you are very intelligent asking these questions.
ok, i guess in terms of animation i have experienced quite a lot so can help you. I did a degree in animation, worked in the industry doing general 3d stuff for a bit, studied animation mentor, studied a lot on my own and have now been working as a character animator for over a year.
cgtalk is helpful for lots of stuff, id say in terms of pure animation places like this http://www.11secondclub.com/ are good places to put work in progress. (they have a monthly acting competition, but you can also just post your own tests. whatever you do dont fall into the trap of attempting acting animation, like a lot of guys on that site before you can do the foudational stuff, and have good body mechanics. (understanding the mechanics of the body)
firstly what i have written below really depends on the type of animation you want to pursue. if you like photorealistic monsters bashing stuff and looking all heavy, this is more visual effects film animation. it is interlinked with classical cartoon animation in many aspects but in other aspects it is totally different. visual effects animation is more about convincing movement. cartoon animation is more about the fun of the animation itself and the stylisation. classical animation is more to do with the 12 priciples becuase the 12 principles are reduced from real life and kind of represented in an enphasised/stylised way. you can get away without much knowledge of the pricimples sometimes in visual effects animation as you can kind of copy and trace video and make it look lifelike. a bit like you can copy a photo and make a brilliant painting without neccessairly knowing about a lot of priciples that went into it. im not saying visual effects animation isnt principled, it is just less so than cartoon animation. so if you are more into visual effects ‘motion’ animation then i would follow what the last guy said in terms of studying real life motion, if you want to do true old school animation, (for me the fun kind) which i think feeds into say pixar (if your into that kind of thing) more than visual effects animation… (though both are handy) i would disagree with the guy above. … observing real motion is good, but at first it is much better to build ting up by just learning animation priciples one by one… with simple excercises and then as you get the idea you will gradually build up a picture of motion and integrate these things together, which would go hand in hand with having a keen eye for motion. unless you are a freakishly good observer whaty generally happens with the ‘just observe’ approach is that to anyone without a trained eye you cant just absorb knowledge about motion from obsevering people. motion is to complex. its too much of a wishy washy way to learn at first, it is how i did it at uni. and i learned to make some ok motion, but i didnt relaly know anything, i was just mediocre. the point of the 12 principles is the break it down. breaking it down first by studying simple excercise allows to look at motion with knowledge. just dont randomly observe stuff and hope it comes by magic basically. if you are only into visual effects realistic animation then you can get by more like this, and you gradually build up an instinct for real motion. but if you are going to do that then observe slow motion videos too to train your eye. make things as easy on your self as possible, as motion is a complex thing!
- Maya i think is the best program to use as there is probably used the most of all the software in animation, there is still lots of people not using maya obviously, but overall its the wisest choice. Just pick it and dont worry about the others. Animation is always where to start. In the end the program just becomes a tool to help you animate, nothing more. it is the knowledge itself that is far more important. So just use maya and focus on real animation, that is where the fruit lies. the more you can animate the more you dont care about the software. I would hate to be told i had to animate in studio max, as i use maya, and it would be a pain in the ass, but the main thing is i know what i am trying to create, so its just a case of adjusting a little and spending a week being frustrated by a new program.
4: illusion of life is good but its hard to just aborb that and become a good animator. you need practical hands on instruction… vieo tutorials are the way to go to learn, you can learn from books, but its harder and you need to know what you are doing more,
keith lango video training service is AMAZING. he will kick your ass into shape. https://keithlango.com/animationclinic/cart/ watch every one from 1 to 50 and it will answer everything. if only i had watched this 5 years before i did at the start of uni, which was a waste of time. if you like clarity at an almost philosophical level then this is it. he will put you right on things that otherwise you wouldnt realise and could easily end up being another cg person who just creates motion than real proper principled ANIMATION
this is my number one suggestionto get you in line.
then there is jason ryans video tutorials, he is a very skilled dreamworks supervisor and great to watch him. also its really good as he has practicle excersises from beginner to advanced. Use lango for theory and inspration motivation and enjoyment, use jason ryan excercises to actually do tests from the basics up… (ie starting with a bouncing ball through to acting) . you cant go far wrong with that combionation, and use books just to suppliment this casually. videos and excercises will help you much more at first. btw, you do need to pay for lango and ryan, but it is without a doubt worth, it can e a bedrock of your studies and proably works out about 500pounds for both. works out a lot cheaperr than uni or animation mentor though!
with books i find they are good to learn from once you have more practicle knowledge and you know what you are looking for. there is a book called ‘cartoon animation’ by preston blair. this is the best animation book in my opinion. the ‘animators survival kit’ is handy, and can get you out of trouble with walk and run cycles and most people will say this is the animation bible. It does give easy practicle advice, but it doesnt compare with something like ‘cartoon animation’ on many levels. at uni i had the preston blair book and the survival kit, i only ever used the survival kit, and didnt see the brilliance of ‘cartoon animation’. Then one day, once i knew more and looked at cartoon animation again, i saw the gold. Survival kit is pretty boring, its got page after page of walk and run cycles, its brilliant for stuff like that, but thats about it.
there is also another cool book by eric goldberg called crash course in character animation or something like that…
there is also an amazing resource by a very talented animator/designer/direcotr, all round genius.
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/
he also has a education blog.this is deep theory, but covers a lot which is tied in with animation.
http://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/
also old looney toons stuff, frame by frame
so
1: keith lango vts
2: jason ryan videos and excercises
3: johnk thing just to teach you extra stuff that isnt only about animation itself.
5: modeling - for cartoon stuff its best to keep it light. by the way, if you intend to also do rigging, there are auto rig things out there that are useful …(like ‘the setup machine’) dont waste your time doing rigging from scratch unless you really want to as it is a pain if you just want to animate. a lot of people use the free rigs avaible online. (just tpye free maya rigs)
6: i just wish i new all this before i wasted 5 years of my life not really learning and fudging along. the main thing is dont try to do eveyrthing all at once or feel you have to learn the whole of maya. there are plenty of animators out there who literally just use maya to animate, and cant do anything else in it. many have crossed over from 2d. so just do things in chunks. dont learn maya, learn how to animate in maya. then if you feel learn modeling, and other things. but that is one of the biggest things, when i started it was like i felt i had to know everything… the more i animate, the more i couldnt care less. i can model and stuff, but you can learn that too without worrying about multitude of things… just keep addin g things on as you see fit, 1 thing at a time, but dont suffer from the feeling of learning all things all at once. this is also important with tutorials etc. pick a couple of things to follow… or even websites you check eveyday, and forget the rest. just make sure you are folloing the right stuff at first… ie lango and ryans is my suggestion and just settle with it until youve done it, do it properly and then look around afterwards for any other things. there are plenty of people also who kind of loom on all the sites ande follow lots of random tutorials but they are so busy checking everything they dont really immerse themselves in some pure study.
do pure slow study!
sorry this is really long. hope it helps!
