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Intro to 3D Animation

This online short course is an introduction to learning 3D Animation in Maya. Dur­ing this course, you will learn some of the fun­da­men­tal prin­ci­ples of ani­ma­tion, with an empha­sis on how to make that process cre­ative and fun. Class­es will cov­er­ uni­ver­sal ani­ma­tion con­cepts including ​“keyframes”, ​“tim­ing and spac­ing”, ​“over­lap­ping action”, gen­er­al sto­rytelling and act­ing per­for­mance skills. You will also learn the soft­ware skills need­ed in Maya.

Intro to 3D is recommended for students with beginner to intermediate 3D animation skills and experience.The most important requirement is the desire to learn and create, using new software.

This 12 week online course runs concurrently with Flinders University semesters. Including the two-week mid-semester break, it runs for 14 weeks in total. The course will consist of:

  • 12 weekly pre-recorded lectures & demonstrations that will guide you step by step through your projects
  • 6 assignments over the course of 12 weeks (one submitted each fortnight, prior to feedback session)
  • Live fortnightly 3hr feedback webinars where you will receive feedback on your progress. (see below)

Topics covered over the 12 week course include:

  • Introduction to Maya
  • Universal principles of Animation
  • Blocking & timing
  • Posing
  • Using reference
  • Creating animation from scratch
  • Creating polished animation

Tuition Price: $950 AUD.

Hardware requirements for the course are:

  • Laptop or Desktop PC or MAC (MacBook Pro or i7 PC/laptop with 16GB RAM are recommended).
  • Wacom tablet is recommended not required. Any size is good.
  • Headset/Microphone so that you can chat with the instructor in fortnightly webinars.
  • Notepad and pens/pencils for note-taking.

Software requirements:

*As part of the course you have the option to participate in Live Streamed Feedback Sessions. These are live feedback webinars, held fortnightly, with your industry instructor will provide you with direct feedback on your work. If you can’t attend the session via webcam when it’s live, you will still be able to watch the recorded sessions in your own time. Times listed are ACST (UTC +9:30).

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Essential Information

Semester Dates

2023 - Semester 2
Jul 24 - Oct 29

Class Delivery

Online

Feedback Sessions

Thur, 6:00PM - 9:00PM

Instructor

Joe Helmore

Price

$950

Instructor Bio: Joe Helmore

Joe Helmore is an experienced 3D animator with five years of tertiary education including a Bachelor of Visual Communication Design and a Diploma of 3D Animation. As a character animator, he has worked for Assembly LTD, Animal logic, Fuel VFX, Mighty Nice, Plastic wax and Blockhead VFX. He knows what it takes to be an industry professional and is keen to pass on his knowledge to hungry artists!

Stu­dent Work

Show­cas­ing some work by pre­vi­ous stu­dents. There is no pre­req­ui­site to take our online short cours­es, and there can be a vari­ety of skill lev­el among our stu­dents. Our goal is to help them cre­ate some sol­id pieces for their portfolio.