Why Has Mental Ray in Maya Disappeared?

Mental Ray - free with Maya

Mental Ray is a renderer that comes free with Maya - but sometimes it goes missing. One of the most common questions new Maya users ask is "Where has Mental Ray gone?!?"

Every Maya user faces this problem at least once, and the solution is not always obvious. You look in the Render Settings menu and - Mental Ray has vanished!

So, what to do to bring it back? And why does Mental Ray disappear so often?

How to Create the Ideal Animation Workstation

An animation workstation

A good workstation is not a luxury - it's a necessity. The dirty secret of the animation and visual effects business is that sitting still and clicking away at a video workstation all day long is bad for your health.

Carpal tunnel syndrome and repetitive strain injury (RSI) are serious health problems which affect many people working in the industry.

So why don't we hear more about it? Because people don't like to talk about it. Employers don't talk about it because they don't like being sued. Employees don't talk about it because they fear if they admit to having problems they will lose their job and perhaps their career. So get educated and make sure you have a healthy workstation.

Where Can Animators Find Free Sets and Props?

Turbosquid

Where can student animators find free sets and props for animation? You don't always want to spend time modeling the things you need for your animation shot - sometimes you just need some free stuff in a hurry. 

The best places to begin are turbosquid.com and tf3dm.com. Both sites have plenty of free resources for animators to use; you can import sets, props, all sorts of useful items that will help bring your animation to life. Of course, you should always give credit to the creators - professional artists always give credit where it's due.

Thumbnails by Ruben Aquino for The Little Mermaid

The secret of great animation is in the planning. Open up a copy of Maya, the leading 3D software, and you just get a blank screen. With CG animation (or indeed any animation) you get nothing for free. So how do you fill this blank space with creative, entertaining animation? The secret of good work is to thumbnail - that is to say, to plan out your work with sketches and scribbles which create a kind of road map of where you want to go.

Aspect Ratios Made Simple

Standard aspect ratios: SD, HD and super HD

Which aspect ratio should you pick for your shot?

A basic understanding of aspect ratios is necessary for all digital artists - it's how we configure our work for the screen. 

When you render your shot, and when you edit your work in Premiere or Final Cut, you will have to make choices as to what aspect ratio to select. 

Blue Zoo Are Hiring Junior Animators!

Blue Zoo Animation

Calling all Animation Apprentice Graduates! London's leading TV animation house Blue Zoo are hiring fresh talent. Getting that first job is always tough, and it's relatively unusual for studios to be looking actively for juniors. So, time to polish that demo reel, make sure your best work is online and free of mistakes, update your CV, and send it all in with a nice covering letter.

Getting Ready for Our January Class - How To Get Started

Winter Draws On. Photo: Wikipedia

What kind of preparation should students do before starting with us at Animation Apprentice on 5 January 2015?  Needless to say, we don't want to spoil your holidays, and it's always good to have a proper break, but it's worth casting half an eye forward to the New Year and thinking about some of the things you might do to get ready for our new course. Below is a brief checklist of stuff to get you started. It's not comprehensive, and 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.

Meet The Float Folks! - our Latest Commercial Project!

The Float Folks - Coming Soon!

Our student animators have recently finished work on our newest commercial project - The Float Folks - a teaser for a new TV Series which is the brainchild of creator Ian Foyle. The Float Folks invites the viewer into a world of fishing floats; a small town by the reed beds where everyone gets along (mostly) - and the only way to travel is by dragonfly or dogfish. The project was animated by a number of our recent graduates and current animation students. We're excited to see this project come to life, and thrilled to have been a part of making it happen.

Brown Bag films are Hiring!

Brown Bag Films

Fancy moving for Dublin for a spell? It's not a silly question. Dublin is one of Europe's most vibrant capital cities, and regularly appears high on the list of places you might actually want to live in. Brown Bag Films are looking for a broad range of animation talent to join their thriving studio in Dublin's Fair City. If you would like to join the team behind shows like DocMcStuffins, Octonauts, Henry Hugglemonster and Peter Rabbit, then send an email jobs@brownbagfilms.com attaching your CV, a well-drafted covering letter and a link to your demo reel.

Mathilda - a New Free Rig for Maya Animators!

Mathilda, courtesy of SCAD

Mathilda is here! This new free rig, now available for use by Maya animators, has just been released by SCAD - The Savannah College of Art and Design.

It's a great rig - with a really nice range of facial expressions.  Mathilda looks very attractive, well designed, and we're excited to see what our students can do with this latest addition to the now very wide range of freeware available to those learning to animate in Maya.

Phil Loeffler Talks Freelance Graphic Design and Illustration

Artwork by Phil Loeffler

Phil Loeffler is a talented designer, artist and animator, who came to Animation Apprentice to broaden his range of artistic skills and master the art of character and creature animation. Before he began studying with us, he had already established a successful career as a freelance graphic designer. We asked him to talk a little about his work, and what is involved in making a living in such a fascinating but competitive field.

