Winter Class Starts Monday 4 November 2024

"Mrs Claus" by Robin Herrmann

Our Winter Animation Class begins on Monday 4th November 2024.  It's not too late to book a place; all you need to do is visit the main Animation Apprentice site and go through a few simple steps.

If you want to learn 3D animation to a professional level, and start your new career as an animator - your journey starts here.

Getting started

The book we recommend for studying animation

Below is a brief list of stuff to get you under way. You don't have to do all of it, but tick off a few of the things on this list and you will be a making a great start on your animation career.  

Expanding Industry

The animation industry continues to expand here in the UK and overseas - there's never been a better time to learn the art and craft of character and creature animation.

Reading List
First, here is a short reading list to get you started. We've narrowed it down to one key book that we recommend for all our students.

The Animator's Survival Kit.

Any serious student of animation should buy a copy of The Animator's Survival Kit, by Richard Williams.  It is now the standard textbook for animators and easily the most comprehensive book available for learning animation.

Download your free copy of Maya
 The next thing to do is get yourself a free educational license 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.

Workstation

Ball Throw by Joris Van Laar

You will also need a decent laptop or workstation capable of running Maya. To see our guide to buying a suitable laptop, read this blog post.

Watch 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.

Free Tutorials

We also have a number of beginner animation tutorials at Animation Apprentice, many of them completely free. 

Animation Basics

Free Beginner Animation Tutorials

To get started with animation basics, why not not Animate a Telephone Ringing in Maya, Animate a Flag Waving in Maya, or Animate a Submarine Underwater. 

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

Personal Tuition

I personally tutor all my students.  I have over 30 years experience in the animation industry, from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" to "The Lion King", "The Iron Giant", and "Harry Potter", and over 25 years experience of teaching animation. You can see my full list of credits at the IMDB. 

Questions?

Got questions? email us at info@animationapprentice.org

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.