Marc Stevenson to Teach at Escape Studios

Marc Stevenson

We're delighted to welcome the newest member of our animation team - veteran animator Marc Stevenson will be joining us at Escape Studios early next year to teach animation basics - AN4001 - to our first year undergraduate students.

Marc has credits on many Hollywood hit films including Fast & Furious 6, Avengers, Age of Ultron, Moon, and Victor Frankenstein.

I worked with Marc on a number of visual effects projects at Cinesite, including Underdog, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and Marmaduke, and can personally testify both to his skill as an animator and to his unflappability even in the most extreme client situations.

Marc has taught a number of classes to our short course animators, so he is very familiar with Escape Studios and our systems.

AN4001 - Animation Basics

For our first year undergraduates, our core animation module - Animation 1 - starts in January at Escape Studios.   AN4001 (as it is officially known) is a 15 Credit module that teaches the fundamental underpinnings of character and creature animation.

Animation Basics is where our students first tackle Maya, and the fundamentals of character animation.

The class starts with a bouncing ball, and builds up to complex locomotion and character actions.

 

Marc worked on "Moon"

AN4001- Animation 1
AN4001 is a 4 week "introduction to animation" module, where our first year undergraduate students explore the basics of animation, from a bouncing ball through to sophisticated motion. Assignments include walks, runs, jumps and the use of live action reference to animate complex action. The module builds up to a final industry-related brief (you can see an example of project work above, by then first year animator Maria Robertson).

AN4001 - Software
The software we teach is - of course - Autodesk Maya, now the global leader and industry standard for animation and visual effects.

Getting ready for AN4001
In order to make the best of the module, our advice is to have a good look at Maya before coming to class, so that the interface won't come as a complete surprise. Marc will still - of course - go through the basics of Maya from the very beginning, but it's still a good idea to come prepared. To get ready, have a look at the following YouTube links:

YouTube Animation Links
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p62UfGJRvRs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvTLOvAWe6A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q54XbeGspD4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n89UOtMI_Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvsN5GzxoHo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kmuf2M9Nvp0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okaC2_NxPYQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V7yz8Twi8Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnZLpoD5NqQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdf2kwdc36Y
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtF9XsAD5mg

Arnold
Also, it is a good idea to learn the basics of Maya's new Arnold renderer, now that Mental Ray has  been replaced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06I1ypyokQU

Escape Studios YouTube Playlist
Escape Studios also has a Maya basics playlist (36 videos) which you can work through, which shows all the key tools in Maya, and what they do, in a series of very short videos.

First year at Escape Studios - and 2nd, 3rd & 4th years
And to see more detail about what's in the animation course at Escape Studios, follow these links:

• What's in the first year of animation study at Escape Studios?
• Second year at Escape Studios 
• Third year at Escape Studios.  
• Fourth and final year (integrated MArt)

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 official page here.