Help Me !

[skunk184]

Principles of animation are important of course and you cant get better than Richard Williams! If you can check out his 16 survival kit DVDs they are truly great but if you cant the book and lots of practice will definately help you.

I would follow Mr Williams advice over any teacher that says principles are not important.

when I went to uni i was told technique is nt important ,but in reality if you dont know the nuts and bolts you will struggle to solve problems which are caused by not knowing the nuts and bolts and you can only be free to truly express yourself once you have mastered the basics.

good luck man

Craig

[Warun]

Yes, principles are important. I think i will have to study them all on my own. Anyway thanks for your reply :)

[Bao2]

I am a student of arena animation academy,

I would like you people to post your views about what should i do please :banghead:

The first thing is know every button in your software.
Then import and join motion capture clips or rotoscoping you owns in case you have no motion capture
clips.
Then sell your work.

You can see in the above pipeline there are no principles of animation to deal with.

Rules are created to ease the learning but todays world is a world without rules. Learn the app
as your teacher wants you to do, learn to animate and then when he don't watch you you can
see your animation and compare if it fits the 11 principles of animation you have wrote.

[Digitalsnow]

Varun,

hello man, I don't have a lot of experience with animation but right now I am attending the Academy of Art University. the book that we use all the time is the animation survival guide. its a really good book and goes over the Principles of animation really well.

this is my first post on cg talk man, just want to say it is nice to meet you. and good luck

[Eklectique]

I beg to differ Bao2

I had the same problem this guy is going through... They made us all learn the software... several of them. Animation Master, Maya, Vue6, 3DsMax, AutoCAD, Toon Boom, Flash, and whatnot... but we only saw little of the animation principles.

Now, while I was discontent with this I took it on myself to learn animation principles and am still to this day.

Now I'm the best animator (or animation student, mind you) in my class while the others still struggle to understand how to make things move.

My advice: **** your teacher, learn the program just so you know. But study animation principles on your own, that'll give you the edge.

The Animator Survival Kit is a great book, it does touch the principles and you'll learn lots from it. I wouldn't recommend any other book. :D

[almightie]

I am a student of arena animation academy, right now learning animation in max...I have a question for all the mentors...our teacher says that learning principles of animation is not important...rather u should do the work freely, do as you feel like....and he also said that when he started animating he didn't know there was any such thing like animation principles, he said that only after four months he came to know the principles. He says not to focus on the principles too much....still for the formality he made us write 11 out of 12 principles,,,and when i asked about the twelfth one, he said that even these 11 are not important...only 5-6 are required to create an animation.
When he was explaining the principles..I wasn't satisfied with his some point and i told him what i read in Disney's Illusion of Life after which he said to study Richard Williams' survival kit as he didn't know anything about Illusion of Life. And whenever I try to discuss something, he tends to be aggressive and becomes angry.

Now this is what is happening with me and my batch mates.

I seriously don't have a clue about what i should do....I've already complained about him twice but still nothing happened....I don't want to learn just the software...I need someone who can teach me the ART OF ANIMATION !

I would like you people to post your views about what should i do please :banghead:

Hey Varun...

My first point is......If you want to be a good animator believe me principals are the most important thing and that can never be ignored....F*** your faculty and start learning that on your own....survival kit is the best thing to start with.....Animation institutes in India are just money making machines they are interested in making good money rather then good animators...their target is to finish your syllabus as soon as possible so another 'Varun' can sit on your seat and give them few more thousand rupee. I am damn sure that they (management) will not take any action on him because their interest is money and nothing else......so dont run after your faculty.....

The biggest advantage of your generation is Internet which is full of information and you can take maximum advantage of that.....Start reading forums - they are the best place for knowledge sharing...Many great people are always ready to answer all your technical questions....Forums like CGs are oceans full of information and inspirations...you will learn more on those forums rather then your institute (..in india)

All depends on your future planning....If you are seeing your self sitting in a multinational studio and working on a game or a movie then never ignore the principals of animation/lighting/modeling or anything....that is the core part....Basic Principals are like grammar for a language

Rather then blaming the situation set your own target and run for that....

Remember....You only can help your self and not anyone else.....

All the best...

:buttrock:

[Project813]

The principals are so important to know and understand. I am sorry to hear that your professor isn't teaching you what is absolutely CRUCIAL to great animation.

I would say learn what you can on your own, and if possible, find another school that will teach you what you want / need to know.

Good Luck.

[wildone106]

It doesn't matter, all you need to do/know is go to Animation Mentor, do the course and people will hire you. End of story. Im pretty much effed since I havn't done it and Im losing jobs because of it. Basically save yourself a lot of time and money, do the course.

[quabulation]

Warun,

When I was in school they didn't really even have a 3D animation program. It was all traditional animation, stop motion, scratch on film, and any other way you can think of to animate something. I took one computer animation course that taught Flash and (lol)Lightwave!

Everything else was all geared around being a better animator. The Illusion of Life is a must read if you want to better understand why we have our 12 principles of animation. It tells us the theory behind these principles and how the original Disney animators did it. How they were able to achieve the magic that we all grew up to love. It will help answer some of the problems you will be running into when doing animation for the first time, because the people who wrote The Illusion of Life (Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas) came across your problems first. It also gives you an insight into what some of these animators went through to achieve the animations they made.

The Animators Survival kit is going to be you animation bible. Seriously, if you need reference on how to do a proper walk cycle and run cycle then their is no better book. The first part of it, is all about Richard Williams and his experience as an animator. The rest.. about 3/4 rest of it is all about techniques focused around production of animation and animation techniques focused around the 12 principles FIRST outlined in The Illusion of Life.

Anyone who says these books are not important isn't working as an animator. Simple as that.

When I left school I got my first internship at a studio in Florida. Literally I could animate circles around the other interns, but all the interns had taken courses on Maya. Which was the 3D package the studio was using. Since I didn't know the program well enough I was behind everyone in getting to help out on the shows the studio was producing. But I had my own computer and a little birdy flew into my room and dropped off a copy of Maya 6.5. What Luck huh? Eventually I felt good enough to show my animations from Maya to the Director and I was aloud to work on the show.

My thoughts are no matter what you learn in school your going to learn even more when you leave school. Do the courses that your instructor has you learn. Know everything you possible can about whatever 3D package your learning. 3DS Max, Maya, Lightwave, XSI, or whatever your going to use are just tools the artist uses to make their art. 3DS Max is just your pencil. Can you imagine if you didn't know how to use the eraser of your pencil? Same thing as Max. No matter what your do animation wise your going to have to keep doing it over and over again. Nobody starts off as a good animator. Your only going to get good at animation by constantly doing it, showing it off to people other than your mother, and going back and revising and reworking animation.

Hope this helps and happy animating :)

[CGTalk Moderation]

This thread has been automatically closed as it remained inactive for 12 months. If you wish to continue the discussion, please create a new thread in the appropriate forum.