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Skills Expanded

Planning and Executing a Complete Animation in Maya

by Eric Kunzendorf

Want to learn how to tell a compelling story with your animation? This course is for you. You'll learn beginner rigging and animation skills in order to plan and animate the solution to the "X Marks the Spot" problem. Software required: Maya 2016.

What you'll learn

Storytelling is an essential part of the animation process, as it informs your artwork and excites the audience. This course, Planning and Executing a Complete Animation in Maya, will teach you animation and storytelling skills as you solve the "X Marks the Spot" problem. Throughout the course, you will take a scene with an "X" arbitrarily located somewhere in the scene and, in a short amount of time, move the main character, "Arty: the walking ball" to the X in a compelling manner. You will also deal with three phases of storytelling: beginning (build-up), middle (climax) and ending (resolution). As well, you will create a character and an environment that will allow them to tell that story as effectively as possible, and in the process, begin to learn that, as an independent animation storyteller, you have the benefit of controlling all aspects of your character and environment to tell your stories. By the end of this course, you will have improved your rigging and animation skills as well as learned how to create a captivating story for your audience. Software required: Maya 2016.

Table of contents

Course Overview
1min

About the author

Eric Kunzendorf has been teaching computer graphics and animation at the college level for the last two decades at such varied institutions as Jacksonville University, the New Hampshire Institute of Art, the Atlanta College of Art, and the School of Visual Arts’ Savannah campus. He holds a Bachelors of Arts in Art history from Columbia University and a Masters of Fine Arts in Drawing and Painting from the University of Georgia. Eric has contributed to several works including "Mastering Maya 8.... more

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