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These two character designs were created by student Meijia Wu for the graduation group project "Out There" at the National Centre for Computer Animation, a colourful 3D animation about the serious topic of Existentialism. Makenzie is your typical teenage girl, a bit introverted, and troubled by not knowing her purpose in life. Esmeé is a spiritual hippie, who is also Makenzie’s spiritual guide; she is confident, cool and someone who Makenzie looks up to.

Meijia’s characters illustrate the complexity and skill that goes into the design process, resulting in fully rounded characters with personality and style.

This storyboard by Nadine Ferzoli, produced with her fellow student Natasha Beddoe for the graduation project "Pioneer 10" at the National Centre for Computer Animation, shows the importance of clever sequencing: Through artistic craftsmanship and creative vision, the artist is is able to provide an idea of composition, order and dynamic of the final shot.

The animatic for the short animation "Birds in Paradise", created by NCCA Student Madeline Alldrigdge together with her fellow students Alexa Palmer and Sarah Tribe, tells the story of two birds-of-paradise, competing for the attention of a female bird, who get so invested in their dance-off that they completely miss that the female bird has lost interest and left.

SIGGRAPH is the world's most important computer graphics and animation conference, where experts show off the newest technological developments and animation companies like Pixar show off their latest animations.

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The Lumen Art Prize ranks among the most prestigious recognitions within the Media Arts.

The new concept of a 4D cubist camera is introduced for multiple projections from 4D space-time to 3D space, using a technique called space-time blending to create animated 4D Cubist sculptures. The project was presented at Siggraph 2017, where it was awarded 2nd place in the ACM Student Research Competition. Quentin now works for the visual effects company Glassworks, where he has used these techniques for a video installation by artist Marco Brambilla that has been exhibited in New York, London and Paris.

The project "Withering Fruits" by Bianca Cirdei and her supervisor Eike Anderson improves already existing methods that simulate the process of fruit decaying. The procedural generation simulates how real fruit decays, emphasising artist directability and visual realism, so that visual effects artists have control over the process and the end results. For this project, Bianca Cirdei won the ACM SIGGRAPH Student Research competition.

Over the years, many short animations created by NCCA students have been screened at the SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival.

SIGGRAPH is the world's most important computer graphics and animation conference, where experts show off the newest technological developments and animation companies like Pixar show off their latest animations.

At the Computer Animation Festival, selected animations from around the world are either presented in the Animation Theater, where excellent animations are grouped by themes, or at the Electronic Theater, the world’s most prestigious animation and visual effects showcase, where entries are chosen by a jury of distinguished experts.

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You have probably seen some of the work they created since graduating. George Rigby has worked as an animator for the films "Paddington 2" and Disney's "The Lion King" and commercials such as "Compare The Meerkat". Jennifer has worked as an environment artist for computer games and on the Channel 5 animated series "Shane the Chef", where she created many different locations for the world of Munchington.
Not all students who graduate from the NCCA go on to work in film, animation or games. After graduating, Stephen Tucker decided to apply his skills to medical visualisation and he is now Lead Software Engineer for a company working with ultrasound technology. If you go to the doctor's to have an ultrasound scan, it may be his software that helps the doctor to make his diagnosis.

A Flatpack Project was selected for the European Gathering of Young Digital Creation and featured in the Electronic Theatre of the 2002 SIGGRAPH Computer Animation Festival. Since graduating, John Haddon has worked on special effects of a large number of films and TV programmes, including "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", and more recently “Lost in Space” for Netflix.

The short animation Fat Chance by Ben Jones, who graduated from the NCCA in 2006, presents such a daydream, taking its protagonist from a slow and dull existence to a high speed chase on the streets of San Francisco. The film was selected from amongst over 1,000 other entries for the Animation Theatre of the SIGGRAPH 2007 Computer Animation Festival.

You might have come across some of Ben's more recent work: he was employed as character supervisor on Disney's 2016 movie "The Jungle Book" and as a visual effects supervisor for the 2020 movie "Artemis Fowl".