New Year Class Starts 10 January 2022

Our New Year Animation Class begins on Monday 10 January 2022.

It's not too late to book a place; all you need to do is visit the main Animation Apprentice site and go through a few simple steps.

If you want to learn 3D animation to a professional level, and start your new career as an animator - your journey starts here.

How to Give Feedback When You're a Beginner

Recently a student at Animation Apprentice asked the following question: "What's the etiquette on leaving feedback when you're a beginner? I had a few thoughts on a student's shot. But I was reluctant to post them as it got a bit too nit-picky and I'm not an expert.  So I don't want to give feedback that won't improve the piece, or steer them in the wrong direction.  And I don't want to insult someone who's much better at this than me."

It's a good question. The answer is simple - trust your instincts, be positive, and understand that your opinion is as valuable as anyone else's.  

What Kind of Tablet Should our Students Buy?

What Kind of Tablet Should our Students Buy? This is a question we often get asked at Animation Apprentice. 

Nowadays there are many different kinds of tablets available, and cheaper versions than the traditional Wacom brand. 

Benn Garnish Product Manager at fTrack

Many congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Benn Garnish who is working as Integrations Product Manager at fTrack.

Benn's remit at fTrack is creative direction and strategy, currently leveraging the technology of Virtual Reality to treat mental health conditions. 

Benn leads a team of developers and digital artists, with successful releases in the NHS, Hong Kong and the United States.

Benn's career shows how many animators are now moving into areas of medical animation, VR and AR, literally helping to save lives. 

Charlie & Yip Wins Best Trailer at NEXT Fest

My short film "Charlie and Yip" has won another festival award - Best Trailer at the NEXT Film Festival. 

 

Charlie and Yip is a short film about a kid who takes his pet to school for Show and Tell, which turns out to be a bad idea.  

It is a really a teaser for my indie feature film project "My Haunted House", which is still in development.

Why Animators Should Submit Early

Deadlines matter, and for all our students studying for their Online MA in 3D Animation at Buckinghamshire New University, it is very important to submit formal assessments on time. 

At BNU the animation lecturers have very little leeway in accepting late submissions. The "No Detriment" policy that was in place following the Covid Pandemic is now at an end, and BNU deadlines are now a lot more rigid than they have been for the past year.  Our recommendation to all our master's degree students is this: Don't wait until the due date to submit your work.  Instead, aim to submit your work the night before. 

Ragdoll Dynamics for Maya

We're recommending Ragdoll Dynamics to all our animation students. Ragdoll Dynamics provides Maya animators with real-time physics for fast, automatic overlapping motion. 

Ragdoll is a real-time physics solver for Maya, similar the native nCloth and nHair solvers except that it works on transforms rather than points.

 

Why Animators Should "Make it Funnier"

On the set of "Robots" at Blue Sky Studios, Fox Animation studio head Chris Meledandri always seemed to give the same note to the animators and the story team: "make it funnier".  Chris always wanted more jokes, more comedy, more entertainment.  

"Make it funnier" is not a bad note. As they say in Hollywood, "funny is money". Animators should always remember that at the end of the day we are working in the entertainment industry; once we have mastered the body mechanics and the technical skills to make our characters move convincingly, we have to give a great performance, make our work fun to watch. 

In the end, audiences don't care that much about technical skills - they just want to be entertained.

Why Animators Should Avoid Potty Jokes

One of the most common mistakes made by junior animators is to include off-colour jokes and potty humour in their first animation reel.  

The key thing to remember is that our industry remains largely focused on family entertainment, and most companies hiring junior talent are looking for animators who can create fun, entertaining scenes that are suitable for a family audience.

Young Cartoonists of the Year Competition 2021

The Young Cartoonists of the Year Competition is back. 

Hosted by the Cartoon Museum, now re-opened after its long Covid-19-slumber, the annual competition seeks to reward rising cartoon talent. 

Judges include leading cartoonists such as Martin Rowson (The Guardian), Christian Adams (Evening Standard), Banx (FT), Peter Brookes (The Times), Nick Newman (Private Eye), and Matt from the Daily Telegraph. 

There are two categories: Under 18 and Under 30; the deadline is 5 January 2022, and entries can be mailed in (old school Royal Mail) to the Cartoon Museum, or emailed to hello@cartoonmuseum.org.

Laughter Lab Opens at the Cartoon Museum

Last night was the opening of a new exhibition at London's Cartoon Museum, titled Laughter Lab: What’s So Funny?, which seeks to "uncover the science behind funniness".  

