ASIFA Hollywood Animation Scholarship

ASIFA Hollywood has launched an animation scholarship for animation students; the deadline this year is June 1st 2020.  To find the application form, visit the Animation Educators Forum.

ASIFA-Hollywood’s Animation Educators Forum (AEF) provides a valuable link between the animation industry and animation students, and will provide well-deserved scholarships to students in their journey towards membership in the global animation community.

Cartoon Forum 2020: Deadline 6 May

Cartoon Forum 2020

Cartoon Forum is Europe's biggest TV pitch-fest for animation, and takes place in Toulouse, France, from 14 – 17 September.

If you have an idea for a TV series in your head, Cartoon Forum is the place to pitch it.

The deadline to submit your series project this year is 6 May. So, you have a little more time to sharpen your pencils, fill out some forms - and make your pitch perfect.

10 Rules to Survive Animation Dailies

Moviola

Animation dailies take place each morning, when artists working on a project meet-up to share their work in its current state. The purpose is to make sure everyone is moving in the right direction and to get feedback from the director, client, producer or supervisor. Think of it as a critique session where everyone watches everyone else's work.

Dailies can take some time to get used to. For newbie animators, having your work critiqued on a big screen in front of all your colleagues and peers can be very intimidating.

Your first instinct will be to hide under your chair, and say nothing. But to thrive and prosper, animators must learn how dailies work, and how to make the system work for them.  Below are our tips to get the best out of animation dailies.

Maya Education Licenses - Free From Autodesk

For newcomers to the animation industry, it's important to remember that Autodesk, who make the software Maya, offer an education copy of Maya for free, which can be downloaded from the official Autodesk site.

Autodesk Maya has been the dominant software package in 3D animation for over 20 years. I first used Maya 1.0 on "The Iron Giant", back in 1998. And today it remains the most powerful package for the creation of 3D animation, widely used in industry.

Why It's Best to Animate Just One Character

"Two shot" by Jeton Lakna

Animating two characters acting is, obviously, more complex than animating one, and a lot more work.

So what if an animator has a line of dialogue that involves two characters talking? Do you need to animate both of them?  The answer is no. There are plenty of ways to animate the shot convincingly without having to work on two characters at once.

"Jelly Cars" Wins Award at the BAIFF

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Lee Caller, whose short film "Jelly Cars" has won an award at the British Amateur International Film Festival.

Lee Caller, created the short film while studying at Animation Apprentice; based on one of the weekly animation exercises completed all our students.

"Jelly Cars" has been selected for a number of animation festivals, but this is its first award.

Today, Lee teaches animation classes at Escape Studios in London, and is also studying for his MA in 3D Animation at Buckinghamshire New University.

You can see more of Lee's work at his website here.

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.