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Festivus 5th October Festivus is back! London's regular animation networking event is an opportunity for our students and recent graduates to get to know people in the animation industry, find out who is hiring, and where the jobs are. There will be a number of guest speakers, including folks from Blue Zoo, one of the UK's leading animation studios. What is Festivus all about? Festivus is all about meeting people in our industry, networking, and - of course - enjoying a pint with friends.  It's is an opportunity to meet people from London animation studios, see what job opportunities there are, and even get some showreel feedback. Why go along? As ever, we recommend our students attend events like this. There is no better way to build contacts and connections in our industry, and find out where the opportuntities are in today's market. Where Ground Floor, The Comedy Pub, 7 Oxendon Street, London , SW1Y 4EE. Nearest Tube Station: Picadilly Circus

Modelled by Ugur Ulvi Yetiskin, and rigged with AdvancedSkeleton, this well-crafted character rig looks to be a good option for students studying character animation. If you have any notes on how to use Tuna, please add them to the comments section below.

Maya 2018, like all new recent releases from Autodesk, can be a bit buggy. Many students downloading this latest release of the 20-year old software package have experienced a problem selecting the Transform Manipulator on their character rig, meaning (in plain English) that you can't move your characters around. The problem The problem is simple. You open up Maya, import your character rig, but when you try to use your mouse or tablet pen to selecting the the Transform Manipulator on your character rig, you just get a weird marquee select instead. You can't select the handles, and you can't move your characters around. The solution Click on the the Preferences button on the bottom right hand corner of your screen. In the pop-up window, search for Display (top left) and click on it. Now look for Viewport 2.0 and, under Rendering engine, change the dropdown menu to DirectX 11. Re-start Maya, and this should fix the problem - for now at least.

 Just like last year, Escape Studios will be showcasing the best of VFX, Animation, Games and Motion Graphics. There is no better way to find out about the latest trends in our industry, who is hiring, and what skills are in demand.  We strongly encourage all our current, past and future students to attend. Come and find out what the future holds for our industry. What's on display? Spanning four floors over two days, the festival will feature three dedicated exhibition hubs, covering Education, Technology and Industry. The schedule will be packed with a series of leading industry talks and showcases from across the VFX, Animation, Games and Motion Graphics sectors.  VFX is a constantly changing landscape. Last year's "big thing" is this year's old news. So come along, and find out about the latest trends in our industry.  35 - 47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA. Nearest overground train station is Shoreditch High St. Nearest Tube is Liverpool St - a...

which are sort of like the Oscars for cartooning. The Cartoon Art Trust supports the Cartoon Museum in Bloomsbury, hosting the CAT Awards Dinner to raise funds for the museum and keep its doors open. At the dinner were some of the finest cartoonists in the UK - Matt Pritchett, Mac of the Mail, Nick Newman (who co-writes Private Eye), and plenty of politicians and lawyers to dig deep into their pockets to support the good cause. Cartoon Museum I'm not sure I felt entirely worthy of the prize. After all, surrounded by so much talent, you can't help wonder if others are more deserving. And I wasn't the only one. who does the daily political cartoon for The Times. In his acceptance speech Brookes said "I was going to say I don't deserve this award, but then I'd run the risk of everyone agreeing with me". Which is sort of how I felt on the night.   has been in the pages of The Times for almost 25 years, so it's probably a longevity award ...

Animators from all over the world participate, animating a character speaking a line of dialogue, which is provided on the first day of every month by the club. What is the 11 Second Club? It's a monthly free animation competition. Participating animators can share their progress with one another and critique each other's work - just like in a real animation studio. At the end of the month, all the participants vote for the submission that they consider the best for that month.  The idea of the 11 Second Club is "to give animators a chance to practice their skills in a fun, challenging environment". What is the dialogue for this month? This month's competition is an eleven second piece of dialogue, but it mainly consists of one word "Jesus", which comes at the end of the line. Until that point, there is a series of weird noises, suggesting that something nasty is happening. Watch the clip above and you'll find it just over ...

Check out our latest Animals & Creatures Reel, featuring work by many of our talented students. Animators aren't just technicians, they are entertainers, and the job of the animator is not just to master the art of animal and creature locomotion, but to craft an interesting and compelling performance. Congratulations to Joris Van Laar, Lee Caller, Dave Novis, Celine Sakr, Ramakrishna Maccha and Victoria Bailey on their excellent animation.

Below is a brief list of stuff to get you under way. You don't have to do all of it, but tick off a few of the things on this list and you will be a making a great start on your animation career. First, here is a short reading list to get you started. We've narrowed it down to just two key books that we recommend for all our students. The Animator's Survival Kit . Any serious student of animation should buy a Animation Methods by David Rodriguez    It is especially good for the technical bits that the older books don't cover.  It takes you through Autodesk Maya and shows you what all the tools do, and how to apply them to your animation. Download your free copy of Maya OK - so you've bought a book or two - what else? The next thing to do, assuming you have a decent computer or laptop at home, is get yourself a free copy of Autodesk Maya.  Maya is the main software we animate with, nowadays it's the industry standard. Watc...