The exhibition invites visitors to contribute to a science experiment which hopes to find out what makes a cartoon funny. 

The experiment is being conducted in collaboration with Robin Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford. What makes us laugh? It's a complex question, with some surprising science behind it. 

Meet "Mr Buttons"

Mr Buttons

Meet Mr Buttons, the cartoon cat created by veteran animator and rigger Keith Osborn, who has made his cute orange cat available for free download.

Mr Buttons is a fun, quirky rig, suitable for broad cartoony character animation.  Mr Buttons is the star of Osborn's book "Cartoony Character Animation with Maya", which we recommend for all our students.

We also have a series of tutorials with Mr Buttons (see below) on how to plan cartoony animation.

Sesame Street Sounds Archive

For animators looking for inspiration for some cartoony animation with dialogue, one great place to search is the Sesame Street Sound Archive, which you can find here. 

The Sesame Street Sound Archive is full of cartoony audio clips, which work well with cartoony characters such as Mr Buttons and also the Willy rig.  

To get started, try picking a very short line of dialogue, download it and then drag and drop it into your timeline in Maya. To see more about how to use audio files in Maya, follow this link.  To see more about how to use the "Willy" rig, see this blog post.

Leopard Animation by Alex Southcombe

Animation Apprentice student Alex Southcombe did this excellent piece of animation above, as part of studying for his Online MA in Animation at Buckinghamshire New University, our academic degree-awarding partner.  The animation was completed as part of Module DA703 "Animals and Creatures", in which our MA students tackle the art and craft of animal and creature locomotion.  Alex used the Leopard Rig by Truong, available for free download at Gumroad, which we recommend for animal and creature animation. 

Why Animators Need a Good Silhouette

One of the most important things that an animator needs to get right is to learn how to create great poses. Part of this is learning how to create a great silhouette, one that reads clearly. 

The image on the left is taken from Eric Goldberg's book "Character Animation Crash Course", a copy of which we have in the library, one of the best books on character animation.

Eric shows how a single pose can get an instant "read" from the audience. Even though the images are shown blacked out in silhouette, we still know exactly what the character is thinking and doing.

Always make sure your poses, whether drawn or digital, communicate exactly what the character is thinking, feeling and doing. 

Early Bird by Dan Fitzgerald Wins Multiple Prizes

Earlybird from Noad Animation on Vimeo.

Congratulations to Animation Apprentice graduate Dan Fitzgerald who has been experiencing festival success with his short film "Early Bird" (above).  So far Early Bird has received awards from the Berlin Flash Festival, The Halicarnassus Film Festival, The Vesuvius Film Festival, The Art Film Awards and the Onyko Film Awards, as well as Honourable Mentions at the London and Tokyo International Monthly Festivals.

BAA Awards Ident Challenge 2022

BAA - British Animation Awards

The BAA Awards are back next year, celebrating the best of British Animation. 

This year the BAAs have offered our students a unique opportunity - the chance to animate a "sting/ident" for the Awards Ceremony.

This brief is a perfect opportunity to help out one of the UK's biggest animation festivals with some fun animation.

Float Folks Wins Best Trailer at Halicarnassus

Float Folks wins Best Trailer at Halicarnassus

Congratulations to the makers of "The Float Folks", the short teaser/trailer made through our animators' co-operative Nano Films, which has won "Best Trailer" at the Halicarnassus Film Festival. 

The Float Folks is a TV Series created by Ian Foyle and directed by Monika Dzikowicz, currently in development.

Last Call for Winter Class Starting Nov 2021

Last call for our Winter Animation Class, which begins on Monday 2 November 2021.

It's not too late to book a place; all you need to do is visit the main Animation Apprentice site and go through a few simple steps.

If you want to learn 3D animation to a professional level, and start your new career as an animator - your journey starts here.

Why Animators Need to Be Art Directors

Sometimes, animators need to be art directors. When working on an animated scene, animators need to consider the environment the character is inhabiting.  

One of the most common mistakes made by student animators is to combine a realistic character (say, a dinosaur or dragon) with a cartoony environment. The character and the set come from different worlds, and they don't always work well together.

Charlie & Yip Wins Best Animation at 1st Fest

My short film "Charlie and Yip" has won another festival award - Best Trailer at the 1st Monthly Film Festival.

 

Charlie and Yip is a short film about a kid who takes his pet to school for Show and Tell, which turns out to be a bad idea.

It's a really a teaser for my indie feature film project "My Haunted House", which is still in development.