Time to Enter the 2020 "Rookies"

At Animation Apprentice we encourage all of our students to enter The Rookies Awards, the international competition for young creatives, which opened on 7th March, and closes on 1st June.

The Rookies was founded in 2009 to "showcase the most talented student designers, illustrators, film makers, animators, developers, digital artists, and launch them into the career of their dreams."

This year the deadline is 1st June 2020, so there is plenty of time to start crafting a great project.

"Molesworth" Teaser by Uli Meyer

MOLESWORTH_TEASER_TRAILER from Uli Meyer on Vimeo.

Something to cheer up any animator in these dark times is the new teaser/trailer by Uli Meyer for his feature film "Molesworth", based on the original books by author Geoffrey Villans, and memorably illustrated by cartoon genius Ronald Searle. It's a beautiful example of what can still be done with 2D animation, bringing to life the wit of the original books and the brilliance of Searle's illustrations. What animator wouldn't want to animate at least one shot on the movie?

Soft -vs- Hard Accents

Hard -vs- soft accents.

What is the difference between a hard accent and a soft accent? In animation terms, a soft accent eases in, and a hard accent bounces back.

Take a look at the image to the left, taken from The Animator's Survival Kit (all our students should have a copy; if you don't have one, you can buy it here).  It shows someone pointing, both as a hard accent (past the extreme point, bouncing back) and a soft accent (settling in to the extreme pose.

The difference is one of emphasis. In the top example, someone might be pointing vigorously, shouting "over there!!" and pointing quickly.

In the bottom example. someone might be pointing slowly, with their hand settling in to the final pose. They're not shouting, they aren't in a hurry.

Business as Usual at Animation Apprentice

What - us worry?

Covid-19 may be causing a good deal of bother around the globe, but fortunately for us and our students, Animation Apprentice is a digital online school, with no bricks and mortar facilities to worry about.

For now at least, it's business as usual. Our students continue to work from home, and we will continue to send feedback and support our students in our online classrooms.

How to Use the Amy and Sam Maya Rigs

Amy and Sam

Amy and Sam are two new rigs for Maya made by Gabriel Salas, and released to the animation community. The rigs are not free but are priced competitively at $15. They are good rigs - though it can be hard to get the eye direction looking right (see below).

Sam and Amy are Asian-American characters through which Gabriel hopes to "balance the limited choice in terms of race that animators have when picking a character rig, so that they have the tools to generate more racially diverse content in their animation exercises".

The rigs include diffuse textures for the body and shoes, and you can find them on Gumroad.  Sam is available here and Amy can be purchased here. Both rigs are priced at $15, and are for educational use only. 

So, how do our students get the most out of Amy and Sam?

What Kind of Laptop Should Animators Buy?

"What kind of laptop should I buy?" is a question that we are often asked at Animation Apprentice, by students looking to buy suitable equipment to learn the art of computer animation. .

It's a tricky question to answer, because computer specifications change all the time and - of course - it all depends on exactly what you want to use your laptop for.

But, let's say you want to buy a decent laptop capable of running Autodesk Maya, for computer animation and to render out your shots.

What sort of laptop should you buy, and how much do you need to spend? Animation tutor Amedeo Beretta offers some advice to our students.

Grass Waving Tutorial Using Maya Paint Effects

Below a is a free tutorial on how to animate grass waving in Maya using the Paint Effects Tool. 

Also covered is how to convert the paint effect into polygons and export a geo cache so that you can re-import the grass animation back into Maya. 

It's a simple animation tutorial aimed at beginners in Maya.

Autodesk Certified Instructor

Recently I received a badge of accreditation from Autodesk, the makers of Maya, as an official Autodesk Certified Instructor.

The badge of accreditation is a recognition of many years experience both using Maya on film productions (I learned to use the very first version, Maya 1.0, on Brad Bird's The Iron Giant) and also decades of experience in the classroom.

So thanks to Autodesk for the vote of confidence - it is much appreciated.

Six Tips to Make Maya Work Faster

Tip Number 6 - stay low poly

One of the most common problems we encounter at Animation Apprentice is a student's Maya scene slowing down so much that they can't animate anymore, or their scene becomes so slow that animation becomes a burden - not a pleasure.

Below are our Six Tips to speed up your workflow, animate faster, and make Maya work at optimal speed.

Pitch Your Project at Animation Production Days

Animation Production Days in Stuttgart is an event that should be on every animator's radar.

Like Cartoon Movie and Cartoon Forum, APD offers a unique opportunity for animation graduates to pitch their ideas to producers, financiers and sales agents - the people who can bring original animation content to the market.

BYOA In London Tonight 17 February

BYOA

BYOA (Bring Your Own Animation) is back - taking place in London on Monday 17th February.