A.i.Solve describes itself as "an Artificial Intelligence Solutions provider bringing together the best in AI, VR & MR products and solutions". We asked Cristian to tell us a little about the new position, what is involved, and how he secured that crucial first job in the animation industry.  Cristian Pall...with cucumbers What is your new job? My new job as a 3D Artist and Animator with A.i. Solve Limited.  I will be creating assets and props that go in the environments, and creatures that will give a good scare once headsets are put on! Also, I will be responsible of rigging and animating the characters I create – which is super awesome. How did you get the job? I had been preparing for this job since childhood without even knowing it. I have studied Fine Arts in high-school and University, and although I’ve spent most of my spare time playing games as a teenager and young adult, the idea of making a career as a games artist only came to me afte...

VIEW panel. From left: Amy Smith, Giorgio Xhaxho, Alex Williams, Tiffany Feeney, Angie Wojak What do Animation recruiters look for from recent graduates?  How do they find fresh talent? At last week's VIEW conference in Turin I was invited onto a recruitment panel hosted by New York's School of Visual Arts (SVA). Also on the panel were two recruiters, Amy Smith from Framestore and Tiffany Feeney of Talent Outpost, an independent recruitment agency based in Switzerland.  Both of them had a lot to say on the subject of student demo reels. But most of all, it turns out that recruiters want one thing from animation graduates... Be on Linkedin Both Amy and Tiffany stressed the importance of students and recent graduates being on Linkedin. As Tiffany put it: "I live on Linkedin" . Linkedin is where recruiters go to find talent, and find out what talent is now available - or will be available soon.  Above all, Linkedin is "your brand", a...

Registration is still open for the Blue GFX Expo taking place tomorrow in London on Thursday 9th November 2017 . We're encouraging all our students in the London area to  attend this excellent (and free!) event. What's BlueGFX Expo all about? BlueGFX Expo is a superb opportunity to learn about the latest developments in our industry. Attendees will have the opportunity to meet industry folks and try out the latest products.  This year speakers include Tom Box from Blue Zoo, one of the UK's biggest TV animation companies, Stuart Penn from Framestore, and experts from Autodesk showing the latest tools. For animation students, this is a great chance to catch up with new technology and meet in person people from the UK's top animation and visual effects houses. You can see the full agenda below: Recruiters BlueGFX Expo is always well-attended by recruiters from London's animation and VFX houses, scouting for talent. Having the opportunity to mee...

Panel Forge Pro, extensively tested at Blue Zoo on Miffy the Rabbit and Digby Dragon , makes use of 3D Layouts to save time in Storyboarding, allowing board artists to use low resolution 3D assets to help set up camera angles and layouts.  Good news then for storyboard artists, who can now learn to use this new software for free. Problem solving Panel Forge is all about solving problems. And the biggest problem with storyboarding is you have to do too much all at once. Board artists have to deal with drawing sets and layouts (drawing in perspective), designing camera angles accurately and - all at the same time - describing the action of the shot and also expressing the character's emotions and feelings. It's a lot to do, all at the same time. Solving Layout problems up front Storyboard artists use the 3D layout tools to set up their shots right from the start - thus saving time in storyboarding - because the 3D layout problems have been solved in the beginn...

Finding Nemo Colour Script. Colour Scripts are an important part of the animation process; they allow the director to get a feel for what the movie will look like, long before the animation and lighting is complete. Sequence by sequence, and even shot by shot, colour stylists (i.e. painters) plan the mood and look of the film as part of the pre-production process. Of course, animators rarely dig deep into the initial look development of a project, and don't usually get called upon to do colour work like this. But for animators working on their own short film projects (and isn't that most of us?) an understanding of colour theory, and how to achieve an attractive colour palette, is essential. And, as so often in our industry, Pixar leads the way.

Mental Ray 3D Render Mental Ray used to come bundled free with Autodesk Maya and, until recently, have released a version of their software which is free for student use. This was good news for animation students, because Mental Ray has a number of advantages over its successor Arnold.  In particular, you can achieve some very quick and attractive lighting setups in Mental ray using Physical Sun & Sky, the closest thing Maya has to a "Make It Look Cool" button.  This can be done in just a few quick steps - and gets a great result in a hurry.

Where can animators find useful live action reference? Reference is often a necessary starting point for producing believable animation. Of course, YouTube is a great resource, but it can be hard to find what you want, and you may need to dig within YouTube to find particular channels that specialise in what you need.  Below is a list of some of the best online resources that we are recommending to find the perfect live action reference. YouTube The most obvious place to look. But, there is lots of material to wade through, and plenty of it isn't suitable for one reason or another. The Animator's Resource Kit The great blog that we're recommending to our students for all kinds of stuff. It has useful posts on books to buy, jobs to apply for, rigs that work, and links to other sites like video reference material for download. Overall, it's a great site - well worth checking out. You and your camera Of course, nothing beats shooting your own reference. If ...

