The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
© 2010 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation. All rights reserved. Courtesy of MPC www.moving-picture.com
“The more I work as animator, the more I understand how valuable & important techniques Rob showed. So once again thanks.” -Eugene Mishchenko
“Animators should have an eye for nuanced, realistic performance and dynamic physical action.”-Framestore
New rigs, check them out here.
FREE Fur Rendering Service !!
Animation by ‘Ateam ‘ Student Kahye Hwang.
Instructional movies of this sequence are provided as backup to the bespoke instruction.
FREE Fur Rendering Service !!
WOW!….We will render – with fur – your animation sequence completed during the Online classes at no extra cost!
Registration form can be found here.
This is a fully mentored course that allows you to factor in a full-time job or college study.
“Look forward to getting your recommendations when they graduate”
Eamonn Butler – Head of Animation, Double Negative, London
“we’re very interested to see your graduates with a more realistic style of animation on their reels”
Greg Fisher - Head of Animation, MPC, London
“at long last a course teaching highend realistic animation skills, we’re always looking for new talent so please keep us updated“
Max Solomon – Animation Supervisor, Framestore
Student Reel – 2012
See the individual and complete sequences here.
This course is different to many others in that it teaches keyframe cg animation methods from a 3D perspective as opposed to the traditional 2D approach. I’ve always thought that more emphasis should be placed on teaching a cg animator to fully understand the 3D tools at his or her disposal and how and when to employ them to their best effect.
3D techniques for the 3D animator, kind of makes sense.
Learn How To Simplify the Blocking Stage.
We are a purely specialist creature keyframe animation school, focusing on techniques that enhance accurate timing, observation and fluidity of movement. Students learn how to produce the highest quality film animation and we are industry leaders in teaching these vital skills sought after by the VFX and games industries.
“A prospective employer will hire confidently if a candidate has attained the professional training provided on this course, my personal recommendation is respected in the cg community and that is why the top London studios are endorsing this Creature Animation School.”
Rob Hemmings: Course Tutor Creature Reel-
Realistic Creature Animation School from rob hemmings on Vimeo.
Once the techniques taught on this course are mastered, you will be qualified to confidently tackle any type of creature animation project to the highest level.
Our teaching centres on realistic movement, we therefore use realistic creature rigs i.e cat, fox, wolf etc.
It is much easier for a prospective employer to assess a students animation abilities, i.e observation, timing and attention to detail when applied to a recogniseable living creature because they are benchmark to which your work can be compared.
You can animate a fantasy creature in many different ways, none of which are wrong, your true animation skills are not really being put to the test in the same way.
You will of course however be able to create far better performances with fantasy creatures when you have completed studies of the real ones first.
Many people can tell you if an animal moves nicely or badly without knowing why, the true measure of a good animator is his/her ability to understand the reasons for this. The courses offered here will sharpen the eye making the student more aware of the differences and similarities between gaits and motion of all real animals.
The Creature Animation School for Film TV or Games
The animation school focuses your attention on the finer details of realistic motion in creatures/animals of any kind. You will be studying live action in detail, looking at creature poses and behaviour.
The techniques learnt will be appropriate and indeed vital to both character and creature and all 3D animation genres.
A key aspect of the Animation course is learning how to turn these observations into fluid and realistic movement.
The course is aimed at those who want to hone and develop their skills but can also be taught to anyone wishing to learn from scratch.
Why You Need This Realistic Animation School
Its simple…….to learn the professional skills that the animation industry is craving.
There is a major shortage of animators with realistic creature animation skills. Studios, particularly in the film industry are always keen to see this kind of work on a candidates reel because an increasingly large number of projects require it.
From my experience it became obvious that many animators just don’t animate creatures particularly well. I think when you have real world benchmarks to compare the animation to, it becomes a more exacting task in some ways.
A fantastic character animator doesn’t always make a great creature animator, certainly it is a skill that improves with practice and the application of learnt techniques. These techniques, once mastered, will help you to improve the quality of any kind of animation that you are producing. If you can demonstrate all skill sets to a high standard then you stand a much better chance of landing your dream job.
