We’d like to welcome Animator Alaa Aldeen Afifah. Can you tell us a little about yourself, what is your background and how did you get into character animation?
movies.
animation and how to bring characters to life.During my career I’ve worn many hats, from rigging to modeling but also lighting
and other aspects of CG, which gives me
a solid understanding of the entire CG pipeline.
on a big studio like BlueSky, Disney or Sony.
work?
impressive and really funny. You went for a cartoony style there, what were your
thoughts before animating it?
challenging and that I’ve never worked on before. For me, this is very important in order to improve my skills as an animator.
while so I thought it was the right time for something cartoony. I wanted to get out of that mode and try out something new and
fresh, where I could push the character’s facial even more. And in the process have some fun with
it too!
first thing I wanted to do is determine the cameras position and the entire
flow of the shot.
character in position and I could see
the shot flow, and also seeing whether my thoughts were working or not.
then I chose the best ones and combined them together.
is a progression for “The Elf” shot showing my workflow:
rig for that shot, what do you think of it?
Amazing! Malcolm is one of the best rigs I’ve ever touched, he is very appealing
and expressive, and it has never constrained me or hold me back on doing any expression
I had ever thought of.
In AnimSchool’s Class – Animating Characters, Character Animator at Walt Disney Animation Studios Tony Bonilla analyzes some of the best animated works and explains reasons behind every decision. He even shows some of his own professional work.
This is just a small sample of the quality of education our students get.
Come join all the students learning online at AnimSchool
This is a clip from AnimSchool’s class Introduction to 3D Animation, the first term of the 3D Animation Program. To find out more, go to AnimSchool.com and apply today!
Orem, UT United States – June 25, 2014 — AnimSchool
announces today their new character, Mikey. Mikey is a film-quality boy rig. Mikey is exclusively for AnimSchool students.
Like all AnimSchool character rigs, Mikey is designed for maximum
flexibility and appealing poses. Animating with the most refined, advanced
characters allows AnimSchool student
work to stand out among competitors. AnimSchool Character students can
use Mikey and the other advanced character rigs to learn the arts of high-end modeling and rigging.
Mikey has clothing options: two shirts, pants, shorts, shoes, poseable toes, and UV’s for textured rendering.
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Student Work: Carlos Rivas and Orkun Sanal |
AnimSchool students are using Mikey in their animation assignments, enjoying his natural appeal. They appreciate having access to best rigs and tools available, making their animation work more enjoyable.
Here are some of their comments about Mikey:
“This is quality!”
“Awesome!!!”
“He is so cute.“
“Oh man!!!! I can not wait to play with this character.”
AnimSchool characters 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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In our very first Introduction to Game Animation class, students had a chance to learn from very skillful animator Jarrod Showers (Carbine Studios), responsible for 12 AAA titles including Star Wars: Jedi Academy, X Men: Origins: Wolverine, Wolfenstein, Doom 4 and his latest title Wildstar that has been published couple days ago.
Students got to work with rigs that meet all industry standards. They were created to prepare the students to work at any serious gaming studio. Their task was to create a situation or conflict between two characters and do all required animation. They finished the term with a Demo Reel that had all the animation required to apply for a job in the gaming industry.
Robert Joseph Vicks – Elwood Animations
Andrej Jagar – Rock and Elwood Animations
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!
Hi Daniel! Can you start by telling us a bit about yourself, like your background, where you’re from and experience before AnimSchool?
Who are the animators that inspire 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.
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.
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!
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.