150 Animation Exercises to Improve Your Skills

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. 

Why Animators Still Need to Draw

Fast sketches to capture a pose

In the old 2D days, life drawing was an essential skill for animators. Today, 3D animation is a blend of creative and technical skills, and life drawing is less important than it used to be.

However, it still helps to be able to draw to a basic level of skill, especially for creating thumbnail sketches which can be used to plan animation.

Nowadays there are many opportunities to learn animation online, at sites such as pixelovely and promo. You can also draw friends and family - models don't need to be nude, and gesture drawing clothed models is just as useful for animation, and in some ways more practical, as most animated characters tend to be wearing clothing.

So, how do animators learn the basics of life drawing?

Learning To Take Critique - at Facebook

One of the hardest skills for animation students to learn is how give and receive criticism.  We all tend to be shy about our work (especially when we are learning something new) and, when our work is criticised, that criticism can feel very personal.

More Free Life Drawing Classes For Our Students at Bucks

Calling all Bucks animators and digital artists! Today is the day to sign up with the Bucks Students' Union for their next round of life drawing classes, starting in March. We strongly recommend that everyone sign up. It's a great skill to acquire and will help all our animators become better artists. Drawing skills help with design, storyboards, thumbnails - all necessary parts of the animation process.  So how do you sign up?

Letter From Denmark - What Can We Learn From The Animation Workshop?

The Animation Workshop, Denmark

The Animation Workshop (TAW) in Viborg, Denmark has become one of the best places to study animation in Europe, with ten students competing for each spot on their character animation course.  I have taught classes there for many years and this year I acted as an external examiner, helping to grade the students on their final year "bachelor films", which were among the strongest student films I have ever seen. So what, exactly, is the secret of their success, and what can we learn from them here at Bucks?

Film & TV at Bucks Receives Formal Accreditation from Creative Skillset

The Film & TV course at Bucks has just finally received full accreditation from Creative Skillset - the UK Government body which oversees university courses in the creative industries. So, what does this mean for Bucks, and why is Creative Skillset Accreditation important?

Are Universities Failing the UK's Visual Effects Industry?

Pat Joseph, co-founder and chief creative officer of The Mill, certainly thinks so. In this post at the Televisual blog,  Joseph argues that higher education in the UK is not responding to the needs of the visual effects industry, and is not training students of the digital arts to a sufficiently high calibre. What can universities do to try harder?

Bucks Animation in talks with Creative Skillset for accreditation

Creative Skillset is the UK government body which supports skills and training in creative industries, helping British companies to maintain their world class position. Here at Bucks we are determined to ensure that our new Animation & VFX course is fully accredited by Skillset, offering students a guarantee of quality teaching and training.

The Interview Process at Bucks

Dave Creighton and I have been interviewing candidates today at Bucks New University, and we are delighted with the high standard of the applicants for our new Animation and VFX course. Almost all of our interviewees have strong artistic and digital skills, the crucial combination for a successful career in the digital arts.