Free Rigging Tutorial by Michael Davies

We don't teach rigging as such at Animation Apprentice, the reason being that rigging is a deep rabbit hole, and there just isn't the time to explore it fully. However, one of my colleagues at Escape Studios, rigging expert Michael Davies, has recorded this free tutorial; an introduction to rigging human and humanoid characters.  Mike's impressive film credits include The Hobbit, where he rigged Smaug, and also Despicable Me, where he rigged The Minions.  Mike gets great reviews from students for his well-paced methodical style of delivery, breaking down complex processes into simple parts in a clear and transparent way.  This video is a great introduction to the art and craft of rigging - perfect for complete beginners.

Character Walks by Alexander Savchenko

Walks and loops from Alexander_Savchenko on Vimeo.

Above is a great video on character walks by animator Alexander Savchenko. It's a great example of the amount of character and personality you can get into a character walk, and also shows how much fun you can have with simple character rigs. Student animators often think that a walk cycle shouldn't go on your demo reel - but it can, and should. Multiple different walks, runs and other gaits help to show a diversity of skill and showcase the animator's flexibility.

Get Ready For Our September 3rd Class!

Kayla by Josh Sobel, animated by Joris Van Laar

It felt chilly in London this morning for the first time this summer; a reminder that Autumn is coming and school will be starting soon.

Our September classroom starts in ten days on Monday 3rd September.

It's not too late to book a place; all you need to do to start a conversation is head over to our main site and fill in a form.

Producing Animation Webinar on 23 August

Learn from the producer of Ultramarines

Veteran animation Producer Bob Thompson is hosting a webinar on Producing Animation on Wednesday 23 August.

The webinar, which is completely free, is titled "An Artist's guide to Animation Producers".  

Bob Thompson is an industry veteran with a long and successful track record of producing animated feature films, commercials and VFX projects, including Ultramarines and the Bionicle series.

The purpose of the webinar is to introduce artists to the business side of animation, which artists often don't understand, or tend to ignore.

But a good artist needs to get the business side of animation. After all, producers need artists who can be relied upon to deliver quality work, on time and on budget.
 

Free Webinar in Motion Graphics Tonight

Thiago Maia - head of Motion Graphics

Motion Graphics guru Thiago Maia,  founder of Cookie Studios the hosting a free webinar in Motion Graphics tonight.

Motion Graphics isn't something we teach at Animation Apprentice, but some knowledge of After Effects never did any of us any harm.

The webinar is all about applying the 12 Principles of Animation to motion graphics work, to get more fluid and believable motion graphics.

The webinar takes place at 6pm, and is free. To sign up, follow this link.

Find a Job in Animation at Creativeheads.net

One website we're liking a lot for finding work in the creative industries - and animation in particular - is Creativeheads.net. It's a comprehensive site, well organised and easy to search.

You can sign up for their weekly jobs newsletter, and use the keyword "animation" to search for new job listings all around the world.

Anyone looking for work in our industry should be checking this website regularly - ideally every day, along with (of course) the jobs list at animationjobs.com.

BlueGFX Expo 21 Nov 2018

Registration will open soon for the Blue GFX Expo, taking place in London on Thursday 21st November 2018. 

We encourage all our students in the UK attend this excellent (and free) annual event.

Pixar Animation Workflow

Incredibles 2

Pixar animator Royce Wesley was in London recently, talking about his experience working on Incredibles 2, and also explaining his own personal animation workflow.

Royce is an experienced character animator whose credits include Brave, Coco, Robots and Inside Out.

Understanding how to plan your work is one of the key parts of the animator's skill set. Every animator has their own unique approach, and it's important to develop a workflow that you can rely on to get your shots approved without too much stress.

Free Webinar July 24

Sea Serpent - Voyage of the Dawn Treader

I'll be doing a webinar on how to animate non-human characters on Tuesday July 24th.

The webinar is hosted by Escape Studios in London and is completely free, and there will be plenty of time to take questions during the talk.

How does an animator approach the challenge of animating non-human characters? After all, you probably can't film yourself acting out the scene, so you will need to find other solutions.

Sarah Perry "Acting for Animators" Starts 24 Sept

At Animation Apprentice we teach acting as part of the animator's toolkit. One thing we can't do, however, is teach an old-school live acting class, the kind of thing you might get as a classically trained stage actor.

Sarah Perry is an actor who specialises in teaching acting for animators. Her school Shapes in Motion is teaching an 8 week evening class in London, titled "Acting for Animators", starting on Monday 24th September.

Bonnie 2 Released for $15

Bonnie 2 Rig Walkthrough from Josh Sobel on Vimeo.

