During the Summer Term, our supplemental general Art Class was Story Class with Moroni Taylor, free for all AnimSchool students!
Moroni has storyboarded on 14 features including Iron Giant, Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who, Rio and recently Epic.
In this clip, he talks about Cutting and how to put your shots together. Cutting helps you direct your audiences attention to the information you want them to see. Some really interesting stuff! Watch it below:
Come join all the students learning online at AnimSchool: http://www.animschool.com
Month: September 2014
We’d like to welcome Character Animator Milian Topsy. Tell us a little about yourself, what is your background? How did you get into character animation?
I discovered the animation world by visiting a small 2D Animation Studio in Paris when I was still in High School, and it was kind of a revelation! It looked so cool to work on fun projects, with passionate people.
I entered a school in Lyon, called Emile Cohl, where I focused for 2 years on traditional animation, drawing, painting, sculpting, etc. Then I entered a new school for 3 years, Supinfocom Arles, where I specialized in CG Animation.
This allowed me to put together my love for animation with my love for technology and computers. It was also a way of not being handicapped by my “not so good” drawing skills, and really focus on pure animation.
I’ve graduated 1 year ago, and I’m now working in London, trying to keep improving.
What are you currently working on?
I work at Passion Pictures, where I’m an animator on different commercials, I also do some freelance work here and there. I keep animating personal tests, in order to work, hopefully, on feature films at some point.
What is the “Croco” project about? What was your part in it?
So “My Little Croco” is the graduation short we did at Supinfocom Arles with Etienne Bagot-Caspar, Yohan Cohen, François Mancone and Maïckel Pasta. It’s about a crocodile who adopts a green bean (looking like him) and will take care of it, like his own baby; it should be online soon. The production took us 9 months, and I was responsible for the main part of the animation. There were a lot of characters (crocodile, sheep, otter, monkey, fox, rabbit) and we tried to find a different way to act for each one of them. For example the sheep is an old lady, the otters were a bit dumb, the foxes crazy kids, etc. So it was really fun to play with all theses characters. We also had to animate a lot each day, so it’s really great to have now the time to plan and polish my personal shots.
You have an interesting reel with some shots from the popular Nike Soccer commercial, what was your job there?
Thank you! Yes this commercial was really interesting to work on, especially straight after school! I was a junior animator on this, so it was very challenging to work amongst more experienced animators, and to receive great advices from them. I hope I’ll have the opportunity to work on another project like this one soon!
You have also worked with a cool Malcolm Mod. Who made it? What was it like to work with Malcolm?
A friend of mine did it, Maïckel Pasta (who studied at Supinfocom with me). He’s an amazing artist, from drawing to CG Sculpting. He managed to create a very appealing character, and it was a real pleasure to give him life. I didn’t have as much flexibility as on the genuine Malcolm (the face and the shoulders were quite different, so the rig wasn’t matching exactly). It required a bit more work to find the right shapes, but nothing too dramatic.
Malcolm is a fantastic rig, the best I’ve used so far! Very appealing, amazing facial rig; you can do everything you want with it! That’s really great AnimSchool allows everyone to use it, and I can’t wait to work with it for my next animation!
The next shot I’ll be working on (still using the Malcolm Mod) it’s going to be kind of a tribute to “The Incredibles” that I loved so much! And it’s also a way to practice a more dynamic shot and body acting too.
Thank you very much Milian and all the best in your animation career!
Check out Milian’s demo reel here:
In AnimSchool’s Body Acting, Blue Sky Animator Jeremy Lazare talks about smear frames, their advantages and disadvantages.
Smear frames are commonly used in animation industry. Our Instructor will point out some of the successful examples. This is just a short take from 2 hours lecture that can be available if you join Animschool.
Come join all the students learning online at AnimSchool: http://www.animschool.com
For Immediate Release
Orem, UT United States – September 11, 2014 — AnimSchool is proud to present our newest character, Marshall, exclusively for AnimSchool students!
AnimSchool is the leader in appealing, flexible characters. Our students animate with the most refined, advanced characters, using the popular AnimSchool Picker.
Marshall has clothing options: shirt, jacket, pants, shoes, poseable toes, as well as fat controls and UV’s for textured rendering.
AnimSchool rigs are built with each part and control being tested to extreme levels, making the strongest poses possible.
You can see the range of motion and poseability students can achieve with Marshall.
AnimSchool students are using him to great effect, like this shot below from graduate Ricardo Puertas!
To use Marshall, apply to an AnimSchool program or individual class.
AnimSchool characters and the AnimSchool Picker are used by more
than 20,000 users worldwide, and have been used to win numerous
animation contests and for commercial needs. AnimSchool is known as the
most trusted name for appealing 3D characters.
With over 200 students, AnimSchool
was founded in 2010 to bring character-focused 3D animation instruction
to students all around the world, through live online sessions with the best film professionals.
