Michael Davies Teaches Rigging at Escape

Michael Davies

This past week our animation guest tutor was 3D Artist and rigging specialist Michael Davies, who has worked on many VFX blockbusters such as Batman vs Superman, Doctor Strange and Thor Ragnarok.

Michael came in to visit us at our High Holborn campus for two days and gave our undergraduate animators a fast-paced introduction to the art of rigging

Learn from the man who rigged Smaug

Mike's rigging credits are pretty impressive: he rigged Smaug (for The Hobbit) and also The Minions for the Illumination-McGuff studio.

As well as his industry work, Michael also has plenty of teaching experience teaching; so he is very well qualified to run this class. 

Mike will be returning to Escape Studios to teach an 8 week evening class in rigging, starting on 5th March.

You’ll learn all the basics of rigging in Autodesk Maya (an understanding of Maya basics will be helpful) and what character riggers do in the animation and VFX industry.

Shepherd's West Building

What's this course all about?
It's all about how characters and creatures get put together.  Rigging is the art and craft of taking a 3D model and making a skeleton structure that makes it work, so that animators can breathe life into it and create a performance.

Like all of our courses at Escape Studios, this course is designed, developed and delivered by industry professionals.

Where 
This class will be held at Escape Studios Shepherds Bush campus.   
Address: The Shepherd's West Building, Rockley Rd, London W14 0DA. T: 020 7348 1920

Start date 

Mike Davies

Monday 5th March 2018. Duration: eight weeks.

Mode of study
Part-time. Tuesday Evening: 7pm - 10pm, plus additional 8 weeks of online mentoring

Michael's main areas of expertise are rigging and modelling, but he has also worked as a generalist and supervisor. Michael has been developing future creative talent by sharing his skills since 2014 and is also an Accredited Trainer for Maya at Autodesk.

What's inside the course

• Learn how to rig characters for animation
• understand automated rigging systems
• 8 weeks of classroom study 
• 8 weeks of online mentoring.

Any Questions?
Email: admissions@escapestudios.com

To see an interview with Mike Davies, and find out more about his work, follow this link. And to find more detail about what's in the course, read this blog post.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects. To find out more about our new BA/MArt, now recruiting for September 2018, follow this link.  To apply, visit the offical page here.