In Part 1 of AnimSchool’s Webcast Lead animator on The Lego Movie David Williams discusses the time he spent working on this movie. He shares his experience and motivation that led him to inspire life in Lego characters that are anything but simple.
In this clip, Blue Sky animator and AnimSchool instructor Thom Roberts helps to figure out how the body mechanics on a side step work. Watch it below:
This is a clip from AnimSchool’s class Introduction to Animation, the first term of the 3D Animation Program. To find out more, go to AnimSchool.com and apply now!
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Hi Daniel! Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself, like your background, where you’re from and experience before AnimSchool?
I’m from California, The Sacramento area. I originally went to Expression College and studied animation and visual effects. I didn’t focus on animation initially but more of a generalist role learning a little of everything. Only near the end of my time there did I focus on animation. Later I worked over at Adhesive Games as an animator and wanted to polish my animation skills more and do some shot animation. I looked for a good school and that’s when I found Animschool.
Who are the animators that inspire you?
It’s hard to choose, I get inspired by all the animation I see. One animation that sticks out for me is Ryan Woodward’s “Thought of You”:
I love the movement and expression that he conveys with simple gestures. I also view Wayne Unten’s blog and love his simple quick animations. Its creative animations that make me just want to buckle down and get my own done.
Can you share your process from start to finish on your shots for the body mechanics class?
This was a really fun assignment. I started with a brainstorming session. I knew I wanted to get the most out of this animation that I could. I took some time to come up with a clever and fun way to tell a story. I made a web with all my ideas and how they could be done differently. I went through quite a few ideas before settling on this one. The next step for me was to plan out my shot, I didn’t want to build any props if the idea was going to fall flat. A few thumbnails later and I was confident enough to get into Maya a build my scene.
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Thumbnail drawings for Daniel’s body mechanics assignment
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I built the tree house trying to keep it simple as I could so it would match the character. I left out the rope till later and just imagined it as I animated.
Then I filmed reference. I didn’t have access to a rope swing so I found some reference online for that. I did have my brother and a friend drag me around the floor to get reference for the end:
After some notes on my idea in class I began to block out my scene. I did the main story telling possess at first and from there broke down the physicality of the movements. Then it was on to more blocking! I got it down to 3’s for most of it, I think, before I moved into spline.
Of course I had lots of notes from my teacher to improve my work. In the polish stage I would do a pass then play blast and write down everything that I could see and then do another pass. Then repeated that step a few times more. After I was happy with it I modeled and rigged the rope and put it in.
Continuing on that, your facial expression shot is very emotional, and the character really shows that. How was the process to convey such subtle internal feelings on the character, from start to finish?
My facial performance shot was a challenge. I had several different ideas and quite a few sound clips. I really tried to get into the head of the character. I explored how she would act, not just what she was saying. I wanted her body and face to tell what she was thinking as she said the line. Again, I shot a lot of reference. When I got into Maya and started posing I really took the time to sculpt each pose.
But after a round of crits I had to rethink my acting choices. I redid most of my shot and tried to catch up to the class. I was a bit nervous at this point because I had a long shot and had already been set back but I knew the changes really helped. In spline I actually did some exploration of subtle acting choices to find the ones I thought worked best. I was still behind schedule so I pushed through polish in a weekend!
What was the most valuable pointers that your instructors at AnimSchool gave on your assignments, in your opinion?
Planning pays off! If you don’t spend the time up front it doesn’t matter how well you polish a shot it won’t be as good. You need to lay the foundation of a shot and how its framed and how it plays out before you get started. Then you need to look at the foundation you just made and pick it apart and try it differently. Then you know you’ve got something good. Another great bit of advice is that if it feels wrong it is wrong. It might be animated perfectly but if it doesn’t feel right then it’s not. On the flip side if it breaks the rig but feels great use it.
Any advice for your fellow students?
Don’t be afraid to start an animation over. When you do it the second time it will be faster and better!!
We thank Daniel for this interview and be sure to check out his LinkedIn profile and Facebook.
In AnimSchool’s Animating Characters class, instructor Keith Osborn shows how to convey line of action and weight on a character’s walk.
Come join all the students learning online at AnimSchool.
