Animate a "Take" with Simone Giampaolo

One of the most common problems encountered by student animators is how to block out a shot from scratch, starting with nothing but a blank screen and a character rig.

After all, in animation you get nothing for free. You start off with a digital puppet, usually in a stiff "T-pose", and have to figure out the rest yourself.

Luckily for our students, Aardman animation director and Escape Studios' animation tutor Simone Giampaolo has recorded a series of videos for us, showing how to take a shot from zero to hero. 

How to Plan Animation

In the series of videos, hosted at Vimeo, Simone explains how to go about blocking out an animated scene, this case a reaction shot, or "take", with a cartoony cat rig.

The series of short videos shows Simone's approach to building and blocking the shot, how to imagine the scene, so that you start by making positive choices about the character's state of mind, carefully planning what is going to happen.

Animators are actors, and we need to create a memorable performance, but we also need a workflow that we can depend upon.

Simone Giampaolo

Mr Buttons Rig
The scene uses the excellent free character rig Mr Buttons. created by Keith Osborn, and available for free download. There are six short videos to watch:

1. Setting Your Scene Up
2. Setting Your Character Up
3. Blocking Keys
4. Blocking Breakdowns
5. Blocking Anticipation, Ease-In, Overshoot 
6. Splining and Offsetting Keys
7. Extra Finessing
8. Adding a Prop Asset

Vimeo Channel
To find the videos at our (password-protected) Vimeo channel, follow this link. Like all our videos, this one is password-protected, meaning it is only available for our current students and Escapees.

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 2020, follow this link.  To apply, visit the offical page here.