Amotion graphics company based in Norwich, East Anglia, gave a superb talk at the recent BlueGFX Expo in London titled "How to Design like a Rockstar".  It was an excellent talk because it brought to life the extraordinarily fast-paced nature of doing video work for clients, working to insane deadlines to create unique video content for bands doing live gigs and performances. Norwich, East Anglia Rockstar logo Eugene described Norwich as a "great place to live, but a terrible place to run a company". Without a large local talent pool, they use "lots of freelancers", often working from home. At Rockstar, Eugene and his team "love creating beautiful moving imagery." Those images can part of a film, a cool motion graphics sequence for tour visuals (especially bands on tour), or 3D animation used on a music video. Beginnings Rockstar got their start in the late 1990s doing websites for bands like the Sugar Babes, which they described ...

In order to get real-time playback in your viewport in Maya, you need to go into your Animation Preferences (bottom right hand corner of the screen) and then under Settings/Animation/Evaluation change Evaluation Mode to Parallel. So, how do students get the most out of this rig? Settings Setting up your shot, make sure you find the little blue cross on the side of the rig; it's the FK/IK Spine switcher. Under FKIKBlend, set this channel to 10. This will enable you to animate the up and down motion on the leopard's body more easily. Can you get real-time playback? Yes, in order to get real-time playback in your viewport in Maya, you need to go into your Animation Preferences (bottom right hand corner of the screen) and then Under Settings/Animation/Evaluation change Evaluation Mode to Parallel. Note the super-simple greyshade render. Animation reels generally don't need fancy renders; in fact many studios (such as Blue Zoo) prefer to see animation in...

The London International Animation Festival (LIAF), the UK’s largest animation festival, is now on, having returned for its 14th year with a series of screenings of the best shorts and features, both domestic and international, including children’s screenings and the Best of the Fest . This year’s programme is described as "uncompromising", and focuses largely on independent animation, an art form that continues to thrive and develop in a variety of different styles, materials, techniques and production. As always, we recommend that our students attend events like this one, exploring the many different kinds of animation being created in the UK and beyond.

fast approaching.  As in previous years, Escape has got some great speakers coming to talk about the latest developments in Animation, Games and VFX. Here at Animation Apprentice we strongly recommend our students attend events like this one. It's a great way to find out what's going on in our industry and, best of all, to meet the recruiters from London's leading animation and VFX houses. Below are some of the VFX, games and animation companies who will be speaking in February. Framestore on "Thor: Ragnarok" Who's coming? Games co  Fire Without Smoke 's director & VFX Supervisor Hugo Guerra will be presenting on the making of  "The Walking Dead March to War" . Stuart Penn, MPC 's VFX team lead who worked alongside Director Ridley Scott, will be taking us through the anatomy of an alien, from their work on  Alien: Covenant . Framestore will be presenting their work on "Thor: Ragnarok" , and we also welcome back M...

Wolfdog We're liking this Wolfdog rig, available for free download .  He is loosely based on the character Balto from the movie, and has a good range of controls and even facial expressions. The rig does have some limitations, especially in the way the wrists and feet have been rigged, but you can get some really nice character work out of Wolf dog. Find Wolfdog Wolf dog can be downloaded free from Wrist Limitations The wrist/paw has some limitations. When you rotate the front paw forward, the wrist bends in a way that doesn't necessarily make animating a walk cycle easy.  That said, it's a fairly cartoony rig so the motion doesn't have to be 100% naturalistic. License type - MIT The rig is made available on an MIT License, meaning that you can do pretty much whatever you want with it as long as you give credit to its creator. Examples of animation   Below is a very stylish shot of the wolf dog catching a frisbee by Animation Apprentice studen...

At $30, bhPathAnim isn't free, but it is priced attractively and could be on any animator's Christmas wish-list. Brian Hogan describes bh_pathAnim as "a robust and flexible new tool for path animation in Maya". His goal was to make it "simple and intuitive", easy to "attach any rig, with any number of limbs and body controls, to a path and animate it walking or running along it". bh_pathAnim "will work for bipeds, quadrupeds, and insects". We haven't had a chance to road-test it yet, but it does look very handy. You can download the new tool .

horse rig by Motorman TD So, how can our students get the most out of this rig? Real time playback You should, in theory, be able to get real-time playback with this rig without difficulty. Features Allows you to fine-tune the position of the legs, getting rid of unwanted knee bends. Meanwhile, keep an eye out for over-stretching the legs. Tail Rhett has one big advantage over this horse rig - no tail. Not having a tail means less animation to deal with, though if you have the time and inclination then the tail does give the opportunity to create an attractive overlapping action. It does mean extra work though. Credits Many thanks for Carlos Contreras at Mothman TD for the excellent rigs, made available for the Maya community for learning animation. Original model: Tomasz Jurczyk (www.ikkiz.pl) Textures: Didac Ruiz (www.didacruiz.com). Rigging: Carlos Contreras (www.mothman-td.com) License Type CC BY 4.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en). This me...