Learn to be an Animator. Part 1. "Good habits"

Name: Learn to be an Animator. Part 1. "Good habits"
Rating: 4.9 (10 reviews)

Hands-on guide to building solid Animation skills, using exercises with increasing complexity.

Highest Rated

Created byMichael Berenstein

Last updated 6/2013

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

By the end of this Course Students will have good understanding of Animation process, they will work in stages: "Layout", "Blocking", "Rough Animation", "Polish". They will Animate simple Pendulum, 2-section Pendulum and a chain link. After completing this course Students will be strong enough to take my Next course: "Human Locomotion: walk, run, sneak"

Course content

2 sections • 13 lectures • 2h 5m total length

Course overview2:23
Overview of the presented course, projected outcome, reason for taking explained.
Navigation in Maya7:50
In this section students will learn (and reinforce their knowledge of) how to open Maya, create geometric object, navigate, use W, E, R keyboard buttons with options, animate by using "S" key and autoKey ON/OFF. Prior knowledge of
Maya is not essential.
Creating a project, Incremental save, Playblast10:55
Learn to create project in Maya, use Incremental Save option, learn to use Playblast with options of saving or not saving the video to file.
Simple Pendulum. Channel box, Frame range, copy/paste, delete8:37
Using Simple Pendulum, students will learn about Channel Box, Time Slider, frame range, learn to use copy/paste, delete functions. For this lecture students must download Pendulum from the supplied link.
Graph Editor, tangents, fixing the splines8:06
Students will learn using of Graph Editor, learn about working with tangents to influence animation, selecting the nods, fixing the splines using AutoTangent button.

Simple pendulum, Extremes and Breakdowns9:49
Using Simple Pendulum, students will learn about Extremes and Breakdowns (Passing Positions) - the key elements of character animation.
Combined Pendulum, Drag-n-drop, spline shift overlap13:34
Using Combined Pendulum, students will learn to create "Drag" or "Overlap" by shifting splines in Graph Editor. Introduction of "Drag-and-Drop" tool, one of the most essential and useful tools for Animators in Maya.
Students must download Combined Pendulum from the link supplied.
Creating Overlap by using Breakdowns and In-betweens9:21
In this lecture students will learn to create overlap (or Drag) by creating Breakdowns and In-betweens. They will learn to keep Time slider clean and easy to understand.
Animation Work Flow part1.12:08
Students are introduced to Animation Work flow: Layout, blocking, animation, polish.
Non cycle shot. Introduction to one of the most important elements of Animation: "Hold".
Animation Work flow part2.18:50
Work flow process continued. Students are introduced to "Moving Hold" principle.
Chain Pendulum, Quick select sets, shelf buttons5:36
Students will learn to use Quick Select Sets for selecting controls, create and use shelf buttons.
Student must download Chain Pendulum from the link supplied.
Chain Pendulum, continued16:00
students will continue playing with Chain Pendulum and will be introduced with increased complexity of animation even for such simple object, as swinging pendulum.
Review1:56
Review the course fundamentals, from navigating with hot keys to moving, rotating, and scaling, to creating projects, incremental saves, drag-and-drop, and graph editor tangents and splines.

Requirements

To take this Course Students need Maya Student version, available from Autodesk free of charge. You'll need to fill out student application and download the software.

Description

During this course, by repeating exercises, explained in the Videos, Students will learn Animation Work Flow by using:

Projects.
Incremental save.
Graph Editor as their main Animation tool, working with splines and tangents.
Time Slider and Copy/Past/Delete functions.
Drag and Drop Tool
Extremes and Breakdowns

When Students will be required to download Animation models (rigs), they will be provided with direct links to those models.
It should take from 1 to 2 weeks to complete the course.
"Learn to be an Animator" is 100%video, easy to follow, step by step instructions of gradually increasing complexity. students are required to repeat the manipulations while they watch the video, and then practice on their own several times before taking another video.
It consists of two sections.

Preparatory procedures: making projects, learning to Save, undo, delete/copy/paste etc.
Animation Exercises with pendulums of increasing complexity.

This Course is a no-nonsense approach to Animation technique, taught at deliberately slow pace. All the tools are introduced one by one, giving Students plenty of opportunity to practice them.

Who this course is for:

This Course is designed for both, complete beginners and those, who did some Animation in Maya, but get stuck in "Polish" stages. Those who want to learn Human and Animal motion, will benefit the most from it. No special knowledge is requirred at this stage.

Learn to be an Animator. Part 1. "Good habits"

What you'll learn

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Course content

Maya navigation skills, getting ready to animate5 lectures • 38min

Animating exercises8 lectures • 1hr 27min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: