Alexis Wanneroy

There are different sort of  students who learn with professional Animation & Design schools like CalArts, Some learn through online schools like AM, Some through institutes who focuses more on learning software not the animation & some learn on their own.

And very few of them get recruited at the dream animation studios like Dreamworks & Pixar. It is very hard to find ‘How things work in animation ? – Workflow, Approach, Posing, tools and much more…’

We have a very special guest today for you – Mr. Alexis Wanneroy, who is a lead animator at Dreamworks Animation & he has answered us very awesome question through this exclusive interview, about which all animation students are curious about.

Alexis is from France & Graduate of Gobelins School in 2003. He has worked on Dreamworks Blockbuster movies like How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Flushed Away & Bee Movie.

How To Train Your Dragon

He is appearing online for the first time & Its pleasure of our team & website Bramhaa that he has answered every question we have asked for & helped all the students who wish to know more about Professional Animation Workflow.

More about Alexis in his own words & his Career in Animation…

Q. `How did the Journey begin for your Career in Animation? What inspired you to choose the Career?

I was in school studying industrial Design but I kept drawing characters and I wanted to do comics book.
And I went to the Gobelins open school day, where I was blown away by the work of animation and quality of the school …

I decided then that it was what I wanted to do .

Alexis Wanneroy Dreamworks Animator

Q. What is the one thing that really made huge difference in your Career path? I mean the thing you
think helped a lot for making it to your dream job (habit, skill, belief )

It’s clearly the support of my family at that time.
Before going to Gobelins school I was working at BUF compagnie ( matrix, fight club…)and I was not sure if I should go to Gobelins or not since I was lucky enough to work for a such well renown VFX company.
I wanted to push my animation skills further and I knew the Gobelins school was the right place for that.

Every year there is a jury at Gobelins with some professional from very important studios. One of them is Shelley Page, she is the one that recruited me after school to work at Dreamworks animation.
Gobelins school helped me develop my skills to a point where one of the biggest animation studio would be interested in hiring me.

Q. What are the most important things about Character Animation you learned at Gobelins

At Gobelins we have very good teachers. each of them with a different  professional background and approach.
I guess it’s the diversity of the teachers at Gobelins that makes us learn about all the animation principle like spacing arcs, etc. But also it helps the students to actually find their own way of approaching animation and develop their own style.

Q. How did you approach for your first Job and What would you like to say about it? Was it exactly
like you expected or some surprises? What you important things you learned on that Job?

My first job after school was a character animator on Valiant , an animated movie about pigeons during world war II. The atmosphere was really cool because the studio was new, the artists were coming from all around the world, there was this great energy around ideas and creativity which was really motivating.
I thought i was going to be a junior animator and would have just regular shots, but it turned out that my work seams to be appreciated and I was given some good shot to animate.

I learned how big studios worked, with all the departments being dependent of one another, and how teamwork can make an animation feature film possible.

I also learned how freezing London can be during winter time 🙂

Q. Can you tell us typical day at DreamWorks

“I usually arrive at 8 and take my breakfast over there, That’s a good way to start a day having your coffee with your coworkers and being able to discuss the different projects in a really relaxed atmosphere, The campus is gorgeous and I think it’s one of the best place in the world to work for.
Usually at 9 we have dailies, it’s where animators show their work to the director to be approved, it’s a really good opportunity to see and be inspired by the work of others but also to ear the comments peoples have to say about your shots is very constructive and help you to adjust your regard on your own work..
After I work until lunch, it’s either I animate or have meetings with other departments concerning the sequences I’m working on, sometimes we’re shooting our own references to help us visualize actions on the shots we’re working.

At 12 it’s lunch time, We are a bunch of Gobelins people at Dreamworks and we usually like to have lunch together. And after that I animate the all afternoon, sometimes I take a break for a coffee or a foosball game etc…

before I go back home I show to some of my coworkers my work to have their opinion, it’s a great way to have a fresh eye on the morning with their comments in mind.
finally at 7, I leave to go back to my family.”

