Get Ready for March 5th Spring Class

The book all animators need

Our next class at Animation Apprentice starts on 5th March. We're excited to welcome new students on their animation journey; junior animators are still very much in demand, especially in our home town of London, and my inbox is full of requests from studios for fresh talent.

So, how to get ready for March 5th? It's always good to do a little preparation and get a bit of a head start.
Below is a brief list of things to do to get under way.

The Animator's Survival Kit.
Any student of animation needs a copy of The Animator's Survival Kit, by Richard Williams.  It is easily the best and most comprehensive book available for learning animation.

Animation Methods by David Rodriguez 
Animation Methods by David Rodriguez is a very useful overall guide to all the processes involved in digital animation and film-making.  It is especially good for the technical bits that the older books don't cover.  It takes you through Autodesk Maya and shows you what all the tools do, and how to apply them to your animation.

Download your free copy of Maya
The next thing to do, assuming you have a decent computer or laptop at home, is get yourself a free copy of Autodesk Maya.  Maya is the main software we animate with, nowadays it's the industry standard. You can find a free educational license here.

Watch some tutorials
Start to learn the Maya interface. Below is a free tutorial in the Maya tools (there are tons of similar ones) hosted at YouTube, to get you started.




Don't be daunted - just take a quick look! It does look a bit confusing at first but it's good to get familiar with the layout, and learn where the main hotkeys are, and how the interface works. You can register and get a free Maya student license here.

Start watching our free videos
Once you have done that, take a look at the week 1 videos at the Animation Apprentice website. The week 1 videos are all free and this gives you a general introduction to animation, helping you to get familiar with the language of the medium.

Welcome to Animation Apprentice!
If you do some or all the things on this list - you will have a great head start! We look forward to meeting you!

----Alex

To find out more about Animation Apprentice, click here for a link to Frequently Asked Questions. To sign up for our next classroom at Animation Apprentice, follow this link.