Generally the skills required to produce competent realistic 3D creature animation are simply not being taught….
…. very strange when you consider that I became a specialist creature animator, essentially because there was so little 3D character animation work going on in London. There are so few teachers of 3D animation who have worked exclusively in this field, you can really only learn on the job as I did, but getting a job is much harder to do now as there are far more applicants chasing each vacancy. Therefore the work on your reel really does have to demonstrate how capable you are as animator or you will stand little chance of success.
This is a unique opportunity to learn valuable working practices with an industry professional for 6 months. I am offering to share the skills and techniques that I’ve learnt and discovered, many through trial and error during my last 10 years as a specialist creature animator in feature film.
If you would like to be taught from scratch or just want to hone and develop your realistic creature animation skills then please consider the animation school that I am offering here. There are no deadlines and no examinations to pass and it can be completed entirely at you own pace. Most importantly you will have some competent examples of creature animation on your reel as a result of participating and you will have learnt how to produce them quickly and efficiently, vital skills for any future project.
Animation School Procedure:
The course is designed to be the same as if you were working on a shot in a film studio, from the beginning right through to the end.
You learn all the techniques whilst animating your sequence.
The procedure is simple, the student submits a movie and I email back a crit (using a mix of notes, images and movies). The emailed instructions are bespoke, relating to the issues of your latest submission.
I start the course by emailing a few instructions on how to start a cycle, you send back a movie based on these simple instructions and then we go from there.
I do issue pre-recorded instructional movies to help demonstrate techniques, but these are just to back up any points that I may be making in the daily emails.
I review work in the morning, this gives the student the rest of the day to work on my comments, so if a crit is wanted the next day, a movie must be loaded onto ftp the night before.
I try to give feedback everyday (if required), though sometimes this maybe every other day. On average I am able to supply at least 3 crits a week (Mon-Fri).
You can submit a movie once a week or once a month, or whenever you can, you dictate the pace, this means the course can fit in around work or any other activity you are engaged in.
You are in contact with me from start to finish and will be able to email questions at any time.
You have a dedicated email account and a domain address to send larger movie files, I will supply ftp login details and ftp freeware link on request.
The movie you send to me should be a Maya playblast in the .m4v format(please let me know if you are able to do this, quicktime 7 pro version is useful or I can forward some freeware).
The Animation School Modules:
1.Choose creature rig: A Choice of six rigs are currently available: TRex, Cat, Baboon, Fox, Wolf or Puppy.
2.Storyboard ideas.
Come up with a simple sequence to animate, the idea is to produce short sequences that demonstrate typical creature behaviour. (see fox animation example on website)
3.Study online live action movies: Observe creature behaviour and typical personality traits.
4.Creation of walk/trot/run cycles: Tips on how to create convincing cycles quickly.
5.Path animation techniques, QPAS.
6.Posing keyframes (Blocking animation): Use of stepped keys to create important key poses.
7.Splining and timing the keyposes
8.Polishing animation: Tips and advice on how to add the wow factor!
9.Weight pass: Some neat tricks that will give your creature/animal size.
The goal of the course is not to obtain some kind of certificate of excellence (Animation, as a career, is based upon demonstrated ability, your reel is your certificate) but more importantly to learn how to animate creatures quickly and convincingly using techniques and simple shortcuts that I will introduce where appropriate. Some you might already employ but many you will not. These will help you to speed up the production of good quality animation, a vital skill in visual effects animation. You will also come away with examples of creature work that you will have storyboarded and completed yourself with my guidence.
These realistic creature sequences are designed to demonstrate your animation skills to potential clients and improve your chances of finding work as an animator in the visual effects industry.
I am an animation recruiter with many contacts in the industry so will always be on the look out for suitable job opportunies for my students. I can also offer advice about reels, universities, interviews, companies etc.
Costs and Register form can be found here.
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Online Animation School