Q. Who do you think as of your Mentor in Animation? Why?

I would say it’s Kyle Balda, he was one of my teachers at Gobelins,  he really changed my way of animating, and even since then my way of working have changed a lot and matured, I still think he made me go though one of the biggest step I took.

Q .What are the projects you are currently working on and worked on?

Now I am working on Guardians, the movie is released in November 2012 so now it’s character development work, it’s my first time being so early on a project so it’s very exciting.
Before that I worked on Flushed Away, Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon

Q. Where can we see your Demo or character animation Reel?

You can see it on my Vimeo page at: http://vimeo.com/16314825

Q. At Gobelins , they have Started CG course for Animation recently, so were you doing Classical
Animation or CG ?

I was in the First class at Gobelins to do CG course. I never had the chance to study Classical animation and It’s still something I regret…

Q. Can you describe shortly how you got into Dreamworks ?

Every year in Gobelins there is a jury at the end of the year. They give you notes on your exercises that you did during the year and also notes on your graduation movie.
I finished first of my class and the recruiter for Dreamworks was there. I told her after the graduation that I would love to work for Dreamworks and 2 years later she called me back saying that they had openings!!!

3 month after this phone call I was working there 🙂


Q. How was the experience while working with Chris and Dean for How to Train Your Dragon?

They are for me the Best directors I have worked with. They have a sense of animation like no other and they really know how to direct animators. “They always think of the story before everything else.”

How To Train Your Dragon

Q. What is a scope for animator for animating a sequence? In what way it is preplanned & where is
freedom where you can make changes.

This all depends on the directors some will let you have a lot more freedom and bring your own idea.
For that it’s always during the launch of a sequence that you can speak about your ideas for your specific shots or for the sequence.
That was really the case on dragons!!! to me, part of being a good director is also to know when to trust your artists.

Q. While Animating Dragons, Each and every dragon has its different own mannerism, how did you
plan or reference for their motions? Did you have rules like Toothless has mannerism of Cat and Dog
something like that?

For each Dragons we took reference from ‘Real Animals’ :

Toothless reference were mainly the cat and bat for the motion of his wing
The Nadder was a mix of a parrot and a t-rex.
The Nightmares took also from bat and snake.
and the Gronkle was more from hummingbird and bumblebee.
All this was done before the movie started and some animators were character lead on those dragons making sure they moved according to their anatomy and reference

Hiccup WorkFlow

Q. From student to the professional animator, in this journey, what one thing that pushed your work really further, the thing you never considered in the Student Stage, but clicked while working on
actual projects?

‘Video reference’
Use video reference as much as you  can !!!!
It really has to be used a certain way I think, for example never animate the movement you do while you film yourself make it as real as possible
and then when you use the reference push everything while animating.

 

Following is something we think, as the most important part every student should read about is – Experience of Alexis’s in Animation & Overall Workflow animation.(  It is hardly known to students how professional animator approaches a Shot )

Q. How will you describe difference between Good Animator and Great Animator?

A good animator always does what he’s been asked when a great animator always try to push stuff further, comes with new ideas and good acting choices
I would say that a good animator is a  skilled craftsman while a great animator is a real artist.

Q. How do you think of Weight, where it’s coming from and where its going to? I mean do you think
of it on every Golden Pose, Extreme or Breakdowns. Your show reel has shots where character
is dealing with weight , resistance with something for ex Dad dragging Hiccup or Fishleg holding
bucket ,or the last shot where hanging opening the door knob etc and characters are also talking ,
so how do you execute the Weight properly?

Weight is a tricky thing to achieve in animation, I tried to study it a lot by using video reference, For all those shots I actually used references

Hiccup and his Dad Scene

Q. How do you usually plan for Shots? Thumbnails, Reference, Acting out, Do you use any planning
software like Flipbook or Pencil for initial blocking?