Bonnie 2 has just been released by Josh Sobel, creator of many production-quality rigs that are priced affordably for students. Bonnie 2 is a "from-the-ground-up rebuild of Bonnie", Josh Sobel's first rig, which he describes as "easily the most advanced rig" he has made. Bonnie 2 isn't free, but at $15 for a solo license, she is competitively priced for a wide audience. Josh Sobel's rigs are dependable and reliable, and we recommend them highly. And, you can still download Bonnie 1.0 for free.

Download Reference Footage at GetVideo.at

GetVideo.at 

Keepvid.com, the website that used to be very useful for downloading video from YouTube, doesn't work anymore, most likely due to copyright problems.

Animators download reference footage from YouTube all the time, not for the purposes of copyright violation, but so that we can step through the video, frame by frame, and study the mechanics precisely.

Now that Keepvid isn't working, there are a number of other sites that work well, including GetVideo.at - a very useful website for downloading video.

Why Animators Need Their Own Blog or Website

Animators should have their own website, or blog, and it should have your own name in the url, to make you easy to find.

The reason is simple - when recruiters are looking to hire you for a job, they will Google you, by entering your name plus the key word "animation" or "animator" in the search engine.

Hopefully, your bog, website and demo reel will pop up on page 1. If it doesn't, recruiters may well move on the next candidate. The trick with getting hired is to have a great demo reel which is easy to find.

Jason Thompson Animator at Cloth Cat

Jason Thompson

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice Graduate Jason Thompson for starting a new position as 3D Character Animator at Cloth Cat Animation. 

Cloth Cat is an animation company based in Cardiff, and produces a number of TV series including Shane the Chef. 

You can see Jason's work, as well as his demo reel, at his official website here. 

Kevin Hudson Presents "Weeds" on 2 July

"Weeds" by Kevin Hudson

Kevin Hudson, asset artist at Walt Disney Animation Studios, is visiting London on July 2nd at 4.30pm to talk about his multi-award-winning short film "Weeds".   

“Weeds” is the story of a dandelion, rooted on the wrong side of the driveway in a barren yard surrounded by dry dirt and dead grass.

The Five Key Rules of Animal Anatomy

Stuart Sumida

One of the highlights of today's Annecy film festival was the talk by palaeontologist Stuart Sumida. Stuart is a world expert on animal anatomy and creature locomotion, widely consulted for his technical expertise on animated feature films like “Spirit”- Stallion of the Cimarron”, "Beauty and the Beast" “Lion King”, "Zootopia" and and “How to Train Your Dragon”.

In a packed room on the third floor of the Imperial Hotel, with lines snaking out into the halls (and no doubt a few fire regs being bent in the process), Stuart gave a talk titled "The Five Most Important Anatomical Rules for Animators".  

Animation Apprentice Goes to Annecy

Annecy, France

I'm heading over to the Annecy Animation Festival next week, checking out the latest developments in our industry at what has become the world's biggest animation festival.

I'll be on a panel tomorrow, tuesday 12th June, talking about how to animate non-human characters, sitting alongside my fellow panelists Alonso Martinez from Pixar, Joeri Christiaen from Thuristar, and independent animator Nicolas Deveaux.

Thumbnailing Mrs Copperbottom from "Robots"

Robots - Mrs Copperbottom

Learning to thumbnail animation is one of the hardest skills for junior animators to master, but being able to do rough thumbnail sketches is a very helpful skill because it helps the animator plan their work.

You wouldn't build a building without architectural plans. And you shouldn't start animating a shot without a clear plan of where you are going.

How Many Retakes?

Framestore's Andrew Schlussel, Oz Gani and Ross Burgess

How many re-takes does it take to make a shot perfect? Or, put another way, how many times might an animator have to re-do a shot until it gets approved?

The answer depends on what kind of project you are working on.

The bigger the budget, the higher quality the animation, and the more the studio will tend to expect perfection - or near-perfection - from the animation team.

Grey Screen Playback Problem Maya 2018

The video above addresses an odd grey screen playback problem with Maya 2018. You open up your shot, press play, and the screen goes grey - i.e. you can't seen anything. Scrub through the timeline and the same thing happens. It's like putting on a pair of blackout shades - you can't get any work done. The only solution I have found is to open up the same shot in Maya 2017, and, under the Renderer menu in the Viewport, select Legacy Default Viewport (an option which has been disabled for Maya 2018).

Tutorial: How to Animate Butterflies

Animate a butterfly in flight

We've got a new free bonus week at Animation Apprentice - Butterflies.  To see how to animate a butterfly in flight, watch the video below.  It's a simple flap cycle repeated multiples times.  Then, attach the flat cycle to a motion path and follow the butterfly with the camera. 

The set is a farm set downloaded from Turbosquid. 

You can use any farm set you like for this tutorial, or even just use a bit of fencing.