Why Animators Should Be On Linkedin

Tiffany Feeny, Ted Ty, Alex Williams, Jan-Bart Van Beek

How do animation graduates break into the industry?

At this week's VIEW conference in Turin I was invited onto a recruitment panel hosted by New York's School of Visual Arts, hosted by SVA's Director of Career Development Angie Wojak.

Also on the panel was the recruiter Tiffany Feeney of Talent Outpost, an independent recruitment agency based in Switzerland.

Tiffany's big message to recent graduates looking for work?  "Be on Linkedin".

Secrets of the Spider-Verse at VIEW

Peter Ramsay at VIEW: Into the Spider-Verse

The highlight of last week's VIEW conference in Turin, Italy, was a talk by Peter Ramsey, co-director of Spiderman – Into The Spider-Verse.

Ramsay's talk was sub-titled “What Story are You Telling?”, and he showed the audience how the answer to that question informed every frame and every pixel of the Oscar and BAFTA winning movie.

Spiderman – Into The Spider-Verse re-invented the Spiderman franchise, and achieved a unique comic book-style look for the world of Spiderman.  How did they do it?

Funny Fail Stories of Animation & VFX Tonight

Funny Fail Stories is back in London tonight - book your seats for tonight, Tuesday 29 October for tales of failure from the world of animation and VFX.

Hosted by animator and director Simone Giampaolo, this event takes place at Zigfried Von Underbelly at 11 Hoxton Square, London N1, just a 5 minute walk from Old St Tube station.

Speakers bringing tales of disaster and near-disaster in the animation and VFX industry include Alina Bopele from Studio AKA,  Sabina Janetzka from Cinesite, and Stefano Marrone from Nucco Brain.

The event is also supported by the London chapter of SIGGRAPH.  Tickets are free and you can book them here.

Belgis Al-Mahdiova 3D Animator at Studio 68

Many congratulations to Belgis Al-Mahdiova who has landed a job as a 3D animator and digital artist at Studio 68 Creative.

Studio 68 Creative specialises in 2D and 3D animated intros, motion posters, kinetic typography, and character, animal & creature animation

Belgis took our 30 week course at Animation Apprentice, developed her demo reel, and then applied for positions as an animator.

Adobe Premiere Pro - Basics for Animators

At some point every animator needs to learn the basics of video editing.  Premiere Pro, made by Adobe,  comes bundled as part of the Adobe Creative Suite.

Animators need Adobe Premiere mainly to cut (and re-cut) their demo reels and - of course - to make short film projects.

Premiere is also needed to create movie files from a batch render of images. Let's say you are lighting and rendering your scene with Arnold, the ray tracer that is currently bundled with Maya. Arnold will not render out a movie file (such as a avi or mov) directly; instead, you must render still images in a sequence.  To turn those still images into a movie file, you need Premiere (or some other editing software). Here is how to do it.

Character Walks - Animating The Zig Zag Walk

Above is a series of shots I animated during my two years working as an animator on "The Thief and The Cobbler", the never-quite-finished feature film that is sometimes described as "the greatest animated film never made". The ZigZag walk was my one of first assignments as a junior animator, and it was a tough one to figure out. The walk contained a lot of different elements all moving together in sequence but on different timings, hard to pull off and hard to get right.

Aardman Model Making Workshop on Saturday

Aardman animation are coming to London, bringing two model making workshops this Saturday 12th October.

The workshops are one hour long and take place at 4pm at the Hackney Picturehouse (see flyer below) and at 3.45pm at The Ritzy in Brixton (see flyer left).

The workshops form a part of the Aardman Animation day, which includes screenings and activities for kids, starting at 10.30am.

The afternoon workshops are for adults only and will be led by two senior model makers from Aardman; Claire Cohen and Ellie Hugill.

Claire and Ellie will give an insight into stop-motion animation and what it is like to work at one of the UK's most enduring and well-loved animation houses.

Blue GFX Expo November 12th

It's that time of year again. Blue GFX Expo 2019 is taking place in London on Tuesday 12th November.

As ever, we strongly recommend that any of our students who are in the London area attend, so that they can catch up with latest in animation, VFX & Games.  You can buy student tickets for just £15 here.

Meet Thep - New Free Mummy Maya Rig

Meet Thep!

We're liking this cartoon mummy rig named Thep; he's fun and cartoony and you can get a great performance out of him. You can find him here for free download at the Squiggly Rigs official site.

Thep is the first character made with the Squiggly rig system.  Built to allow plenty of flexibility and exaggeration, Thep comes "equipped with some cool features to allow him to act as cartoony as possible without losing appeal".

Thep is a good choice for students starting on acting and lipsync; he works well with a cartoony voice, such as one from the Sesame Street wav archive.

Consider Thep for acting and pantomime shots, or for short dialogue scenes; he has good facial expressions and a wide variety of mouth shapes.

How to Get Started in Animation

Animation Studio by Helen Piercy

One question I get asked often is this "My kid loves animation - what subject should they study at school?".

And also - "how can I teach my child animation?".

Parents tell me that their 13-year old is really into animation, but doesn't know what they should do to realise that goal.

Today, animation is a mix of art and technology.  So, art subjects, such as Art GCSE or Art A level, will help, as will tech subjects, such as IT or computer studies.

