What did you do to learn animation?
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?
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?
Replies
I'm sure that would really come in handy! You are currently at iAnimate, right?
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.
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.
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
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
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
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.
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
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.