Animation Masterclass at VIEW Turin 24 Oct

Escape Studios are running an animation masterclass at VIEW, the 20th International VFX & Computer Graphics Conference that takes place every year in the beautiful Italian town of Torino (Turin).

VIEW is a week long event showcasing the best of animation, games and visual effects.

Speakers this year include Paramount Head Mireille Soria, and music legend Hans Zimmer. 

We'll be there running a one-day workshop in Maya on Wednesday 24th October, demonstrating some sophisticated but very simple animation techniques.

The class is aimed at complete beginners and requires no prior experience with Maya.

What is this animation class all about?

Character Walks with "Monty"

I'll be hosting a masterclass on character walks on Wednesday 24th October.

Character walks are one of the most important parts of the animator's toolkit, and I will be showing students how to take a basic walk cycle and, with just a few tweaks, completely change the character's mood and personality.

Starting with a basic walk cycle, we can make a character happy, sad, angry or scared with just a few clicks. It's a great technique that breaks down apparently complex outcomes into simple, basic steps that any animator can master.

To do the exercise, we'll be using the marvellous Monty rig by Raveen Rajadorai.  You can download the rig here for free from HighEnd3D.com.  Monty has no arms, which makes the process of making the walk cycle, and adapting it, much simpler.

You might think that you can't get that much character and personality out of a simple rig like Monty - but you can.  During the demonstration I'll show you how to make Monty happy, sad, angry, masculine, feminine - and even turn him into a goose-stepping soldier. All with just a few clicks.

What is VIEW?
VIEW is the large international festival for animation, VFX, and computer graphics. It takes place in October every year, and the festival gets great speakers - especially from the big US studios.

What kind of animation does Escape Studios teach?
We teach 3D character and creature animation, with a strong focus on getting our students into paid employment in the rapidly expanding animation and visual effects industry. To see more about what our students are capable of, watch the one minute video below.



When and where is it happening?
Wednesday October 25 at the VIEW Conference in Turin. From 9.30am until 4.30pm at Piazza dei Mestieri, a short drive from the main conference area.

How to sign up
To sign up, follow this link.

Who is teaching it?
I am. I have worked on over twenty five animated feature films, from "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" to "Lion King", The Iron Giant, Chronicles of Narnia and Harry Potter.   You can see some of my work below.




How do you book?
Follow this link to Animation Masterclasses at VIEW.

See you there!

----Alex

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 starting in September 2018, follow this link.  To apply, visit the offical page here.