Animation Jobs

London Film companies endorsing and recruiting from this course:

To name but a few.

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Rob Hemmings has well over 10 years experience as a specialist visual effects creature animator on feature films, companies worked at include: Henson’s Creature Shop, MillFilm, MPC, Framestore and Double Negative.

Feature Film Creature Animation Supervisor on:

John Carter Of Mars-Pixar (2012)

10,000 BC (2008) Terror Birds, Vulture and Sabre Tooth Sequences

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)

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Feature Film Senior Creature Animator on:

The Dark Knight (2008)

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)

(2004)

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

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The Creature Animation School for Film TV or Games

The animation school focuses your attention on the finer details of realistic motion in creatures of any kind including human. 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.

If you require a copy of Maya then best place I found is here:

Maya Student Edition

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Student Work  (More Will Be Uploaded Soon)

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Brecht placed at MPC by animationAteam.com

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Why You Need This Realistic Animation School

Since the middle of last year I viewed hundreds of animation reels and have been really inspired by the quality and creativity of the talent within the global animation community. Although I’ve managed to place and arrange interviews for a number of animators, I wish I could have helped more find employment, however I intend to keep on seeking out opportunities for all those registered on my database.

One thing that became very obvious to me however, is a major shortage of people with realistic creature animation work. Clients, particularly in the film industry are always keen to see this kind of work on a candidates reel and indeed are always asking me for it because most projects have significant creature content. 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. 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 it quickly and efficiently, vital skills for any future project.  You can submit work to me whenever you like and I will offer advice and suggest different techniques to help you improve.

If you are a Maya user then I can supply a rig.

Some examples of my creature work can be found on my Realistic Creature Animation Reel

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Animation School Details:

The animation school runs for up to six months but most should finish sooner, it will depend on how fast you wish to work. I request that you send a movie no more than one for crit every two days, you will be given enough notes to keep you busy for a day or more.

I will base my response on movie submissions that you send me when you require feedback, again you can submit these whenever you like and I will try to respond every other working day (sometimes everyday). 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.

Communication is through email and my response will take the form of a series of notes detailing specific issues for you to address. The program includes study of live-action footage and sometimes diagrams.

You are in contact with me from start to finish and will be able to email questions at any time. I will also be animating in some of the stages so that you can make direct comparisons with my work and your own.

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 if you require it.
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 outline is as follows:

1.Choose creature rig.
A Choice of six rigs are currently available: TRex, Cat, Penguin, Baboon, Ghekko or Wolf.

2.Storyboard ideas.
Come up with a simple sequence to animate, nothing too ambitious, the idea is to produce short sequences that demonstrate typical creature behaviour,
one creature per sequence. (see fox animation example on website)

3.Study online live action movies of relevant creature.
Observe creature behaviour and typical personality traits with close attention to timing and poses.

4.Creation of walk/trot/run cycles.
Tips on how to create convincing cycles quickly.

5.Posing keyframes.
Use of stepped keys to create important key poses.

6.Blocking animation
Roughing in between key poses

7.Polishing animation
Tips and advice on how to add the wow factor!

The goal of the course is not to obtain some kind of certificate of excellence (Animation, as a career, is based upon demonstrated ability, not the paper pedigree of the school you go to) 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 two 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.

The course costs:

£3000 GBP for 6 months if you have previous experience in animation and have examples of your work.

£4500 GBP for 8 months if you are a new starter. You will be required to undertake an introductory course before beginning the creature school.

Paypal payment can be made a week before start date, you will not require a Paypal account to do this. (I will send an invoice)

If you would like to join the course please register your name on this form:

Register Here For Animation School

Any question please mail to: rob.hemmings@3dhem.com

I will contact you via return email asap.

***Please always check your junk mail as reply email will sometimes go in here***

Thanks

Rob
animationAteam.com

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Endorsements