dave McKean said that stuck with me was how he finds inspiration in everything – even the crappy things have positives – and how it's important to keep your inspiration cup full. It's amazing that this type of event happens on my doorstep – hat's off to the festival team for another fine event and if you've never been to BAF make sure to put it in your calendar for 2014.