Autodesk Launches "Maya Indie License"

Autodesk has launched the "Maya Indie License", allowing students who have learned to animate using the free student version of the software to enter the marketplace at a much-reduced price.

This new low-cost commercial license costs just £275 for a single seat, and is good news for graduates of Animation Apprentice; Autodesk now offers junior animators the chance to "become a pro at a price you can afford".

How to Install the ParentMaster Plugin

Installing plugins in Maya can be a fiddly process, and often needs troubleshooting. And, worse, every time Maya updates their software, you have to re-install all the plugins you installed a year ago. Above is a handy short video showing how to install the free ParentMaster plugin by Paolo Dominici to the latest version of Maya - Maya 2019. The Parentmaster plugin is very useful for attaching and un-attaching objects. Say you have a character who picks up a phone, and then puts it down again. For this, you need the ParentMaster. To see more about how to install the Parentmaster plugin, see this blog post.

Reel talk Live in London on Sept 25th

Nothing is more important for students breaking into the industry than a great demo reel.

We're recommending that our students in the London area attend "Reel Talk Live" on Wednesday September 25 at 6:30pm in Central London.

"Reel Talk Live" is a free event in which professional animators review alumni demo reels and discuss the Do's and Don'ts of demo reels.

Industry guests include representatives of The Third Floor, Jellyfish Pictures and Creative Assembly.

A student's demo reel is the key to finding work in our industry. All are welcome, and you can book your free place here.

Dinosaur Masterclass at VIEW October 24th

Animation Apprentice is going to VIEW, the 20th International VFX & Computer Graphics Conference that takes place every year in Turin.

This year the VIEW conference runs from Monday 21st October until Friday 25th October.

On Wednesday October 23 at 2.30pm I'll be on a panel with SVA titled "Starting Your Animation Career: How to Get Noticed and Get Hired".

On Thursday October 24th I'll be teaching a one-day masterclass in Maya demonstrating how to animate dinosaurs, from 9.30am at Piazza Mestiere.

The class is aimed at complete beginners and requires no prior experience with Maya.

Camera Always Follows, Never Leads

One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators is to have the camera lead the action, instead of following it. One of the basic rules of cinematography (a fancy word for a moving camera) is that the camera always follows, never leads.  For example, if a character is leaving a scene, they should initiate the motion, and the camera should follow them. This is natural on a live action set, where the camera will naturally tend to follow the actor. But in animation, where we get nothing for free, these choices have to be made deliberately, and we need to be aware of the pitfalls.

Free Music by Moby for Animators

Mobygratis.com is a great free resource for independent film-makers, including animators. The musician Moby has released tons of free tracks for use in independent film projects, including short films and also student demo reels.  Moby's site is an excellent resource for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short. Props to Moby for so generously making his superb music available to the creative community.

Why Do Animators Need a Masters' Degree?

Do Animators Need a Master's Degree? It's a question we get asked often at Animation Apprentice, mainly by prospective students who want to know if the committment of time necessary to complete an MA in animation (such as the one we run with Buckinghamshire New University) is worth the effort.

The simple answer is, it depends on what you want to do. Academia cares about academic qualifications. Industry cares about demo reels.

If your focus is purely on industry, and on finding work there, you don't really need a masters' level qualification.  But if you are hoping to teach, especially in higher education, a masters degree is more or less a necessity.

Books: The Animator's Survival Kit

Our MA in Animation, run in partnership with with Buckinghamshire New University, starts on 30 September, so now is the time to get ready.

We recommend one key textbook - all our students should get a copy of  The Animator's Survival Kit by Richard Williams.

The ASK was first published in 2002 as a book, and a few years later was released as a DVD set, and later as an iPad app.

Improv for Animators Starts October 7th

Improv with Bruce MacKinnon and Framestore

Actor and comedian Bruce McKinnon, (The Office, Guardians of The Galaxy, Bohemian Rhapsody, Inside No.9, Black Mirror) has teamed up with Ross Burgess, Head of animation at Framestore, to create a "fun and fast paced improv course, specifically designed for animators", starting on 7th October in Central London.

The purpose of the class is to "push animators creatively and explore through workshop how actors approach character movement and comedic storytelling."

As we know, animators are actors (we must give a performance), and we strongly recommend our students take acting classes in order to improve their acting skills and choices. 

Anna Zielinska Animator at Fundamental VR

Anna Zielinska

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Anna Laura Zielinska on her job as an animator at Fundamental VR, a company that specialises in medical animation - bringing surgical procedures to life, and helping to teach the next generation of surgeons their life-saving skills.

Fundamental surgery specialises in low-cost virtual reality surgical simulation.  Digital surgical simulations provide medical professionals with low-risk hands-on experience,  resulting in much better patient outcomes.

El Suliman - Lion King Lead Animator

El Suliman

Last week MPC lead animator El Suliman was in London talking about his work on the Disney blockbuster "The Lion King".

El was speaking at Escape Studios, at one of their regular "Evening With" events.  El Suliman was an animation lead on The Lion King, and he animated many of the key shots on the film.

El explained how the animators approached the animation on this hugely complex and ground-breaking movie, which raises the bar for creature animation.