Today we’re interviewing AnimSchool Student Diego Collell.
Hi Diego! Tell us about yourself: where are you from, and how did you became interested in character animation?
First of all, I’d like to say thanks to David Gallagher, Animschool and all its teachers. In special, Juan Pablo Sans (former AnimSchool instructor) and Garrett Shikuma.
Hello! I’m Diego Collell, 35 years old and I live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with my two kids Tiziana and Benicio, and my wife Cecilia.
Since I was a little kid, animated cartoons fascinate me (Chuck Jones and Tex Avery). When I started growing up, my willing to learn about these drawings and to really dive into animation.
By always watching cartoons, my love for animation grew everyday, a true hobby for me.
The first thing I did was to buy a bunch of animation related books and kept hours reading them.
In my free time I practice sports; I really like playing soccer and watch movies. Some of my favorite actors are Jerry Lewis, Rowan Atkinson (the guy that plays “Mr. Bean”), Steve Carell, etc. But one that amazes me is Jim Carrey. I really have fun with his performances. For that reason I chose to do a shot with his audio!
Did you have any experience as character animator before joining AnimSchool?
Yes! Here in Buenos Aires I’ve been working a lot in production companies for advertising, series and movies.
Tell us about your shot of your assignment for the Character Performance class. The character
has some really cool and exaggerated poses! What was the process from start to finish?
Since the beginning I told my instructor, Garrett Shikuma, that I wanted to make a shot in the style of “Horton Hears a Who!”, and with the help of my instructors, I was able to improve it every time.
Research:
I’ve searched for an interesting audio for the animation so it would have texture.
Listening:
Soon after I start listening it several times in loop so I can understand every beat and clue. After that, I analyse the beats carefully, keeping into account every high and low, so I can apply the emotions and intentions according to the tone of the voices.
References:
Once I got a clear idea of what I want, I go to the mirror and practice.
Recording:
When I have more precise acting choices, I record myself doing it several times.
Editing the reference:
Somtimes I do, sometimes I don’t. When I do, I use After Effects.
Blocking:
I use my reference to nail all the main story poses, not worrying with any extra detail.
Blocking Plus:
I take the key poses to the extreme so they can clearly convey the character’s feeling in that shot. I also refine some facial expressions.
Spline:
I clean all my curves. Approximately, I spline my blocking every 50 frames.
Polish:
I made sure of polishing everything possible, frame by frame, checking everything!
I’m very happy with the final result of the shot. All of my instructors were essential for this.
The rendering and lighting was done by a friend, David Alexander Ary Aguero.
How do you think your instructors helped most in achieving the quality of animation you
wanted?
In general, my instructors are all very kind and solicit. The General Review classes have been a huge help. The instructors there care for your shot and your progress just like your main instructor.
Truth be told, all of Animschool teachers are AMAZING!
Are you working as a character animator at the moment?
Yes! At that moment I’m working as a character animator.
Any tips for your fellow students?
Work hard! The more you animate, the more you lern.
We thank Diego for his time, be sure to check his reel, LinkedIn and Facebook profile!
Today we are interviewing not one, but two people! Xin and Florent are the makers of “The Answer”, a short animation film using Animschool’s Malcolm Rig.
The short is now featuring in Vimeo’s “Staff Pick”collection. Check it out:
Both of them are now applied to our 3D Animation Program. Lets begin the interview!
Hi guys! Can you start by telling us where you’re from, your experience with character animation and background?
Xin: Hi, I’m Xin. I’m from Beijing. I always wanted to be a animator since I was a kid and they told me knowing how to draw is going to be benifical even if I want to be a 3D animator in the future. So I started my professional Fine Art training since I was in primary school. Since then I learn Fine Art for nearly 10 years before I went to Teesside University to get a Bachlor of Art Degree in Character Animation in the UK, where I gained a lot of 3D Generalist skills as well as animation skills.
Florent: I am from Toulouse, in France. I have always been a big fan of animation and video games but for some reason I thought about it as a possible career pretty late and I studied different subjects (including food processing…) in the end, after graduating in computing science in France I decided to move to England and learn animation.
