Animation Graduate Wins Two Game BAFTA's

For the second year running, a BSMA BA (Hons) Animation Production graduate is celebrating success at the GAME British Academy Video Games Awards. James Norman, who graduated in 1998 and is now lead motion capture animator on the development team at Rocksteady Studios Ltd, won the Best Game and Gameplay awards for Batman: Arkham Asylum. At last year’s awards ceremony, Francis Pang, another Animation graduate from the University College, won the BAFTA for Artistic Achievement for his work on Little Big Planet.

The video game awards, now in their fourth year as a stand-alone ceremony, were created to honour the greatest achievements in gaming each year. The Gameplay award is judged on a game’s ability to captivate and engage a user’s attention and provide a truly compelling experience, which Batman: Arkham Asylum achieved by bringing the hugely popular DC Comics superhero to life.

James commented “It's been an extremely exciting time for Rocksteady Studios Ltd. following the recent great success of Batman: Arkham Asylum. The team has worked extremely hard together over the last couple of years to produce a great title that delivered to both Batman fans and gamers alike.”

“I can honestly say that my time at the University College prepared me well for my early animation career in terms of focused team work and learning how to work within a multi skilled team. Back then we were lucky enough to have BAFTA as the venue for our end of year show. I remember the large display of awards they have on show there, and at the time only dreaming that I'd one day be part of a team on the receiving end and actually get to hold a couple of them... they're nice and heavy!”

Pete Symons, BA (Hons) Animation Production course leader at the University College, commented “Staff and students from the University College are delighted by James’s success and congratulate him and the development team at Rocksteady Studios Ltd. This is the second year running that Animation alumni have won awards at the BAFTA ceremony and it continues a very successful year for our graduates.”

This article was taken from: http://www.aucb.ac.uk