Advanced Animation of 3D Characters

Animating a character is about much more than just adding movement, it is about giving it life, thoughts, and feelings. Kike Oliva has more than two decades’ experience in VFX, advertising, video games, and film, and has worked in studios such as Pixar in Canada and Animal Logic in Australia.

In this online course, Kike takes you by the hand through the process of creating an animation shoot centered around the physics of movement. Discover a simple way to tackle an animation with complex movements and physics, and learn how to explore ideas, plan, execute, and polish your project alongside an industry-leading professional.

Start the course by defining the idea of the animation that you are going to make. Once you have chosen your project, look for video references to help you understand the physics of the movement of your animation.

Next, define your layout, place the camera, build your set, and place your character in it. Do your first stepped blocking, marking the golden poses that define each action, as well as the timing and spacing of the shots.

Later, transfer your animation to spline, defining more precisely the timing, spacing, arcs, inertia, silhouettes, and balances.

One of the last steps is refining, for which it is recommended that you have the feedback of other people, this helps you to work in depth on the details that may have been less defined.