I usually think about my shot for a day or two before starting any video references or thumbnails.
Thinking about the beat of the acting and what’s the character thinking at that moment is the most important thing
Every gesture, Every attitude needs to have a purpose. After I do video references and record lots of takes before finding the right one. Also, I like to use the lipstick cam. lipstick cam is when they record the voices of the artists they film it so we can use them as a references

Q. How do you break out of the cliché’s in Animation, especially Hand Gestures?

To me that was the hardest part… I think it comes with the habit of analyzing & acting. The problem is in school we are taught of basics principles of animation, but after I think it’s good to distance yourself from it. Because principles will just makes things move without a purpose where reference study will actually determine why the body moves like that and the purpose behind it.

Q . While posing character specially for Golden Poses what things you consider Line of action, Force,Weight, Center of attraction, silhouette?

I start by using my reference and then actually think of my poses as drawings. I try to push them to make them really appealing. Sometimes I draw over my cg poses to push up the dynamic or attitudes of it and then match the cg to the drawing

How To Train Your Dragon

Q .What you usually do when you struggle for any Shot?

I usually go back and reshoot reference because when there is something wrong with a shot I find it easier to redo a shot than to struggle fixing something that is not working

Q. What’s your animation checklist? (Contrast, Overlap, etc)

I really try to avoid that !!!
I’ve been taught in school to do that , but I really think it came to different step of animation. I start with reference , I study the reference start animating, I then use my poses, then push my timings a bit, then I polish my curves and then I make nice arc and spacing.

I don’t do overlap, I don’t do breakdowns etc. I try to study what does the body do and why and if there is overlap it’s because there is a reason behind it.

Q. The exact steps while approaching any shot, so that one can model the steps, more of re-
engineering the syntax and the tiny things that make huge difference in workflow

1- Think about your shot and the purpose of the character in that shot, never rush into animating .
2- Shoot video reference the more natural you can. Do a lot of takes so you can choose the best afterward. You can also do thumbnail as a base for your video reference.
3- Study what’s moving and why. Try to stay true to the video reference.
4- Push your poses and make them appealing.
5-Push your timings
6-Start cleaning your curves and start from your body and go up the hierarchy( body, spine, neck, head etc…)
7- look at your arcs, and spacings, polish all your little details like fingers etc…

Q. As an Animator what skills one must develop in early stages?

‘The study of movements’

I look at people in the street and I can recognize someone that i know just by the way he walk or behave.

It’s very important to study the movements everywhere.

Q. Today, there are now awesome online schools like Animation Mentor and iAnimate , but for the
guys who cant afford good mentors and guidance , How should they learn and approach for their
dream job? What should be their initial milestones?

There is some very good and free tutorials online, some good rigs too, then observe, analyze, shot references and study them. I know you can learn a lot from yourself already 🙂

Q. You must have gone through many Show Reels: What kind of shots one Must include in the Show
Reel according to you?

Always start with your best work, big companies received tons of reels and the 10 first seconds are the ones which will make them decide to look further or not.
as an animator the most important thing to show is acting, but also physical shots.

Q. What was the most crucial advice you ever got in your Animation Career?

On dragon, my supervisor, Jakob Jensen is the one who showed me how to use correctly video references, and it changed completely my way of looking at it

Q. Do you see any common mistake in student show reels or Poor animation?

For me a lot of time it seemed like it’s overanimated to hide the lack of acting choices or proper weight etc…

Q. We always got asked this Question on our blog, but we think the answer from you will be crucial
How much the Degree (graduation) has importance while getting job in Animation Industry?

Sure it can help, especially when you’ve got no experience and no concrete showreel at the beginning, it can help to open some doors, but in the end it’s doesn’t really, your talent only is going to give you openings to the “good” jobs, but even if this industry it’s your talent which count, degrees are a very important thing to have when it comes to visa applications to work abroad.

Q. What you do consistently for staying Fresh, Creative, Passionate ?

I do some personal work like filming or editing.

