How to Use The Shelf Editor in Maya

This short introductory tutorial shows how to use the Shelf Editor in Autodesk Maya. The Shelf Editor allows animators to create buttons on a shelf, permitting the user to select frequently-used control curves such as hands, feet, body and head quickly and efficiently. For most animators working on production, the Shelf Editor is one of the first tools they will use when setting up their character workflow, to ensure they can animate fast and efficiently. 

Animating With Maya's Motion Trail Tool

This short video (just three minutes long) shows how to use Maya's Motion Trail Tool. The Motion Trail Tool is very useful for smoothing out the kinks and bumps in your animation, to ensure that your arcs and paths of animation are as smooth and flowing as possible. Bumpy animation curves will create pops and bumps in your animation. The Motion Trail Tool is one way of overcoming these problems and giving your animation an extra polish. 

Animate a Feminine Walk with "Monty"

Exaggerated Feminine Walk with "Monty"

One thing every animator needs to learn is how to animate a character walk.  In this basic tutorial, we show how to take a "plain vanilla" walk using the marvellous "Monty" rig (free for download from highend3d.com) and make Monty walk in a feminine way, like a model on a catwalk.   

The video tutorial is recorded in Autodesk Maya, and is aimed at animation beginners. 

How to Fix Knee Pops in a Walk Cycle

In the video above, we show how to fix knee pops in a walk cycle. IK chains can "pop" if the leg on a character gets over extended, so the trick is not to completely extend the leg. Straighten the leg on the contact position, then slightly dial it back and relax it. To find out more, watch the short video above.

Using AI to Colour 2D Animation with Cadmium App

Cadmium App

Artificial intelligence continues to offer new ways to speed up the animation pipeline and turboboost the productivity of animators. 

One new breakthrough comes from the Cadmium App, a new tool which automates the process of colouring 2D animation.

Cadmium is a creative tool for hand drawn animation. Using machine intelligence, animators can now colour their entire animation sequence from just a few keyframes.

History of Who Framed Roger Rabbit

We're enjoying this "Deep Dive Documentary" into the History of the 1988 animated film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit".  The documentary is based on a range of source material, including Ross Anderson's well-researched book Pulling a Rabbit Out of a Hat.   It's a thorough documentary that shows just how many twists and turns Who Framed Roger Rabbit took before finally making it (and even then only just) to the big screen. 

How to Pitch a Cartoon Strip - Queen's Counsel

This is a short video on the subject of pitching ideas - in this case the "Queen's Counsel" cartoon strip that I pitched to The Times back in 1993.  The pitch was successful; the cartoon strip started in The Times in 1993 as Queen's Counsel - it became King's Counsel in 2022.  It's still being published every week 30 years later. 

Free Tutorial: Copying & Pasting Curves in Maya

 

In this brief tutorial we show how to copy and paste curves in Autodesk Maya. This short video tutorial is part of our series of beginners' tutorials, and shows how to copy and paste curves in Autodesk Maya. Maya is not especially good at copying and pasting curves; it's a fiddly process and takes a while - but it can be done.

How to Use The Layer Editor in Maya

How to use the Layer Editor in Maya. This short video tutorial is part of our series of beginners' tutorials on how to use Autodesk Maya, and how to develop a fast, efficient workflow. The Layer Editor works much like layers in Photoshop - it allows you to put different elements of the shot on different layers, so you can work faster and more efficiently.

Steve Woodhouse - Founder of Skyline Visuals

Skyline Visuals - founded by Steve Woodhouse

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Steve Woodhouse who has founded his own successful architectural visualisation company - Skyline Visuals. 

Skyline Visuals creates  3D visuals & photomontage for the architecture & landscape industry.  Skyline Visuals "provides effective solutions to assist with planning pipeline and visual marketing".  

Oliver Canovas 3D Artist at KAN Engineering

Many congratulations to Animation ApprenticeOliver Canovas who is working as Digital Modelling Engineer at KAN Engineering. 

Oliver Canovas took our Online MA in Computer Animation (the first of its kind) with our Higher Education partner Buckinghamshire New University, graduating with honours.

Young Cartoonist of The Year Awards 2023

The Young Cartoonists of the Year Awards are back.  This year the deadline for submissions is 14 January 2024.

Hosted by the Cartoon Museum in London, the annual Young Cartoonists of the Year competition seeks to reward rising cartoon talent. 

Judges include Martin Rowson (The Guardian), Christian Adams (Evening Standard), Banx (FT), Peter Brookes (The Times), Nick Newman (Private Eye), and Matt Pritchard from the Daily Telegraph.  Entry is free. 

Entries can be mailed in (via old school Royal Mail) to the Cartoon Museum,  at 63 Wells St, London W1T 3PT, or emailed to hello@cartoonmuseum.org.  As always, we encourage all our students to enter competitions such as this one. 

ILM Offers Industry Advice to Animation Graduates

ILM Education Series 2.0

VFX powerhouse Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) is offering a series of free industry panels offering advice for recent graduates looking to break into the animation and visual effects industry.

Known as the ILM Education Series 2.0, ILM is offering two dates, Thursday 9 November at 5pm, and Wednesday 29 November at 5pm. The events are free.