Contact:
Isaac Nordlund
AnimSchool
admissions@animschool.com
560 South State Street, Suite F3
Orem, UT 84058
801 765-7677
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What Should I Look for in an Animation School?
In order to shoot for the top in your profession, you need
to learn from the best. Look for instructors who are
currently working at some of the most popular studios in the
industry. From Dreamworks and Disney to Pixar and Blue Sky,
make sure the level of instructors prepares you for the 3D
workforce. Students should have full-time pros available
that provide continuous interaction and help with
problem-solving.
Are the sessions with the instructors live–not stale,
out-dated recordings of past lectures?
Any fair comparison will show: from animation, modeling and
rigging to drawing and art classes and additional open
review sessions, AnimSchool offers many more hours of live
teaching than any competing school, dollar for
dollar.
What Aspects of Learning 3D Animation are Important?
There a number of animation courses out there, so look
closely at what they offer. Your school should provide
students with the highest quality character rigs,
the best instructors in live classrooms, then the
access to watch recordings of all of those classes,
the chance to get multiple review sessions each week,
extra classes to develop your art and drawing skills, a
place to collaborate with other students, see each
others’ assignments and leave comments.
A 2009 study, “The Development of Professional Expertise” showed the best way to learn at the highest
level is to get expert coaching. Have the student’s
performance evaluated so the student begins to notice
the differences — the gap between their performance and
expert-level performance. The process is repeated so
the student’s perception matures along with their ability to
follow any set of steps. To use this approach it isn’t
enough to just watch lectures on your own, so look for a
school that can provide this steady feedback loop.
Look for an actual registered school, so they have
a long-term commitment to your education, helping
advise you through the program and advocate for you after
graduation. A school can provide that continued support and
relationship of trust, more than any loose set of workshops
or standalone classes. Learning animation isn’t a quick fix
— it’s a long process, so you want a school that is there
to assist you along the way.
Look for a dedicated support staff. People ready to
answer the phone whenever you call with a problem.
The school’s curriculum should give students a broad
overview of the animation field, while focusing on specific
skills that will qualify the students in a competitive
field. You may not want a school that teaches too broad a
curriculum: by the time you’re done, you may be a
jack-of-all-trades and master of none– and unable to
find a job.
A school that is too focused one one job only may leave you
with limited options to branch out to neighboring skills.
A school teaching more than one narrow job title may be a
big benefit if you ever want to try a different job in 3D
animation.
Or if you may want to make your own 3D animated short
someday.
AnimSchool offers the best environment for aspiring
students of animation– we offer our students all of the
benefits listed above. But remember that while your school
provides you with opportunities and tools for
success, it is up to the student to apply the teaching with
many hours of focused effort, daily.
Are Drawing Skills Important for Learning 3D Animation?
Can you learn 3D animation skills even if you can’t draw
well? Even if you are not skilled at drawing now, look for a
school that is committed to teaching the art as much as the
technical skills involved in learning 3D animation.
You can apply to animation schools with limited drawing
ability, but you should plan on becoming a better artist
through your schooling — and beyond! The animation world
needs artists with a confident vision of what they want to
create, more than technicians looking to others for artistic
vision.
You could get by without drawing, since it’s true that some
animators, modelers, and riggers don’t draw well. But
developing drawing will develop your artistic ability, which
increases your skill and makes you more attractive to
employers.
As Pixar and Disney president Ed Catmull says, learning
how to DRAW is really about learning how to SEE.
AnimSchool offers our students a free live drawing or
art class most terms, and free access to all previous
drawing and art class recordings — hundreds of hours of
learning.
Is Location Essential to Learning Animation?
You may look for animation colleges close to your home, or
one close to the places you’d like to work someday. But did
you know you can also learn right from home on the web?
Some students supplement their studies at a brick-and-mortar
college at an online school like AnimSchool. They may attend
at the same time as they’re attending college, in between
terms, or after they’ve graduated.
Since 3D animation is a competitive field, many find they graduate
traditional college only to discover it’s very hard to
land that first job without the close mentorship of top
animation pros.
Some students choose not to go college and go straight for
the highly successful learning model available at an online
animation school. Far from being disadvantaged, many of
those students find they qualify for top animation jobs —
over their brick-and-mortar peers.
AnimSchool is all online–on your computer, over high-speed
internet. Using the latest in web conferencing technology,
students can learn the craft of 3D computer animation right
from home.
Will I be Certified?
Look for a school that offers certification for
their instruction. That means they have complied with all
state regulations and tax laws for operating a school,
follow licensing laws designed to protect students from
fly-by-night classes that may be here today and gone
tomorrow, and have the proper infrastructure for
administering student needs. But remember, the most important qualification is not a piece of paper, but the skills you present in your portfolio!
AnimSchool provides students with a 21-month certificate
program, and employers are recognizing the quality of
our graduates who’ve earned those certificates.
Whatever choice you make, AnimSchool is here to help if you
want to learn 3D animation at the highest levels.
Click here to apply to one of our programs (or take a single class).