Q. What’s the coolest thing in being an Animator?

Giving life

Q. What’s your favorite Character and Shot you worked on?

Fishleg for character and the shot of stoick screaming at his son.

Q. What’s your favorite scene from animated movie?

The whole sequence in Tangled when she meet the horse for the first time
I saw that sequence three weeks ago and I was blown away by the animation.

Q. How do you maintain balance between Job and Health/Fitness?

LOL … I don’t 🙁

Q. Are you mentoring students now? Do you have any future plans for AM or iAnimate? or any DVD
Training Program or Book ?

I would love to actually mentor students from Animation Mentor or iAanimate but I am not allowed to because of my visa .

Q. What was the most challenging shot you ever worked on?

It’s the last shot of HTTYD where all the kids and all the dragons are in the shot.
To animate all of them was very long and very hard to choreograph.

Q. You enjoy at home when you are not animating?

My family is my life 🙂

Alexis Wanneroy

We hope you find this Interview very very valuable because its not something like you can find every day. Its years of Experience of  Passion, Knowledge, Hardwork & Struggle in Animation.We are very thankful of him for taking time for this interview&  for helping students.

Here is the link to Alexis Character Animation Reel Video where you can see more of his work : http://vimeo.com/16314825

We would like to here comments from you or any question you have regarding animation or career in animation you can reach us by commenting below.

There are different sort of  students who learn with professional Animation & Design schools like CalArts, Some learn through online schools like AM, Some through institutes who focuses more on learning software not the animation & some learn on their own.

And very few of them get recruited at the dream animation studios like Dreamworks & Pixar. It is very hard to find ‘How things work in animation ? – Workflow, Approach, Posing, tools and much more…’

We have a very special guest today for you – Mr. Alexis Wanneroy, who is a lead animator at Dreamworks Animation & he has answered us very awesome question through this exclusive interview, about which all animation students are curious about.

Alexis is from France & Graduate of Gobelins School in 2003. Hehas worked on Dreamworks Blockbuster movies like How to Train Your Dragon, Kung Fu Panda, Flushed Away & Bee Movie.

He is appearing online for the first time & Its pleasure of our team & website Bramhaa that he has answered every question we have asked for & helped all the students who wish to know more about Professional Animation workflow.

More about Alexis in his own words & his Career in Animation

Q. `How did the Journey begin for your Career in Animation? What inspired you to choose the Career?

I was in school studying industrial Design but I kept drawing characters and I wanted to do comics book.
And I went to the Gobelins open school day, where I was blown away by the work of animation and quality of the school …

I decided then that it was what I wanted to do .

Q. What is the one thing that really made huge difference in your Career path? I mean the thing you
think helped a lot for making it to your dream job (habit, skill, belief )

It’s clearly the support of my family at that time.
Before going to Gobelins school I was working at BUF compagnie ( matrix, fight club…)and I was not sure if I should go to Gobelins or not since I was lucky enough to work for a such well renown VFX company.
I wanted to push my animation skills further and I knew the Gobelins school was the right place for that.
Every year there is a jury at Gobelins with some professional from very important studios. One of them is Shelley Page, she is the one that recruited me after school to work at Dreamworks animation.

Gobelins school helped me develop my skills to a point where one of the biggest animation studio would be interested in hiring me.

Q. What are the most important things about Character Animation you learned at Gobelins

At Gobelins we have very good teachers. each of them with a different  professional background and approach.
I guess it’s the diversity of the teachers at Gobelins that makes us learn about all the animation principle like spacing arcs, etc.
But also it helps the students to actually find their own way of approaching animation and develop their own style.

Q. How did you approach for your first Job and What would you like to say about it? Was it exactly
like you expected or some surprises? What you important things you learned on that Job?

