We’re looking for the games industry’s next generation of leading games animators!
Now in its tenth year, Search For A Star has helped to showcase some of the best student game developers around. We expanded to include 3D animation in 2016 and have already introduced studios to hundreds of games animators!
Our aim with Search for a Star has always been to help you make the leap from student to professional games developer. We want to highlight your skills to the industry and help keep the UK at the forefront of innovation in games development. Search for a Star can take you to fantastic places, with animators from previous years ending up at great studios across the UK including Sumo Digital, Rebellion, Bulkhead Interactive and more.
The games animation challenge is split up into two stages, with the project stage being open to all entrants.
- 6 Week 3D Animation Development Project
- Industry Panel Interview
Development Project
Develop and present a character animation sequence over 6 weeks! Starting from an industry-approved project brief that we’ll provide, you’ll be asked to create a set of sequenced animations that really shows your artistic knowledge, technical ability, and understanding of how to prepare your work for use in games.
A team of animators from across the industry will review your projects, assessing them based on a mix of creative and technical criteria including research, documentation, your production process and all the way to the final in-engine presentation.
Panel Interview
After reviewing the projects, the highest achieving students will be invited to take part in an exclusive panel interview with leading industry professionals. Styled after a studio hiring interview, they’ll want to know all about you, your technical & creative knowledge and career motivations.
Following the interviews, an overall winner from each challenge tier will be decided and will receive a number of prizes donated from industry alongside an exclusive chance of a job interview (for Search for a Star winners) or internship (for Sumo Digital Rising Star winners).
How do you decide who reaches the final interview stage?
Reaching the final stage is decided by the combined scores from all criteria in the project stage.
Game Animation 2019 Entries
Want to see what some of last year’s students created for their animation projects? Take a look below!
Sumo Digital Rising Star Animation 2019 Winner
Search For A Star Animation 2019 Finalist