More than 50 Alumni of Bournemouth University's National Centre for Computer Animation worked on James Cameron's smash hit AVATAR (photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox)

Since the release of AVATAR, which has picked up two Golden Globes and broken all box-office records, animation academics in Bournemouth University's National Centre for Computer Animation (NCCA) have identified more than 50 graduates and former members of staff who worked on the film. Most of these BU graduates completed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Computer Visualisation and Animation, 3D Animation and Digital Special Effects during the last 20 years since the NCCA was founded. 

Of the major production houses which contributed to AVATAR, the majority of BU graduates on the film worked for three in particular - Weta Digital (WD) in New Zealand, founded by Peter Jackson; Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in California, started by George Lucas; and Framestore (FS) in London, emerging as Britain’s leading computer animation company.

Amongst the impressive list of BU graduates on the AVATAR credits are the likes of Animation Supervisor Paul Kavanagh (ILM), who completed his Masters degree in 1991 and worked on STAR TREK, another of last year's big films.

A more recent graduate, Ben Frost (FS)) earned his MA in Digital Effects in 2008 and worked on AVATAR as a Junior Effects Technical Director.

There is a host of others from BU who contributed to the film including CGI Animator Tim Waddy (ILM), 3D Modeler Romain Segurado (FS), Shader Supervisor Martin Hill (WD), Lead Compositor Ben Morgan (WD) and Creature Facial Lead Technical Director Steve Cullingford (WD).

"Most of the graduates we've traced to AVATAR have been formally credited as being part of the film whilst others worked further behind the scenes,” said Sofronis Efstathiou, Programme Leader for the University's Masters in 3D Animation and a BU graduate himself. “Within this list we have Bournemouth graduates who have become lead people in the industry as either supervising animators or modeling supervisors with others gaining further experience as mid-level artists or compositors".

Sofronis, who was a Training Manager for Animal Logic on the film HAPPY FEET and also worked on the film 300 before returning to BU, is proud that Bournemouth graduates have helped to make AVATAR one of the highest-earning films of all-time.

"When I hear that our graduates have worked on a film like AVATAR, I'm very proud to say, 'Hey - my student worked on that',” he enthused. “It's a fantastic feeling and great news for others coming through the NCCA to know that they too can aspire to reach the same heights in their careers after graduating from BU.”