How to Get Started in Animation

Animation Studio by Helen Piercy

One question we often get asked at BNU is this "My child loves animation - what subject should they study at school?".

And also - "how can I teach my child animation?".

Parents tell me that their 13-year old is really into animation, but doesn't know what they should do to realise that goal.

Today, animation is a mix of art and technology.  So, art subjects, such as Art GCSE or Art A level, will help, as will tech subjects, such as IT or computer studies.

Animating Walks for DA701 PR1

"Monty" by Bucks graduate Neil Whitman

Our MA animation students' first assessed animation exercise, the assignment brief for DA701 PR1 (the first practical assignment for the first animation module), is to create a scene based on character walks. 

Character walks are one of the most important parts of the animator's toolkit. Using the online materials at Animation Apprentice, students learn how to take a basic walk cycle and, with just a few tweaks, completely change the character's mood and personality.

The students' first assessed brief is to take these character walks and turn it into an entertaining scene. 

Getting Started in Animation

free 3D software - yours to try for free

How do you get started in animation? Fortunately for would-be animators, there are today plenty of inexpensive and even free resources to get started.

Today, animation is a mix of art and technology.  Animators work at the crossover point between creative skills and techie skills - a good animator has both.  Below are some tips on how to get started in animation, and how to prepare yourself for a potential career in the animation industry.

Introducing The 12 Principles of Animation

Starting with us in September, on either our BA in animation or our MA in animation? For our new starters, we are recommending this introductory video outlining the 12 Principles of Animation.  If you're studying animation for the first time, and starting to learn the basics, then this video is a very helpful introduction to the medium.  Unlock the secrets of Squash and stretch, Anticipation, Staging, Straight ahead action & pose to pose, Follow through & overlapping action, Slow in and slow out, Arcs & Paths of Action, Secondary action, Timing, Exaggeration, Solid drawing and Appeal.  Sounds like a long list? You don't have to memorise them all. Just be aware of the principles, and then gradually start to apply them in your animation.

How to Get Started With 3D Animation

Free Blender Tutorial at YouTube

How do you find out if 3D animation is for you? One way of finding out is to do a couple of tutorials online.

A great place to start is with the 3D software Blender - it's completely free, and there are many free tutorials out there to get you started.

Meet Bonnie!

Bonnie

Bonnie is a free character rig from Josh Sobel, creator of the excellent Kayla rig which can be downloaded for just $12.  Bonnie by contrast is absolutely free, and is an excellent rig for learning character performance and dialogue.

Josh Sobel describes Bonnie as "a free legacy rig. Bonnie has been downloaded and animated over 20,000 times, and though she's a bit dated, you can still pull a decent performance out of her for the low, low price of free".

Bonnie can be downloaded for free from Josh Sobel's website. We're recommending her to all our students for character performance and dialogue animation.

The Animator's Checklist

The Animator's Checklist

Here is a link to an excellent animation blog, "The Animator's Checklist", which gives a really useful introduction to some of the key principles of animation.

The website is hosted in Spain (but written in English), and has some really useful resources for learning animation.

Blue GFX Expo is Back! 17th November 2016

Blue GFX Expo is taking place in London on 17th November 2016.

Last year speakers included Tom Box from Blue Zoo, one of the UK's biggest TV animation company, Stuart Penn from Framestore, and the folks from Autodesk showing the latest tools.

Moving On

Like Dick Whittington, I'm off to London

Working at Bucks and launching the new course in Animation and Visual Effects has been one of the highlights of my professional career.  After all, Bucks is a university with excellent facilities in new media and a strong focus on the creative arts.

Sad to say, today is my last day at Bucks, and I am moving to a new job in London with Escape Studios. However, the excellent work done at Bucks by our talented students will continue, and I wish the very best to whoever takes on the running of Animation and VFX course.

Book Recommendation - Animation Methods by David Rodriguez

Animation Methods by David Rodriguez is a very, very good book on learning animation in Maya.  It's a book that focuses primarily on 3D Character Animation, a step-by-step guide for learning Maya, and the Maya animation tools. It also has useful sections on how to get into the industry, how to make a great demo reel, and how to get a job in animation. We think this is a very useful companion book to the animation and VFX course at Bucks.

It is also an unusual book in that it makes extensive use of QR codes - meaning you can use your smartphone to scan the codes and then view a 3D animated clip of the lesson. So, not only can you read the lesson, but you can also see and understand it through a video demonstration. 

