What did you do to learn animation?

Intermission14

Hey guys!

I was just very curious to know who various different people learned the art of animation. With online resources, online schools, traditional art schools ect.

How did you pick up animation?

Hito

years of life drawing; anatomy studies

Intermission14

Hito wrote: »

years of life drawing; anatomy studies

I'm sure that would really come in handy! You are currently at iAnimate, right?

Hito

yea. I think one wouldn't get as much out of the workshops without thorough understanding of the human body which is really the fundamentals of posing characters

heboltz3

I went to a school, and was taught a couple of classes on the basics.

Then I practiced, and I learned everything else that got me to my current level.

Practice Practice Practice. It's the best way to learn.

slipsius

I went to a brick and mortar school for 3 years. I was in the games course, which had animation in it, but I wanted to do more animation. So I asked my teachers, who also taught the animation program, if I could join in on their classes, so I had extra time to practice, and more critiques from the teachers and students in those classes. got my diploma. Got a job at a small indie place due to the connections i made at school (be kind to everyone. You never know who can get you a job later). I was the only animator, so wasnt learning much, so I started taking online classes. iAnimate, AnimSchool, AnimationMentor. Ive taken classes at all of them.

I dont think I can draw all that well, to be honest. And I dont think you need to be able to for 3d animation. You just need the drive to continue learning at all times. Even after you get a job. Doing the bare minimum, whether its at a typical college or an online class, wont get you a job, or get you to the level you need to be for a job. You need to continuie to push.

That said, if you want to get started, start with the basics! Dont jump into a full body animation at the start. It will be overwhelming, and you`ll be trying to focus on too many things at once. I know it's boring, but start with a bouncing ball. Make that look great, then have that ball bounce across the screen, rather than in place. IF you want to make a walk cycle, use a ball with legs. Not a full body. Little by little, you`ll become a better animator. But it's essential to learn the basics first.

Arturow

Hello Intermission14!

I got a bachelor in animation and digital arts , I was part of the first generation in my career in Mexico (I felt like we were an experiment haha). So, in 5 years I had 4 directors and sometimes we didn't knew who were going to teach us the next semester. My motivation went down of course haha and even when it was an animation course, it was more oriented to create generalists since I just had 2 animation classes ( wtf right? ). The good thing is that I learned different softwares and got amazing friends for life but yeah the motivation wasn't there. Only a friend and me were the only ones who wanted to became animators in the future, everyone else went for commercials,motion graphics , programmers or modelers. And yeah a lot of people don't even work in the industry haha.

I was lost at my graduation because I was like , now what? hahah then I asked my parents if they would support me with an animation program called Animation Mentor and they said yes ! While I was in Animation Mentor all the motivation came really fast and I learned sooooo much, because for the first time I was in a community with more than 2 people that wanted to be 3D animators , it was good for my soul :P. Best decision I had for my career.

And never stop learning , I am learning a lot from the awesome animators in this forum. The weekly challenges are awesome! for example I didn't have the "motivation" to do creature animation before ( like a real creature and not an animal acting as a human haha). I just went for it and of course I made a lot of mistakes but the people here is too nice and experienced to give me their critiques !! that is when I learn the most , by failing and try it again.
Its hard to get in the industry (in my experience, mainly because my work needs more quality hehe) but hard work will pay

My best wishes

cainy

My college was rubbish, but one teacher was awesome who was good at teaching animation. First thing you need to know is how to listen and how to learn.

Life drawing is important, but Im not that good at it and I think you can get by with knowing the basics of drawing and I know animators who dont draw and Im one of them. I approached it from a technical side since I had to build my own rigs and skin them, its good to know that in terms of how the body is limited and what looks broken or not.

University course was one of the best in UK, but I didnt enjoy it that much because of certain circumstances, I enjoyed my first studio job much more and only once its done you realize how much better you could have used up the time in there.

Anyway, if you learn on your own it can take you 10 years, schools and mentors cut that time down to a couple of years, but really you gonna spend your whole life learning it.