We both studied at Teesside University, in England, where we graduated from Bachelor of Art in character computer animation. After our studies, we both got hired as animation interns by Ubisoft in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. We are now still working at Ubisoft and we decided to study at Animschool on our free time to learn more about animation as our University course was very oriented on CG generalist skills.
How did the idea for the script came up? Who was in charge of what in the short?
Xin: Of course, it is slightly based on real events. My partner Florent was shaving in the bathroom with his electric razor, and some minutes later, he came back in the room with a half shaved beard and his razor which was out of power and the cable was nowhere to be found. With this idea in mind, we also wanted to find an idea about how he could finish up shaving in a funny way. I remembered reading a famous self-helping book based on “The law of attraction” and which marketing is based on a “secret” linked to many historical figures and conspiracy. And so we decided to make a parody of it.
Florent: We shared the different tasks according to our skills and what we wanted to do.
Both our dreams were to become character animators after university so we evenly shared the animation.
For the pre-production, after defining our story and getting some rough shot ideas, Xin draw an amazing storyboard (see panel). Xin’s storyboard was so clear we even used it as the main reference for the environment design.
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| A panel from the storyboard |
We both modelled and textured environment and assets.
Xin took care of Malcolm rig modifications, the 2D/motion graphics and compositing Florent did the shading, the lighting and the rendering.
And just a word about the book narration voice actor: Fernando Zamora. Who worked with us remotely and did an amazing job. Thank you again 🙂

Can you tell how much time did you guys spent per day on it and how long did it took from start to completion?
We started over the summer to be ready to animate at the start of the academic year so it took a part of the summer and half of the academic year (because we had another project), so around 5 months spread on a year.
The days were busy, we did everything from home and it was an average of 9-10 hours/day. A lot of hard work but it was worth it in the end 🙂
What did you guys think of the Animschool Malcolm rig? Did it meet your expectations on the production of the short?
From the start, this project goal was to produce the best character animation we could make to showcase our animation skills. To get the best results, we had to give up the idea of using our own character.

Quickly, we decided to use a Free Rig which allow us to have maximum performance of the character animation. We choose Animschool’s Malcolm Rig due to its flexibility after we saw many great animations including a short animation called Mistakes on the 11 Second Club website. The runner-up of March 2012 gave us a great idea of how flexible and controllable the Malcolm Rig’s hands are.
The Malcolm Rig has an amazing facial rig. The eyebrows and mouth in particular allowed us to have greater facial animation without being limited by the rig itself. Of course, the body rig of Malcolm is fantastic too. The controllers on his limbs enable us to have great line of actions during the animation.
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Malcolm flexibility and deformations
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Can you share the main process for the character animation and model modification?
This is the animation workflow we used for this project:
- Video Reference Recording – Record video references of ourselves for the animation.
- Character Animation Thumbnail – Decide the character’s actions by drawing out the storytelling poses.
Example of thumbnail drawing for animation
- Blocking Animation – Blocking of the storytelling poses of the animation and establish the rough timing of each movements.
- Spline Animation – Change stepped animation curves to spline curves.
- Polish Animation – Add textures to the spline animation and clean the curves in Graph Editor.

Model Modification
Geometry Modification
To fit our purpose, we wanted to personalized Malcolm geometry and textures. Considering the complicity of the rig, Xin didn’t dare to make too much changes on the geometry, otherwise it might result some problem on the rig. The main modifications are the general face shape was sculpted to be rounder and the hairs were removed to leave space for a Maya hair system
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| Malcom face modification |
We also gave him a shirt collar to add some detail. The collar is animated by 6 blendshapes to reduce shoulders intersection once animated.
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| Blend Shapes for Malcom’s collar |
Our issue was that only Malcolm’s face was UV mapped. We did not know at that time that uv mapping a rigged character would not end well 🙂
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| When we though skinned character’s UV were still movable |
After doing some research, Xin found an article from a blog called Anim Bizz, talking about how to transfer UVs after rigging. A “Shape Orig” node includes the information of the character before rigging. Therefore, a UV transfer can be applied to this and it allowed us to UV map Malcolm’s body.