My first job after school was a character animator on Valiant , an animated movie about pigeons during world war II.
the atmosphere was really cool because the studio was new, the artists were coming from all around the world, there was this great energy around ideas and creativity which was really motivating.
I thought i was going to be a junior animator and would have just regular shots, but it turned out that my work seams to be appreciated and I was given some good shot to animate.
I learned how big studios worked, with all the departments being dependent of one another, and how teamwork can make an animation feature film possible.
I also learned how freezing London can be during winter time 🙂

Q. Can you tell us typical day at DreamWorks

“I usually arrive at 8 and take my breakfast over there, That’s a good way to start a day having your coffee with your coworkers and being able to discuss the different projects in a really relaxed atmosphere, The campus is gorgeous and I think it’s one of the best place in the world to work for.
Usually at 9 we have dailies, it’s where animators show their work to the director to be approved, it’s a really good opportunity to see and be inspired by the work of others but also to ear the comments peoples have to say about your shots is very constructive and help you to adjust your regard on your own work..

After I work until lunch, it’s either I animate or have meetings with other departments concerning the sequences I’m working on, sometimes we’re shooting our own references to help us visualize actions on the shots we’re working.

At 12 it’s lunch time, We are a bunch of Gobelins people at Dreamworks and we usually like to have lunch together. And after that I animate the all afternoon, sometimes I take a break for a coffee or a foosball game etc…

before I go back home I show to some of my coworkers my work to have their opinion, it’s a great way to have a fresh eye on the morning with their comments in mind.

finally at 7, I leave to go back to my family.”

Q. Who do you think as of your Mentor in Animation? Why?

I would say it’s Kyle Balda, he was one of my teachers at Gobelins,  he really changed my way of animating, and even since then my way of working have changed a lot and matured, I still think he made me go though one of the biggest step I took.

Q .What are the projects you are currently working on and worked on?

Now I am working on Guardians, the movie is released in November 2012 so now it’s character development work, it’s my first time being so early on a project so it’s very exciting.
Before that I worked on Flushed Away, Bee Movie, Kung Fu Panda and How To Train Your Dragon

Q. Where can we see your Demo or character animation Reel?

You can see it on my Vimeo page at:
http://vimeo.com/16314825

Q. At Gobelins , they have Started CG course for Animation recently, so were you doing Classical
Animation or CG ?

I was in the First class at Gobelins to do CG course.
I never had the chance to study Classical animation and It’s still something I regret…

Q. Can you describe shortly how you got into Dreamworks ?

Every year in Gobelins there is a jury at the end of the year. They give you notes on your exercises that you did during the year and also notes on your graduation movie.

I finished first of my class and the recruiter for Dreamworks was there. I told her after the graduation that I would love to work for Dreamworks and 2 years later she called me back saying that they had openings!!!

3 month after this phone call I was working there 🙂

Q. How was the experience while working with Chris and Dean for How to Train Your Dragon?

They are for me the Best directors I have worked with. They have a sense of animation like no other and they really know how to direct animators. “They always think of the story before everything else.”

Q. What is a scope for animator for animating a sequence? In what way it is preplanned & where is
freedom where you can make changes.

This all depends on the directors some will let you have a lot more freedom and bring your own idea.
For that it’s always during the launch of a sequence that you can speak about your ideas for your specific shots or for the sequence.

That was really the case on dragons!!! to me, part of being a good director is also to know when to trust your artists.

Q. While Animating Dragons, Each and every dragon has its different own mannerism, how did you
plan or reference for their motions? Did you have rules like Toothless has mannerism of Cat and Dog
something like that?

For each Dragons we took reference from ‘Real Animals’ :

Toothless reference were mainly the cat and bat for the motion of his wing
The Nadder was a mix of a parrot and a t-rex.
The Nightmares took also from bat and snake.
and the Gronkle was more from hummingbird and bumblebee.

All this was done before the movie started and some animators were character lead on those dragons making sure they moved according to their anatomy and reference

Q. From student to the professional animator, in this journey, what one thing that pushed your work
really further, the thing you never considered in the Student Stage, but clicked while working on
actual projects?