Animation Apprentice Becomes Official Autodesk Partner

Animation Apprentice has recently become an official Autodesk Academic Partner. That means we are now formally authorized by Autodesk - the makers of animation software Maya (and much else besides) to teach their software. We are proud to be partnering with the leading industry software for digital animation, and delighted that Autodesk have accepted us as an official partner.

Giuseppe Candido 3D Artist at Cityscape Digital

Cityscape Digital

Giuseppe Candido is now a freelance 3D Artist at Cityscape Digital, a leading architectural visualisation company. Giuseppe is a talented animator and 3D artist, who developed a killer demo reel after studying with us at Animation Apprentice.

Cityscape Digital is a London-based company that describes itself as "a creative visual company providing architectural visualisation, simulation and animation for architects and developers in the property sector." Giuseppe's blend of animation talent and all-round 3D skills makes him a perfect candidate for this kind of highly technical work. Congratulations to Giuseppe on his new job!

Animation Apprentice Founder Alex Williams Talks About His Design Work on Paddington Bear

Paddington Bear comes to the big screen in November

Animation Apprentice Founder Alex Williams was an early contributor of design work for Paddington, the new feature film about the much-loved bear created over 50 years ago by author Michael Bond. We asked Alex to talk about what he did on the film, which will be released in theatres on November 28, and how he managed to work on a major motion picture while teaching at Animation Apprentice.

Two weeks to go until Cartoon Business

Cartoon Business

Cartoon Business is the finance and business counterpart to Cartoon Movie and Cartoon Forum. If you are interested in the business side of producing animation, but don't know how to assemble, package and sell an animated TV series or feature film, then Cartoon Business is the place to learn. Supported by MEDIA, the EU fund for the creative industries, and backed by the French Government, Cartoon Business will walk you through all the steps needed to bring your ideas to the market. And you don't even need to speak French - the event is conducted in English, the international language of media and animation.

Animation Apprentice Goes to Blue GFX

Blue GFX

Last week Animation Apprentice went to the Blue GFX Expo in London – a massive annual visual effects event sponsored by Autodesk, and a great opportunity to find out about the latest developments in our industry. There were presentations about Autodesk Maya, 3D Studio Max, a chance to try out the latest Cintique tablets, and best of all a talk by Framestore about the work they did on Gravity, a film that looks and feels like a live action movie, but is entirely animated. OK, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock were real – but the rest is CG magic.

How to Create a Great Animation Pitch

Learning to pitch is an important skill for any artist. Sooner or later you will be called on to persuade a client that you have a great idea to sell their product, or perhaps try to sell your own idea for a TV series or feature film to a network or production company. Either way, you're going to need to learn how to pitch your ideas. Pitching is not just about standing up and delivering a persuasive summary of your awesome idea, it's also about what should go into it in the first place. How much character work and design do you need to do? How well thought out does your story need to be?  In this excellent blog post, Disney designer Chris Oatley explains what goes into a great animation pitch and bible.

Assets at Animation Apprentice - What Rigs Do We Use On Our Course?

Morpheus - endlessly flexible

We do not design and build our own rigs here at Animation Apprentice - there are just too many excellent free rigs and sets provided by Maya enthusiasts for student use. This helps keep our costs down - savings which we pass on to our students. We point our Apprentices to the very best freeware rigs from the web and show you where to find them. In the end though, it is up to our students to find the rigs that they most enjoy animating with. There are so many; all have their strengths and weaknesses. Below is a list of some of the best, and where to find them.

Should Freelance Animators Operate as Sole Traders or Set Up a Limited Company?

A freelancer

Part of our job at Animation Apprentice is to teach our students to be working professionals, which includes not only the ability to do excellent work at a high level of professional skill,  but also the ability to run a small business and tackle freelance work.

Almost all digital artists take on freelance work of one kind or another, and we help our students out by bringing in small commercial projects at our virtual online studio at nano-films.com, giving our students paid experience on live briefs.

Being a freelancer involves learning a lot of new business skills, and one of the most common questions asked by students is: "Do I Need to Set Up a Company before I become a freelancer?" The short answer is "no", but it's not quite as simple as that - it all depends on your personal circumstances.

How Does an Animator Become a Character Designer?

BoxTrolls - designs by Luis Grane

How do animators break into character design? Character design is one of the most fun and the most desirable jobs on an animated film, entitling the artist to give free rein to their imagination, come up with great ideas - and even get paid to do it. We asked Luis Grane, an animator and character designer whose work can be seen on dozens of animated films including Prince of Eqypt,  Hotel Transylvania, Ratatouille, and Open Season, to talk about this work and how he broke into the industry. Most recently Luis did character design work for The Box Trolls, recently released worldwide in theatres. So what is involved in working as a character designer at a big studio - and how do you get there in the first place?

How to Use Audio Files in Maya - A Guide for Animators

Maya is a wonderful piece of software but its audio tools are not especially sophisticated. You only get one audio track, and it will only accept certain kinds of audio files (wavs and iffs).

So, how exactly should an animator approach the use of audio files in Maya? Below is our handy guide which answers most of the vital questions.