FXPHD – MYA221 Maya Foundations: Animation

This new Maya course is the next in our Maya Foundations series and looks to cover animation, both character and non-character based. Over the ten weeks we’ll look in-depth at the fundamental building blocks of animation within Maya 2015, studying both the technical and artistic aspects through-out the course. Each class will be project based and homework will also be assigned if you wish to continue your studies outside of our time together.

The classes will be broken down into a number of key areas, starting with the fundamentals of animation, Keyframes. From there we focus on Path Animation, Creature Sets, Non-Linear Animation, and Animation Layers. Next we’ll move to building rigs using Joints and setting up IK systems, Skinning, and applying Constraints. The last few classes will focus squarely on the art of animation looking at the ‘Twelve Basic Principles of Animation’ as taught by Disney animators Ollie Johnston and Frank Thomas in their 1981 book ‘The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation’. Throughout the course well also cover the main animation editors (Graph and Dope), Expression, Grease Pencil, Camera Sequencer, and how nDynamics can work with traditional Key Frame animation.

This course is aimed at anyone interested in animation inside of Maya, and will cover the tools to a more detailed level than ever before at fxphd. As mentioned above, it’s going to be very project based while covering all the main tools to a deep level. For the duration of the course we’ll be using the latest version of Maya, currently 2015 Extension 1.

The course is taught by Matt Leonard who has been in the 3D and visual effects industry for over 20 years. He has been using Maya for over one and a half decades and has spoken on behalf of Alias/Wavefront (now Autodesk) over the years. He is a member of the Visual Effects Society and has worked as a beta tester for not only Maya but also Katana, Arnold, RenderMan, Mari, Nuke Studio, and Fusion. He currently runs his own on-site training company in the UK and is also the primary lecturer on the VFX Masters degree course for the University of South Wales.