_adamturnbull

I studied 2D Animation at university and got into the industry as a 2D animator for a games company in London. Then I basically taught myself Maya and became a lot more involved with 3D animation at work and now work primarily as a 3D character animator for a games company in Cambridge, UK.

Because I started out as a 2D animator I did a lot of life drawing and character design too. I used to make a lot of Flash games in my own time that involved a lot of animation too so that probably helped.

I've never done any animation courses like iAnimate or Animation Mentor but I hear they are awesome!

Hito

it all boils down to observation and practice.

Life drawing sharpens your observation skills: what to look for, how to look for. You don't have to be an incredible draftsman like Glen Keane. But you will benefit tremendously from constant practice in gesture drawings. You don't have to do it, there are many great 3d animators that don't draw at all; but I think it will make you a better animator much quicker than doing everying strictly in Maya or Max. Take the posing exercise from iAnimate where you pose a character in FK from reference photo. In the time it takes you to do one pose, say 5 minutes if you are fast, you can do 5 gesture drawings from 5 different angles.

Practice. I figure I did 4 to 5 hrs of self study for every hr of class/assignment time back in school; and looking back, that was pretty light weight. I wished I had done a lot more. Hard part is keep practicing when you are not in school any more, and not actually doing animation for work all the time.

Natsta

The most important thing - you just have to start animating. Schools and books are great, but it takes one keyframe at a time to do an animation, and there's no better start than actually doing it

Art of 3D is a great all around book if you're starting, and Animator's Survival Kit is a must. For references you can't do better than Muybridge, even today.

ajch22

I went to school, but in all honesty, they did not taught me how to animate, but more how to use the tools to animate, and some basics that I already knew about, more specifically, the 12 principles of animation. After that I've been on my own (doing animations for practice), but I guess appreciating the animation of both 2D and 3D works did really set some sort of lesson on me on how to make animations look decent.

13randO

Currently, I'm in my final year of my game development program (which only had a single 3D animation course). Since the program isn't art specific, I learn most off of books and videos I find online (and of course, from this awesome community). Lately, I've been blowing of some assignments so I can get animation practice in (it's what i wanted from the program to begin with). Besides the basics of animation, school has taught me to self motivate myself to try and improve my animation skills. When I graduate, I'm planning to sign up for iAnimate and work off my student loan to try for that dream job. 

PeteHawk

The seed was planted when I got my hands on Macromedia. I didn't know it then but I was destined to come back to the world of animation later in my life!

Did a course in game development in college which gave me a overview of how games were made.

Went to Portsmouth University to study the closes thing to do with game artwork which was Computer Animation. Only in my final year did I drop everything to do with modelling or rendering or lighting or scripting/coding. And I knew what I need to become!

So finished that in mid 2014, got into freelancing, got a few clients to keep the bills paid, and then through networking and talking to people, found a job at Rebellion over in Oxford!

Check me out with my 4 months of industry experience

tuna

I skipped university and opted to stay at home and learn there instead.  Back then we had CG-Char and 10 second club, etc. all as much more vibrant and giving communities for learning animation online.  Keith Lango had his animation video tutorials too (they might be kicking around online somewhere).  Nowadays it seems a lot of it is locked behind paywalls and very expensive animation courses.  Most online animation communities have dried up and died unfortunately

The benefit of learning at an institution, besides hands-on training sometimes, is that you're gonna get good networking/hookups for getting your foot in the door.  The downside of course is 10+ years of debt (depending on your finances/location).  So take your pick.

garcellano

I use to just focus in animation before I switched to environment/prop art, but if anything, other than what's out there to learn from, I use to look into some pro-wrestling as references for some action animations. Sounds kinda goofy, but it was helpful.

Chaucer

All of the above lol. Largely self taught but ianimate definitely helps and I highly recommend that program. But its ideal to know your software package pretty well and be comfortable with it so you can get the most out of those online schools.

One of the biggest things for me personally is simply building the self confidence in myself to know that your gonna suck for a while until you get good and not being discouraged by the journey. But I guess that's true for any art.