Hair System
For the hair, we wanted the non-dynamic hair system since dynamic hair is not necessary and it requires more work to do with the simulation which is way too complicated for us. Xin followed a course talking about hair system on DigitalTutors.com and had a basic idea how to build up the hair system with curves.
The idea was to create curves where we wanted the hairs to be and apply hair systems on them. Three layers of curves were created to had more realism and volume to the hair.
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| Layers of curves for more realism |
These little guys were quite an inspiration 😉

For the Beard and Eyebrows, we used the Maya Fur system.
So after all these modifications, the character looks like this:
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| Malcom after a complete makeover |
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| Detail of Malcom’s new textures |
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| The “new” Malcom |
What were the main challenges for this short?
Hahaha… Everything. We basically had no experience using Maya for more than animating a basic walk cycle and lip sync exercise for University. Every aspect was new and we were constantly doing research and learning: how to rig, how to shade, light and render, how to use hair and fur .. and well .. how to animate. Thanks to a lot of great ressources online (including AnimSchool Youtube channel, Digital Tutors, countless blogs, univeristy feedback) we managed to get to the result we wanted.
Hair and fur were particularly difficult because there is less content about it ( how to create, how to render)
Oh! and having a big mirror in the first shots didn’t make things easy ^^ (Camera angles, lighting, rendering and compositing)
What was the technology involved in the creation of the short (render, software, hair system, etc)?
The render was done using Mental Ray in Maya. It was done in parrallel with the lighting and shading. It took a lot of time and a lot of experiment. Here is an example of the process to find the lighting:
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| Several attempts in finding the correct lighting |
And so on until we could get it right:
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| The final lighting set that made into the final version of the short |
Most of the shiny/reflective materials are Mental Ray’s “mia_material_x”, the rest are Lambert materials:
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| Mental Ray’s architectural materials are good for cool a realistic look. |
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| Another example of Mental Ray Area light and shadow transparency node use. |
The other software we used were:
- Maya 2013 for all the 3D (including non-dynamic hair system and fur)
- Adobe After Effects for compositing, 2D and motion graphics
- Nuke for some of the compositing (motion vectors)
Any advice for animators that want to start production of their own short?
The only advices we can give to people who want to produce a short film are the ones we wish we had heard/followed before we get started most of them are probably obvious and specially relevant if you are still studying:
- Keep it simple: Especially if you are alone, it is hard to find the line between challenging yourself and putting the bar too high.
- If the goal of your short is to demonstrate your animation skills, We advise you not to try making your own character/rig. (Unless you have time and you are an amazing character TD/ rigger 🙂 ). There are a lot of rigs available out there, and as far as we know, Malcolm is by far the best. (No, Animschool don’t pay us to say that !) 🙂
- Find a subject/story that get you really engaged. So you don’t throw everything by the window some months down the production.
If you have any questions, feel free to contact us through Vimeo or our websites:
We thank Florent and Xin for this interview and hope to see more works from them in the future! If you want to learn real character animation taugh by professionals in the industry, come apply now!
AnimSchool announces today our three new gaming courses:
- Introduction to Gaming Animation
- Game Animation Pipeline
- Advanced Game Animation
Game animation students learn the animations, tools, and skills specifically required for working in games.
Students learn about game theory, interaction, working with game engines, importing animation into Unity, and working in game cinematics.
AnimSchool animation students can now choose a gaming emphasis, replacing animation classes 5,6 and 7, or take them after completing the program.
AnimSchool is known around the world for flexible, appealing characters. Over 20,000 people around the world use our AnimSchool Picker and “Malcolm” character, which has been used for commercials, short films, and to win dozens of animation awards.
AnimSchool students can learn modeling and rigging as well as animation.
Come join the over 200 students learning with us.
www.animschool.com
Today AnimSchool announces Marnie 2.0, a new version of Marnie with mix and match outfits, like the ones shown here, and other rig and model improvements.
Using AnimSchool Picker, students can turn on and off entire costumes or individual parts. You can even make her barefoot, since she has poseable toes!
AnimSchool specializes in appealing characters, from our world re-knowned “Malcolm” character to Coach to Scout.
Students have been using Marnie 2.0 in their animation assignments this term, and enjoying the many clothing options.