‘Video reference’
Use video reference as much as you  can !!!!
It really has to be used a certain way I think, for example never animate the movement you do while you film yourself make it as real as possible
and then when you use the reference push everything while animating.


Following is something we think, as the most important part every student should read about is – Experience of Alexis’s in Animation & Overall Workflow animation.(  It is hardly known to students how professional animator approaches a Shot )

Q. How will you describe difference between Good Animator and Great Animator?

A good animator always does what he’s been asked when a great animator always try to push stuff further, comes with new ideas and good acting choices
I would say that a good animator is a  skilled craftsman while a great animator is a real artist.

Q. How do you think of Weight, where it’s coming from and where its going to? I mean do you think
of it on every Golden Pose, Extreme or Breakdowns. Your show reel has shots where character
is dealing with weight , resistance with something for ex Dad dragging Hiccup or Fishleg holding
bucket ,or the last shot where hanging opening the door knob etc and characters are also talking ,
so how do you execute the Weight properly?

Weight is a tricky thing to achieve in animation, I tried to study it a lot by using video reference, For all those shots I actually used references

Q. How do you usually plan for Shots? Thumbnails, Reference, Acting out, Do you use any planning
software like Flipbook or Pencil for initial blocking?

I usually think about my shot for a day or two before starting any video references or thumbnails.
Thinking about the beat of the acting and what’s the character thinking at that moment is the most important thing

Every gesture, Every attitude needs to have a purpose. After I do video references and record lots of takes before finding the right one. Also, I like to use the lipstick cam. lipstick cam is when they record the voices of the artists they film it so we can use them as a references

Q. How do you break out of the cliché’s in Animation, especially Hand Gestures?

To me that was the hardest part… I think it comes with the habit of analyzing & acting.
The problem is in school we are taught of basics principles of animation, but after I think it’s good to distance yourself from it. Because principles will just makes things move without a purpose where reference study will actually determine why the body moves like that and the purpose behind it.

Q . While posing character specially for Golden Poses what things you consider Line of action, Force,
Weight, Center of attraction, silhouette?

I start by using my reference and then actually think of my poses as drawings. I try to push them to make them really appealing. Sometimes I draw over my cg poses to push up the dynamic or attitudes of it and then match the cg to the drawing

Q .What you usually do when you struggle for any Shot?

I usually go back and reshoot reference because when there is something wrong with a shot I find it easier to redo a shot than to struggle fixing something that is not working

Q. What’s your animation checklist? (Contrast, Overlap, etc)

I really try to avoid that !!!
I’ve been taught in school to do that , but I really think it came to different step of animation
I start with reference , I study the reference start animating, I then use my poses, then push my timings a bit
then I polish my curves and then I make nice arc and spacing.
I don’t do overlap, I don’t do breakdowns etc. I try to study what does the body do and why and if there is overlap it’s because there is a reason behind it.

Q. The exact steps while approaching any shot, so that one can model the steps, more of re-
engineering the syntax and the tiny things that make huge difference in workflow

1- Think about your shot and the purpose of the character in that shot, never rush into animating .
2- Shoot video reference the more natural you can. Do a lot of takes so you can choose the best afterward. You can also do thumbnail as a base for your video reference.
3- Study what’s moving and why. Try to stay true to the video reference.
4- Push your poses and make them appealing.
5-Push your timings
6-Start cleaning your curves and start from your body and go up the hierarchy( body, spine, neck, head etc…)
7- look at your arcs, and spacings, polish all your little details like fingers etc…

Q. As an Animator what skills one must develop in early stages?

‘The study of movements’

I look at people in the street and I can recognize someone that i know just by the way he walk or behave.

It’s very important to study the movements everywhere.

Q. Today, there are now awesome online schools like Animation Mentor and iAnimate , but for the
guys who cant afford good mentors and guidance , How should they learn and approach for their
dream job? What should be their initial milestones?

There is some very good and free tutorials online, some good rigs too, then observe, analyze, shot references and study them. I know you can learn a lot from yourself already 🙂

Q. You must have gone through many Show Reels: What kind of shots one Must include in the Show
Reel according to you?

always start with your best work, big companies received tons of reels and the 10 first seconds are the ones which will make them decide to look further or not.
as an animator the most important thing to show is acting, but also physical shots.

Q. What was the most crucial advice you ever got in your Animation Career?

On dragon, my supervisor, Jakob Jensen is the one who showed me how to use correctly video references, and it changed completely my way of looking at it

Q. Do you see any common mistake in student show reels or Poor animation?

For me a lot of time it seemed like it’s overanimated to hide the lack of acting choices or proper weight etc…

Q. We always got asked this Question on our blog, but we think the answer from you will be crucial
How much the Degree (graduation) has importance while getting job in Animation Industry?

Sure it can help, especially when you’ve got no experience and no concrete showreel at the beginning, it can help to open some doors, but in the end it’s doesn’t really, your talent only is going to give you openings to the “good” jobs, but even if this industry it’s your talent which count, degrees are a very important thing to have when it comes to visa applications to work abroad.

Q. What you do consistently for staying Fresh, Creative, Passionate ?

I do some personal work like filming or editing.

Q. What’s the coolest thing in being an Animator?

Giving life

Q. What’s your favorite Character and Shot you worked on?

Fishleg for character and the shot of stoick screaming at his son.

Q. What’s your favorite scene from animated movie?

The whole sequence in Tangled when she meet the horse for the first time
I saw that sequence three weeks ago and I was blown away by the animation.

Q. How do you maintain balance between Job and Health/Fitness?

LOL … I don’t 🙁

Q. Are you mentoring students now? Do you have any future plans for AM or iAnimate? or any DVD
Training Program or Book ?

I would love to actually mentor students from Animation Mentor or iAanimate but I am not allowed to because of my visa .

Q. What was the most challenging shot you ever worked on?

It’s the last shot of HTTYD where all the kids and all the dragons are in the shot.
To animate all of them was very long and very hard to choreograph.

Q. You enjoy at home when you are not animating?

My family is my life 🙂

8 COMMENTS

  1. Hi,
    I’m a french student

    I’m in third year of school 3D
    But I realized that my school was not really for me.
    I really want to become an animator, and I’m looking for that ideal training.
    I understand English well enough but do not speak,
    So I do not know if an online course as Animation Mentor could be good for me

    • Hey Ilan ,

      Animation Mentor is best place to learn Character Animation

      Its really amazing online school …. they have world’s best character animators to coach you ..:)

      Animation Mentor have their Q&A sessions live (interactive) and every class is recorded so as the ECritiques on your assignments …

      So that you can watch as many as times you want ..:)

      And I think you know good deal of english .. there wont be many challenges only your outcome will be to communicate your questions , ideas whatever that is for that you will have to communicate while live Q&A with your mentors and they also Chats options or through mails..

      I don’t think you will have any challenges and all AM staff , mentors . I mean everyone is extremely supportive , and they focus on students amazing well to improve students skills ..

      Animation Mentor is the best place to learn actual character animation skills ..

      And just in case you dont know .. theres also cool online animation school iAnimate (www.ianimate.net) .. its founded by Jason Ryan and its also online school … you should check out that too.. Most of mentors are animators at Dreamworks studio ..:)

      As for character animation skills both are great places

      I also think you should ask same question about language to Animation Mentor help lines. They are so much supportive they will also help you in troubleshooting your doubts even more clearly …

      I think you wont have any problems as everything is recorded and you can communicate anyway you will comfortable with…

      I hope this information is little bit helpful for you…

      All the best for your ultimate quest.. 🙂

  2. Thank you very much for your informations ….
    I was thinking of doing a summer internship as a junior animator in an English speaking country in order to improve my English.

    I do not know if you would know in which society I can find such courses ..
    knowing that I work mostly on 3ds Max and I animate pretty well with the Biped

    I was looking for an English Business

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here