CTN hosts Animation Masterclass with Pixar's Michal Makarewicz.

Animation masterclass with Pixar's Michal Makarewicz

This weekend the Creative Talent Network (CTN) hosts an animation masterclass with Pixar's Michal Makarewicz. There are still some spots available - the only catch is you will need to be in Los Angeles. For any of our students in the area, we highly recommend attending this event - and others like it. Time spent seeing the work methods of master animators is never wasted, and will help you to polish and refine your own workflow.

Charlotte - a New Free Maya Rig!

Digital artist Ahmed Elmatarawi has just released his newest baby - Charlotte - a free Maya rig available for student and non-commercial use around the world. We haven't tested it yet, but the video below takes you through the rig in detail, and we look forward to seeing what our students can do with her. One of the great benefits of working in Maya is its growing user base, bringing us new and better animation rigs for student use all the time. So who and what is Charlotte?

Bucks New Uni's Annecy Survival Guide

Annecy - an ancient medieval town in the French Alps

The International Festival of Animation at Annecy is the world’s biggest animation festival. It can be a slightly overwhelming experience; there are so many things going on at once that it can be hard to feel like you really get to make the most of being there. Alongside the film festival is MIFA – the world’s biggest animation marketplace, a brain-boiling congress of industry types furiously buying and selling. But Annecy is an event that we believe that every animator should go to at least once – if only to get a feeling for the sheer size and diversity of the modern animation industry.

Calling All Bucks Graduates - Apply Now for the Aardman Certificate in Character Animation

Aardman's Certificate in Character Animation

Aardman and the NFTS are offering an intensive three month Certificate in Character Animation, aimed primarily at graduates and taught by industry professionals at Aardman studios in Bristol.  The course is headed up by Loyd Price, Head of Animation at Aardman, with the aim of "bridging the gap between education and industry" and "enabling students to develop the core practical skills needed for them to become competent professional animators and to create believable characters through acting and performance".

Introducing The Shaththan Rig

Shaththan Rig

Here at Bucks we're always on the lookout for great creature rigs that are capable of producing a full range of facial expressions so that our students can study creature animation and get an excellent performance. One rig that has been giving us good results is the free Shaththan Rig, created by the very talented Revanth Ravi, and now available - free for student use - at Creative Crash.

How Did Disney Animators on Frozen Approach Their Shots?

Watch Disney's smash hit animated film Frozen and you will find some first class acting, beautiful work which arguably takes the medium to a whole new level of sophistication and skill. But how do animators achieve such great acting? The answer of course is just the same as it would have been at the Disney studio 70 or 80 years ago: if you want great acting, study great actors. Below is an excellent shot progression showing how animators on Frozen used live actiion reference to bring their shots to life.

Bucks Library Gets Subscription To 3D Artist Magazine

3D Artist magazine - now in the library at Bucks

3D Artist Magazine is now available for our students in the library at Bucks. 3D artist is one of the leading periodicals for our industry, packed with great information about the latest news in 3D animation and - crucially for students - full of tutorials on how to use the latest stuff.  You can learn animation, modeling, texturing, lighting - all the key components of 3D artistry. Here at Bucks we're committed to stocking the library with the very best magazines, books and journals about animation - so our students have access to the best materials possible to support their studies.

The Top Three Free Maya Plugins

Maya 2016

What free plugins do Maya animators need? Each time Autodesk release a new version of Maya they fix many things that don't appear to need fixing - such as the design of the overall interface, but leave many long-established weaknesses in place.  Luckily for us, there are a number free plugins that can easily be accessed by Maya animators to make our lives easier. Here is our shortlist.

Bucks Students Take The Harry Potter Studio Tour

Harry Potter Tour

Bucks animation & VFX students took the Harry Potter Studio Tour at Leavesden on May 13th, visiting the 80-hectare studio complex which was used for filming the Harry Potter series of films. The trip was free for all our students, paid for by the Bucks Big Deal, and was as good an introduction to the art, craft and science of visual effects film-making as almost any amount of classroom instruction - and far more fun.

Reminder - Creature Animation Masterclass on Friday 29 May

Framestore did the character animation for Paddington

Don't forget! This coming Friday 29 May we welcome an expert in character and creature animation from Framestore, one of London (and the world's) leading visual effects houses.  Marion Strunck, a graduate of the excellent Animation Workshop in Denmark and a rising talent at Framestore, will be coming to Bucks to give our students a masterclass in creature work. So, what can our students at Bucks expect?