The Young Animator of the Year (YAY) programme is now open for applications for those aged 11-18.
Run by ScreenSkills and ACCESS:VFX, YAY UK encourages young people to pursue creative skills to help build the animation talent of tomorrow. The programme aims to discover, nurture and celebrate young talent across the UK and support them on their animation journey.
Teenage animators can join the 3Dami 10-day Summer Studio - supported by the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund using contributions from animations productions - as well as enter a competition for the chance to be crowned the Young Animator of the Year UK 2022.
Tom Box, Co-founder of Blue Zoo Animation Studio and Chair of the ScreenSkills Animation Skills Fund, said: "The UK is one of the best countries in the world at producing animation, and the YAY UK initiative is here to inspire, nurture and celebrate the next generation of talent. There’s such an abundance of eager, young creative animators out there, we can’t wait to see what films they make this year, and who will be crowned Young Animator of the Year."
Young people can now apply for:
- 3Dami Summer Studio – where students work together with animation experts to create every part of a 3D film in just 10 days. 3Dami works with industry mentors to give students all the help and support they need to learn about 3D-asset creation and animation. The online studio will run across 10 days from 25 July to 5 August 2022.
- YAY UK Competition – challenging teenage artists across the UK to make their own short animated films in 2D, 3D, and stop-motion styles. Awards will be given for the Best Young 2D Animator, 3D Animator, and Stop-Motion Animator across age groups 11-14 and 15-18. The winner’s films will be screened at Manchester Animation Festival in November. Entries for the competition can be submitted via the YAY UK website from 16 May until the deadline of 4 September 2022.
- Studio challenges – throughout the summer, YAY UK will also be giving teenagers a range of short creative animation challenges set by some of the UK’s biggest animation studios. These challenges will help the artists learn tricks and techniques to devise their stories and create their own animations.
Apply for the 3Dami Summer Studio and submit competition entries now.
Read how previous YAY winner, Luke Frampton, secured a dream job at creative studio The Mill.