Marnie is exclusively for AnimSchool students. To use Marnie and learn
from our amazing instructors, apply to be an AnimSchool student. Come
join the hundreds of students and dozens of world-class instructors at AnimSchool!
http://www.animschool.com/Members/NewStudent.aspx
You can see lots of student examples on our facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/AnimSchool
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Today our interviewee is AnimSchool Student Andrew Stovesand. Andrew is now working as a character animator at Moonbot Studios.
Hi Andrew! Can you share a bit about yourself and experience with animation prior to AnimSchool?
Hi there, yeah for sure! Prior to Animschool most of my animation experience came from working as a Maya generalist. I did a lot of camera animation at a prior studio and that really helped me become aware of the graph editor and how it works. I had a few 11 Second Club attempts, most of which I am not super proud of (haha). Also I made a short animation while I was in school.
Do you have any favorite artists that inspire you?
I love watching those old Disney animators, Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston and how they did it. I mean, they were just going with what felt right and they did amazing work! Nowadays there are so many ideas and theories on what to do and what not to do. Of course Glen Keane is very inspiring as well…
A clip I recently saw that inspired me:
I also like to paint and am very inspired by painting. Somehow I think they all link together, I feel like the more I grow as an animator the more I grow as a painter/artist in general and vice-versa.
Your facial performance shot is very appealing – mind to share your process with us?
Cool, thanks! Yes, that shot was fun. I knew right away when I heard the sound clip that it was the one I wanted to use. I mean, if you get a good sound clip where you can see the character easily in your head, then things fall together much more smoothly. I sketched a bunch for the shot and I believe it was Stewart who taught that class, he had us spell out the subtext for the shot which helped me get into her mindset. I also shot a bunch of reference of me and my wife acting, I got a lot of good ideas from that. I knew right away how I wanted her to start off in the shot but transitioning her to the end when she blows up was really the challenge.
Andrew’s sketches and notes for his facial performance assignment (click to enlarge).
Your character performance assignment features two animated characters and a complete modeled set. How many hours per day did you work on this shot to get it done in time?
Ha, yes that had some love put into it. My generalist background helped me there. I can model basic stuff pretty quick, so once I knew what I wanted I modeled it in there fast and kept updating as I would go along. Once I see something working in a shot and it inspires me, I feel like nothing will stop me from getting it done. I did spend a lot of time on that shot, and this is where getting laid off had its benefits. Haha!
Back to the question, I think I worked a couple hours a day give or take on that one.
Andrew’s sketches and notes for his character performance shot (click to enlarge).
How do you think your skills as an animator evolved since you joined AnimSchool?
Wow, great question. The biggest change for me, even after working in the industry for a few years, was getting it through my head that it really does take a lot of work and time to make quality animation. Honestly, it was a relief once I could do this. It kept me from being way to hard on myself. I mean really, anyone who has no experience would not think it takes so many hours to make something move in a pleasing way. We take it all for granted, don’t we (I mean isn’t this what the whole industry is trying to get the public eye to see?!)?
So really the biggest change was learning how to respect each step of the animation process (planning, reference, blocking, splining, polish) and the amount of time needed to do each one well.
Lastly, do you have any pointers or tips for your fellow animation students that are struggling to get their shots the way they want it?
Ok, yeah… Well, one really simple saying that Thom Roberts said in my very first Animschool class was “kill your babies!”, meaning, be willing to start fresh and delete something that just isn’t working. For example, the way the character is turning his/her head bugs you and you can’t figure out why? Kill your babies. I find this also applies a lot to simplifying keys. So many times I realize I just needed to get rid of a few keys and it cleans up a movement. I still am amazed when this happens. Killing your babies is not easy and still difficult to do, but usually I find it always helps (that sounds terrible)!
Thanks Animschool for all your help and for having me!
We thank Andrew for this interview. Check out his reel below:
In today’s clip instructor Bill Robinson gives us tips on how to develop a character based on references. He also tackles on how to build basic perspective for your characters. Enjoy!
AnimSchool offers extra classes each term for it’s students. This is a clip from the Character Design and Drawing class with artist Bill Robinson. Go check our full list of courses and apply now!