Wallace & Gromit at London's Cartoon Museum

"Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers Turns 30"

Opening on the 12th of September, "Wallace &Gromit: The Wrong Trousers Turns 30" will arrive at London's Cartoon Museum just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of Aardman Animation's classic animated film. 

How to Animate a Bouncing Ball

Ball bounce by Joris Van Laar

In the tutorial below we show how to tackle the entry-level "Bouncing Ball" exercise. Below is a collection of some of the best "Bouncing Ball" exercises completed by Animation Apprentices over the years. 

At Animation Apprentice we start with the bouncing ball, as students learn to apply the principles of timing, spacing, paths of action and weight - four of the Twelve Principles of Animation.  Even a simple exercise can be entertaining to watch.

150 Animation Exercises to Boost Your Skill

150 Exercises to boost your skills

We're liking this list of 150 animation exercises created by independent animation artist David Mattock at his website Animator Artist Life. 

David Mattock has created a wide variety of exercises for any animator to tackle, from simple tasks like animating a vibrating telephone or a falling leaf, to complex character animation.  It's a great list, super useful for any animator who might need a little practice or inspiration for what to animate next. 

Animate a Run Cycle With "Heavy"

Human run by Edward Muybridge

In this tutorial we show how to animate a simple, basic run cycle.  

The tutorial uses the "Heavy" Rig which you can download for free at HighEnd3D.com. 

Animators should be able to master the art and craft of basic locomotion, including walks, runs and jumps.  These are the "scales" of animation, and should be on every animator's demo reel, demonstrating that the student has mastered these basic steps.

Animate a Flour Sack Leap With Weight

Flour Sack Suicide

In this animation tutorial we show how to animate a Flour Sack hurling itself from a great height.  

The purpose of the tutorial is to create the illusion of weight and balance, by animating the flour sack landing, bouncing, and settling on the ground. 

The tutorial uses the Rockin' Rooster Flour Sack rig, downloadable from high end3d.com. 

Animate a Jump with "Monty"

In this simple Locomotion and Mechanics Tutorial we show how to animate a jump with a simple character, using the "Monty" rig, free for download at HighEnd3D.com.  

The idea is to get a basic jump working, that feels fluid and believable, with weight and balance. You can read more about the Monty rig and how to use it here. The tutorial is aimed at animation beginners in Autodesk Maya. 

Scorpion Animation Tutorial

In this Scorpion Animation Tutorial we demonstrate how to animate a scorpion in motion.  Scorpions are fun to animate, and there is a good free rig available online by Kiel Figgins, which can be found here at his official website. 

Watch the video below for a general introduction to the rig, how to find it, and how the rig works. The scorpion tutorial is similar to the spider tutorial, but a little more complex, as we have to deal with eight legs, two big pincers and also a tail.

Animate a Jelly in Motion

Jelly rig swim cycle with caustics

In this beginners' animation tutorial, part of our series on animal and creature animation, we show how to animate a cute "jelly" in motion. The tutorial uses the free "Jelly" rig which you can find here at Animation Buffet - a great source of free rigs for character and creature animation.  

Jelly is a very simple rig - but gives a good range of movement and also facial expressions. 

Animate a Foxy Tail in Motion

In this "Foxy Tail" animation exercise, students learn how to animate a simple ball with a tail, a cute cartoony fox creature that can be used to create some fun cartoony animation, as in the example on the left by Joris Van Laar. 

The exercise uses the free Ultimate Tail Rig, available for download from highend3D.com.

How to Make a Playblast In Autodesk Maya

In the beginner's tutorial video above we show how to make a Playblast in Maya. What is a Playblast? A Playblast is a desktop render, and a way to test your animation to make sure that playback is in the real time, so you can test out the timing and spacing accurately.  Every animator needs to know how to make a Playblast; watch the video above to see how to get the settings right. 

Introduction to The Autodesk Maya Interface

The video above is an Introduction to The Autodesk Maya Interface. This video is aimed at complete beginners, taking their first steps to use Autodesk Maya - still the leading software for 3D animation.  To see more videos on the use of Maya for Animators, follow the links below.

