Principles of Animation
The principles that govern movement, and the Maya basics an animator needs. You start from simple rigs and finish on your first character.
Online school · live classes in English
Character
Character
animation
courses
One path in 3D, in Autodesk Maya, devoted entirely to animating the character.
Character animation,
not computer graphics
Animating a character means giving movement weight, personality, emotion and, above all, intention.
An animator works like an actor: every pose, gesture and expression has to say what the character is thinking, feeling and trying to get.
A general 3D course teaches you to build an image — modelling, texturing, lighting, rendering — and animation is one discipline among many. At Vivo it is the centre of the whole course, from the first pose to the final polish.
3D track · in Autodesk Maya
The study plan
Eight progressive courses, each built on the one before: from the fundamentals of movement to acting, up to the Pro courses devoted to producing advanced shots. Select a step to see what it covers.
- Principles of Animationstart from the basics
- Body Locomotionwalk, run, jump
- Body Actionweight, balance, dynamics
- Pantomimeacting without dialogue
- Facial Actingface and lip sync
- Advanced Actingdialogue, a showreel shot
- Action Proan action shot, as in a studio
- Acting Proan acting shot, as in production
Body Locomotion
The body moving through space: walk, run, jump. The course ends on a character walk, where movement and personality work together.
Body Action
The body doing something: throwing, lifting a weight, pushing. This is where weight, balance and dynamics matter.
Pantomime
Acting without dialogue: posing, intention, timing. The rigs have a simple face, so the attention stays on the body.
Facial Acting
The face: facial posing, expressions, phonemes, lip sync, and moving from one emotion to another.
Advanced Acting
Body and face on a dialogue shot, from breaking down the audio to the final polish. It is the shot that closes the six main courses.
Action Pro
A production-only course: one action shot, supervised the way it would be in a studio, with a production workflow — planning, blocking, splining, polishing — and continuous reviews, aiming to bring the shot to showreel quality.
Acting Pro
A production-only course: one acting shot, reviewed the way a shot is reviewed in production. The focus is on acting choices, on how clearly the intention reads, and on refining detail all the way to the final polish.
11weeks per course
22live classes on Vivo Meet
2–5students per class
€900+ VAT per course · €950 for the two Pro courses
Let's find the course
you should start from
If you have never animated, you start from the first course. If you already have experience, send us your showreel: the teaching board looks at your level and tells you which course fits.
We do it before every enrolment, not only when you have doubts: it is free, it takes about 30 minutes, and you speak with one of Vivo's founders.
Book a call
Four start dates a year
January, April, July, October.
The same course can run as more than one class in parallel, on different days: the date of your first lesson depends on which class you join, and we tell you before it starts.