Character Creation Starts Wednesday 16th May

Last call to sign up for our new evening class in Character Creation, which is coming to Escape Studios on Wednesday 16th May 2018.

This unique evening course will teach students how to create their own character designs and bring them to life. Over 12 weeks you will design, model, texture, rig and animate your own character.

The course is taught by Philip Meredith, veteran of Playstation's Overlord Minions and the Silent Hill franchise from Climax Studios.

Phil Meredith worked on "Silent Hill"

What's this course all about?
Creating original and unique characters from scratch. You’ll explore different design techniques, create 3D models using Maya and then paint and texture your character.  You’ll give structure to your creation through rigging (building a skeleton), skinning and - finally - breathing life into it through animation.

The process
This course is designed for beginners, to take you through every stage of the process. We will use automated processes within Autodesk Maya (and related software) to simplify the workflow so that everyone is able to create their own character within 12 weeks.

Tutor - Philip Meredith
The tutor for this course is the versatile and talented Philip Meredith, an excellent all-round 3D artist with a broad skillset, capable of tackling all the aspects of the pipeline.

Philips's software skills include: Maya, Substance Designer, Substance Painter, Mari, Zbrush, Mudbox, 3DE, Nuke, Silhouette and Photoshop. In addition, he teaches the following VFX skills: modelling, texturing, lighting, rigging, animation, rendering, plus comp and prep and also Concept Art.

Tutor: Philip Meredith

Phil also gets excellent reviews from our students as a capable teacher who unpacks digital challenges slowly and clearly, so that everyone can keep up. 

Where
The course will be taught at our West London Campus. Address: Shepherd's West Building, Rockley Road, Shepherd's Bush, W14.

When
The course begins on 16th May 2018 from 7pm-10pm and lasts 12 weeks.

Fee
The course fee is £1,500 for the full 12 weeks.

Mode of study
This is a part time course, designed to fit around jobs and families.

Programme Duration
12 weeks (Wednesday Evenings: 7pm - 10pm)

Course Breakdown
 
Week 1
Intro to Maya, nodes, User Interface
Show basics of modelling in Maya
Start modelling eyes and nose from reference using orthographic views.

Week 2
Continue to model the eyes, nose and mouth.

Week 3
Finish modelling the head.
If we finish early we can model some extra pieces for the head.

Week 4
Intro to Zbrush.
Intro to UI and sculpting tools.
Look at character references and start sculpting the face.

Week 5
Looking at transpose tools, e.g. translate, rotate and scale. Continue to sculpt the face.

Week 6.
Sculpting details, wrinkles, using alphas
Downloading custom alphas for skin.
Create maps in Zbrush: displacement, normals, bump and cavity.
Import maps to Maya

Week 7
Sculpt the hair in zbrush

Week 8
Import model with Mari
Start to paint and project textures

Week 9
Continue to paint textures in Mari

Week 10
Continue texturing inside Mari

Week 11
Import model to zbrush to make blend shapes

Week 12
Import blend shapes with Maya
Import a sound track and animate the character speaking.

Entry Requirements
Applicants should be aged 18 or over, with a good understanding of written and spoken English. Some familiarity with the basics of Autodesk Maya will be a plus.

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects.