I bet you’re excited! But hold up! You don’t have any assignments yet!
Check out these websites so you can hit the ground running! This is by no means an exhaustive list, and it omits a lot of the more widely known websites. But it’s something to get your feet wet, and to satiate that burning Animation passion!
First up to the block:
When I presented the first animation I had created with a computer, “The Aventures of Andre and Wally B.,” at Siggraph ‘84, a number of people asked me what cool new software I had used to achieve such believable characters. I explained to them that the software was a keyframe animation system, not much different in theory than other systems that were around then. What was different was that I was using basic animation principles that I had learned as a traditional animator. It was not the software that gave life to the characters, it was these principles of animation, these tricks of the trade that animators had developed over fifty years ago. I was surprised at how few people in the computer animation community were aware of these principles.
Some small notes on computer animation.
Whether you’re a traditional, CG, or stop-motion animator, to create realistic motion, it’s helpful to know some physics. This site is dedicated to presenting physics that’s useful to and in the language spoken by animation artists.
This website hosts a ton of extremely useful videos for animation. They go over basic physics from an animation perspective and there are quite a lot of little gems to be found. Keep an eye out for the fourth down at half time rule.
As of this writing, new tutorials are being added weekly.
One thing to note however. This is pulling information mathematically, and so the information in here is highly accurate to life. Animation is also an art form and is not entirely like that. So don’t be surprised if after having watched some of these videos, you stray from the rules of reality a bit in your work.
Next up.
Writing this blog has been amazing adventure. There was hundreds of hours of work behind this, but it was worth it has this blog has become successful in less time you have to close your eyes. And really, that was my goal when I began : Being able to share some of my though on animation while being read.
Information here is short and to the point. There is a lot of good information too. Most notably the information on walk cycles.
,is another useful and to the point website.
My name is Cameron Fielding and when I’m not animating, I write about it.
The information here doesn’t generally follow the tutorial format. But is rather a collection of interesting thoughts and musings on animation and the job surrounding it.
This beast of a site houses lots of great information. It’s well categorised too so check it out when you’re hungry for more information on a topic!
Here is a nice tutorial comparing the two softwares. If you’re used to Max and need a primer on Maya.
Have a read through some of the articles here, and get ready to kickstart your way into the world of animation!
