animationAteam.com

Animation School and Recruitment

In addition to a recruitment service animationAteam.com also runs two creature/animal animation courses:

- 6 month Online Creature/Animal Course
- 5 Day Intensive Creature/Animal Course

The Online 6 month Realistic Creature/Animal Course, that can be completed from home or wherever you want, so long as you have a computer, 3D animation software & an internet connection. The online school focuses your attention on the finer details of realistic motion in creatures/animals of any kind. You will be studying live action in detail, looking at creature poses and behaviour. The techniques learnt will be appropriate and indeed vital to both character and creature & all 3D animation genres. A key aspect of the Animation course is learning how to turn these observations into fluid and realistic movement.

The Course modules are:

1.Choose creature rig.
You will be working on two sequences, in the first I request that you use either the cat or the dog.
I believe that if you are proficient at animating either of these animals then you can then animate just about any other creature. In the second sequence you can use nay rig you like.

2.Storyboard ideas.
Come up with a simple sequence to animate, nothing too ambitious, the idea is to produce short sequence that demonstrates typical creature behaviour, one creature per sequence.

3.Study online live action movies of relevant creature.
Observe creature behaviour &typical personality traits with close attention to timing and poses.

4.Creation of walk/trot/run cycles.
You will be studying live action reference to help create convincing cycles quickly.

6.Animation on path
Path animation will help you when you have repetitive cycling action in your sequence, i.e runs. trots etc. I will show you how to set up a unique path system and get high quality animation into your scene fast.

5.Posing keyframes.
I will direct you in the use of stepped keys to create important key poses.

6.Blocking animation
Adding in more key poses, I will also demonstrate how you can employ some great techniques that enable you to re-time your poses quickly.

7.Adding a weight pass
Simple tips to give your creature/animal some gravity.

8.Polishing animation
Tips & advice on how to add the wow factor! This is the critical stage that will take your animation to the next level.

The 5 Day Intensive Short Courses requires you to attend classes in the UK, the next dates are: 28/02/11 to 04/03/11. Much of the art of creating great animation is down to good technique, it is essential to learn, not least so that you can focus more on performance than the technology you use to achieve it. The excellent working practices taught on this course will enable you to confidently tackle any project.

*I will demonstrate techniques on the Lcd Projector, then come round & communicate with each student individually.

*You will be designing your own animation sequence, I will then direct your approach to animating this sequence. You will be required to animate in the various exercises as we progress through the stages of development.

*To help keep costs to a minimum, you are required to bring your own laptop or PC with animation software of your choosing installed, preferably Autodesk Maya.

*Each class will consist of no more than 10 students so that individual attention to each student can be maximised.

*Visiting creature animation specialist working on current feature film project.