How To Import Live Action Reference Into Maya

The video above explains how to import live action reference into Maya.  There are two basic methods; importing a series of individual frames, and importing a movie file. Both can be fiddly - watch the video to see how it is done.  To see more detail on  how to use live action reference to create animation in Maya, read this blog post. 

Quadruped Run Tutorial

Horse gallop by Mark Lawson-Hall

In this animation tutorial we show how to animate a quadruped running - in this case a horse.  Every animator needs to understand how to animate quadrupeds in motion; these are the basic "scales" of animal and creature animation.  

The basic gait for all quadrupeds is more or less the same, allowing for anatomy (herbivores generally have less flexible spines than carnivores), so this tutorial can be applied to any four-legged creature, but the easiest way to follow the tutorial is to use the free horse rig - available for download from the Mothman TD website. 

Spider Animation Tutorial

Spider Animation by Mark Lawson-Hall

In this new animation tutorial we show how to create a locomotion cycle with a spider, demonstrating how to take an apparently complex action and, by breaking it down into simple components, we can make the animation much easier.

A spider's walk looks complex, but is in fact very easy to animate, by following this simple tutorial.

Crow in Flight Tutorial

Animate a crow in flight

Our latest animation tutorial shows how to animate a bird in flight - specifically a crow. The tutorial covers how to animate a flap cycle, add refinements, add the animation to a motion path, import a set, and then create an interesting and inventive scene. 

Birds are one of the many kinds of creatures that animators will be expected to know how to animate; this tutorial demonstrates a simplified approach that gets a strong result in a short amount of time. 

Animate Dialogue with "Monty" - "Smokin!"

Monty: "Smokin!"

In the simple animation tutorial below we show how to animate a character with no mouth ("Monty") speaking a line of dialogue.  

But how can you animate dialogue and lipsync - with no lips?  The answer is - it's all in the acting and the performance. 

 

If the body language is working, then the audience will believe that the character is speaking - even if the character itself has no mouth. 

Animate a Military Walk With "Monty"

Monty "goose-stepping"

One thing every animator needs to learn is how to animate a character walk.  In this latest tutorial, we show how to take a basic walk cycle using the "Monty" rig (free for download from highend3d.com) and make Monty march like a goose-stepping soldier on a parade ground.  

The video tutorial is recorded in Autodesk Maya, and is aimed at animation beginners. 

No Audio in Maya Playblast?

Autodesk Maya Playplast Options - select QT

What should you do if you are getting no audio in your Autodesk Maya Playblast? 

If you make a Playblast in Maya and there is no audio, try opening up the Playlist settings and tinkering with the output. 

By default, Maya tends to choose a .avi file, but if you go under Format and change the output to QT instead of AVI, you will often be able to get audio playback.

Animate "Monty" Singing "Oh Yeah"

"Monty" sings "Ohhh Yeahhh". 

In the simple animation tutorial we show how to animate a character with no mouth ("Monty") singing a line of dialogue.  

But how can you animate dialogue and lipsync - with no lips?  The answer is - it's all in the performance.  If the body language is working, then the audience will believe that the character is speaking - even if the character itself has no mouth.  

In this tutorial we animate "Monty" saying (well, singing) a line of dialogue - "Ohhh Yeahhh". 

Animate a Run Cycle with "Monty"

"Monty" runs for the bus

In this beginner's tutorial we show how to animate a simple, basic run cycle with "Monty". 

The tutorial uses the excellent "Monty" rig (which you can read about here), and which you can download for free from highend3d.com. 

Every animator should know how to animate a basic walk and a run cycle - these are the "scales" of the animator's skillset.  

Animate a Cartoony "Take" with "Mr Buttons"

Reaction shots are the bread-and-butter of junior animators.  On a feature film, once an animator has graduated from walk cycles and crowd shots, they get given reaction shots.

In this series of video tutorials, we show how to go about blocking out an animated scene, in this case a reaction shot, or "take", with the cartoony cat rig "Mr Buttons" by Keith Osborn.