Organised by the London chapter of SIGGRAPH, BYOA is an animation event that takes place every month at a pub in central London, always on the third Monday of the month, and almost always at the same location.

This month BYOA is taking place in a new location, The Newman Arms, Fitzrovia, near Goodge St and Tottenham Court Road Tube stations.

For any of our students or recent graduates in the neighbourhood, BYOA is a great way to get feedback on your reel.

Claire and Holly Williams Tribute at the Annies

The Annie Awards are an annual ceremony, best described as the "Oscars" for animation. This year the awards ceremony was dedicated to my father Richard Williams, who died in August 2019.  My sisters Holly and Claire were invited to the ceremony to introduce the event, and opened the awards by sharing a few selected memories of his life.  Neither of them spoke for long, but the stories they told are very personal and touching. You can see the full seven minute clip above.

Young Cartoonists of the Year Award

For all our students under 30 - it's time to enter the Young Cartoonists of the Year award.

The Young Cartoonists of the Year competition is in its 23rd year and attracts thousands of entries, giving budding cartoonists the chance to have their work judged by the best in the business.

Run by the British Cartoonists' Association, in association with London's Cartoon Museum, entries are now open for this year's competition.

Original entries should be submitted on paper by traditional mail to The Cartoon Museum, 63 Wells St, London W1A 3AE.

Animation and cartooning aren't quite the same thing, of course. But they are definitely cousins and, as an animator who has been dabbling in cartoons for many years, I can heartily recommend both.

The closing date for submissions is 15th March.

Spring Class Starts on Monday 4 March 2020

"School Run" by Lee Caller

Our Spring classroom starts on Monday 4th March 2020.  You don't need to know Maya beforehand (we teach everything from scratch), but it's always a good idea to do a little preparation.

Below is a brief list of stuff to get you under way. No need 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.

How to Pitch an Animated TV Series

The Art of the Pitch

Here at Animation Apprentice we don't just teach the mechanics of animation, we also teach the art and craft of creativity and creative thinking.

Every great animation series began its life as a humble pitch - even mighty Peppa Pig started out as an idea in a sketch book.

There is nothing to stop our students creating the next Bob The Builder or Mr Bean.

Falling Dice FX Tutorial in Maya

Take a look at the free tutorial below to see how to animate falling dice using the FX tools within Maya. 

Specifically, the tutorial covers how to use Active and Passive Rigid Bodies in Maya to simulate the effects of gravity and the collision of solid objects.

The tutorial also shows how to bake your curves and then edit the keyframes. For beginners in Maya.

Learning From The Animation Workshop

The Animation Workshop in Viborg, Denmark

Earlier in January I was back at The Animation Workshop, working as a "Censor" or - as we would say in the UK - an External Examiner.

External Examiners exist to maintain standards across higher education and ensure that degree results are fairly awarded.

Standards at the Animation Workshop are very, very high.  Not only do their students achieve high levels of skills in both 2D and 3D animation, but many are also skilled character designers and storyboard artists.

QC is Back - For a Few Guineas More

At the end of 2019 I published my 10th "Queen's Counsel" book - "For a Few Guineas More", a collection of the best cartoons published over the last six years in law pages of The Times.

I started drawing Queen's Counsel back in 1993, when newspapers were still pretty much the only way that people got their news. And every self-respecting lawyer read the law pages of The Times on Tuesdays.

At a pupillage interview candidates would always be asked "what newspaper do you read?". It was a question with just one correct answer; only The Times covered the law in serious detail.

This is the book I'm most proud of - it's the first book in full colour throughout; the cartoon strip finally went into colour in The Times in 2010.

You can buy "For a Few Guineas More" from amazon here.

Horse Animation - Free Maya Rigs

Right now we're encouraging all our animation students at Animation Apprentice to make sure they have plenty of horse animation on their demo reels, as one of our favourite London studios crews up for a big horse-related project.

The Animation Apprentice official site (to which all our students have access) has a series of horse video tutorials, teaching students how to animate a walk, a trot and a run.

Why Animators Need Early Feedback

Our online Classroom is hosted at Facebook

One of the hardest skills for animation students to learn is how give and receive criticism.  We all tend to be shy about our work (especially when we are learning something new) and, when our work is criticised, that criticism can feel very personal.

But being able to take criticism ("notes" in the industry) is part of the process of creating great animation. When you first show your work to a client, they will have comments, and they won't always love your first efforts. Whether you're working at a studio, or doing private client work, or just working on your own personal work, animators need to learn to incorporate criticism in order to make your work the best it can be.

January 2020 Demo Reel

Check out some of the great work done by our students over the past year; all the work shown above was completed by our students at Animation Apprentice. Many congratulations to Joe Gamble, Lee Caller, Amedeo Beretta, Jonathan Humphries and Anna Zielinska on their excellent work.