Character Animation Course

The Core : Principles of Animation

Duration:

12 weeks

Summary:

The concepts taught in this level form the very basis of laying a solid foundation to a long-standing career in animation.And like all good fundamental exercises, we will start with the ‘bouncing ball’, onto simple then advanced overlap actions, weight shift exercises, working on full-body poses to communicate an emotion, understanding silhouettes, learning to plan an action and creating walk-cycles. The character rigs are designed to teach specific concepts in this Level. They are not only fun to animate but will also kindle your imagination, creatively!

Who can join?

Anyone with basic understanding of the animation

Body Mechanics : The First Step

Duration:

12 weeks

Summary:

Many creative ideas and reels suffer from a lack of understanding of how a body moves and that results in creating not so believable animation. With more content being made in stereoscopic (3D), importance of believable body mechanics is being stressed on even more than ever before.

This Level progressively features full-body character rigs and the training module revolves around fundamental body-physics concepts, in-sync with animation concepts like weight-shifts, spine reversals, anticipation, successive breaking of joints, balance, posing.

Who can join?

Anyone who have completed previous level or have good understanding of animation principle demonstrated through showreel

Body Mechanics : The Transition

Duration:

12 weeks

Summary:

And because body mechanics is not the easiest of the blocks to gain a grip on when learning character animation,we continue to delve deeper into the concepts covered in Level 2 by adding layers of complexity to the exercises.Students will learn to plan and work on multi-shot assignment, maneuvering advanced physical actions as part of the exercises.

Within this Level, assignments transition to our ‘9 second silent film’ idea.When given a blank slate (no dialogue, limited or no facial expressions) to perform, the challenges to stimulate a character emotionally and have it react physically calls for a solid understanding of acting skills, like gesturing, timing, contrasts, pauses, posing, staging and lot more.

Students will also learn interpretation of references while planning an action and then layering a flavor of exaggeration for that extra-level of entertainment.

Who can join?

Those who have completed previous level or have a strong understanding of body mechanics

Acting : Progressive approach to Acting in Animation

Duration:

12 weeks

Summary:

This Level is a step-by-step progression of assignments that lead up to full-body acting, complete with facial expressions and lip-sync.

Assignments are designed so students progressively focus on the ‘key components’ of a full-blown dialog shot, right from learning to create facial expressions, laying emphasis on concepts of unity and rhythm in facial expressions, to animating to a piece of dialog with lip-sync.

Who can join?

Those who have completed previous level or have a strong command on body mechanics in transition

Acting : Creating believable performances

Duration:

12 weeks

Summary:

This Level contains assignments that are essentials to any good showreel – good understanding of body movement, multi-shot / multi-character acting, entertaining acting choices, contrast and texture in the shot flow, expressive facial performance, appropriate compositions – essentially creating believable performances.

Like all other Levels, students can expect their assignments to be meticulously critiqued and directed, even more so as this level encompasses almost all the concepts layered across the Levels until now.

Who can join?

Completed previous level of animation

Creature Animation for Games & VFX

Duration:

12 weeks

Summary:

Learn to animate creatures for high-end games and vfx feature films.

Assignments are designed so students progressively focus on key components starting from understanding Fundamentals of Locomotion to Advanced Body Mechanics where creatures dynamically move in the 3D screen-space. Emphasis will be laid on analyzing live-action reference, coming-up with fresh and original ideas for the assignments, improvising the reference by layering creativity.

Who can join?

Students looking to take-up this Course must already have an understanding of Bipedal Body-Mechanics. For those who do not possess that experience can consider taking Level 3 Advanced Body Mechanics Course and then opt to take this Creature Animation Course.