1Week
Maya for animators
The first week is given to the parts of Maya an animator actually needs, leaving modelling and rendering aside: interface, viewport, timeline, Graph Editor and scene management.
← All courses3D track · Course 1 · Live course in English · Autodesk Maya
Principles of Animation
The basics of movement: the course everything starts from.
Eleven weeks to build solid foundations in 3D character animation. You start from Autodesk Maya and the fundamental principles of movement, and finish on a first shot of your own with Koda, developed through live classes and individual reviews of your work.
Start from the basics · no experience required
Maximum 5 students per classIndividual review, 20–30 minInstructors working in the industry
- Length
- 11 weeks22 live classes
- Classes
- 2 a week3–6 live hours a week
- Software
- Autodesk Mayalicence included
- Class size
- 2–5 studentsindividual review, 20–30 min
- Practice on your own
- 20–40 hoursa week, on top of the classes
- Certificate
- Autodeskof attendance, on completion
Before you enrol
Is this the right course for you?
It is, if…
- you have never animated: the course starts from the foundations that solid animation is built on, and takes neither Maya nor the principles for granted;
- you have done a short introductory course, or taught yourself, and want to go deeper into timing, spacing, arcs, overlap and weight;
- you come from drawing, modelling or another visual discipline and want to move towards 3D character animation;
- you want to find out whether character animation is what you want to pursue: this is the first course of the 3D track.
What you need
- No previous experience. Principles of Animation is the first course of the 3D track, and Maya is introduced in the first week.
- No showreel. A showreel is only assessed if you want to come in at a later course.
- A computer that can run Maya, a stable connection, a webcam and a microphone, plus a three-button mouse.
- Time to practise. At least twenty hours a week on top of the live classes, depending on the exercise and how far you take it. How you organise that time is up to you.
Student work
Final shots by students.
A selection of the final shots made with Koda in the last four weeks of Principles of Animation, putting together the principles studied during the course.
The programme
Eleven weeks, from the interface to a shot
The course moves through exercises that build on each other: you take in a principle, put it into practice, hand the work in and go through it with your instructor before moving on.
2–4Weeks
Timing, spacing, weight and squash & stretch
Timing decides how long a movement takes; spacing decides how that movement is distributed in time, through acceleration and deceleration. With the ball you learn to use both to give objects weight, and you add squash & stretch — first on a physical move, then on a ball with a character of its own.
5–7Weeks
Arcs, anticipation, follow through and leading action
The movement gets more articulated. With Tripendolo, the Pencil and the Snowman you work on anticipation, overlap, follow through and leading action: you learn to see which part of the body or the object leads a movement and how the rest follows it. The Pencil is also where you build clear arcs and control rotation in space, while the Snowman brings these principles together on a more complex character.
8–11Weeks
Your shot with Koda
The last four weeks go into a shot of your own with Koda. You plan it with your instructor and develop it through reference, blocking, splining and polishing, putting together the principles studied across the rest of the course.
What you take away
What you will have learned
These are not rules of a piece of software: they are the common language of people who animate, in 3D as in 2D. They stay underneath everything that follows.
Timing & spacing · Ease in / ease outSquash & stretchAnticipationFollow throughOverlapping actionArcsLeading actionStagingExaggeration
How you study
A typical week
Two live sessions a week: the class, given to the subject and to the work you are about to do, and the review, where the instructor spends twenty to thirty minutes on each student's work. Classes hold between two and five students.
Outside the classes you need around twenty hours a week for exercises, reference and practice of your own. Recordings, annotations and materials stay available after the course ends. The days and times of your class are told to you before you enrol.
How Vivo worksCharacters and tools
What you work with
The rigs are designed and built in-house at Vivo, and they stay available to you after the course ends. Their complexity grows gradually, from the ball up to Koda, used for the final shot.
BallCubeTripendoloPencilSnowmanKoda
Along with Maya you also get a licence for animBot, the professional animation toolset, for the whole length of the course.
See all of Vivo's rigs and characters
Maya included for the whole length of the course. On completion you receive a certificate of attendance from Autodesk.
When it starts
Next term: Winter — classes from January to March, enrolment closes on 20 December. Classes of two to five students.
The exact days and times depend on the class and are told to you before you enrol, so you can check them before confirming your place. Our instructors work in different time zones, so a class is scheduled around the instructor teaching it and the students in it. All the dates of the year are in the enrolment calendar.
Questions
About Principles of Animation, specifically
Do I need to be able to draw?
No. You animate by moving the controls of a rig in Maya: drawing is not a requirement, and many of our students come from backgrounds that have nothing to do with it.
I don't know Maya — can I still enrol?
Yes. Principles of Animation is built for people starting from nothing: the first week introduces the parts of Maya that animation needs.
Do I have to send a showreel to enrol?
No. A showreel is only assessed if you want to come in at a later course. Principles of Animation asks for no previous experience.
I have already done a short introduction to animation. Does it make sense to start here?
Yes. Here the principles are taken apart over eleven weeks, through exercises that build on each other and individual reviews. If you already have specific character animation training, the teaching board can look at your showreel instead and place you on a later course.
The first step
The first step is a call
Before you enrol we have a one-to-one call online with one of the founders. It is there to understand what you are aiming at, answer your questions, and check that the course fits where you are starting from.