During week 1 we get to grips with the software, learning about what we'll need to know as an animator. We apply the principles of animation using both the latest tools in Harmony 16 and the old fashioned methods, and practice getting control over our keyframes before making some GIFs!

Week 2 takes you into the wonderful world of deformers using slightly more complex techniques such as overlap and follow through. We learn the fundamentals of how a character rig is put together, how to utilise the camera, build animated loops, work in 3D space and more!

In week 3 we start to apply all we have learnt so far to a functional character rig. We're focusing on quality application of the principles here, so strong posing, performance, timing and everything inbetween! We also delve into the often overlooked art of lip sync.

Now we are introduced to full body rig to test out your action animation skills! We pose out a sequence of movement and study several different ways of moving from keys to fully inbetweened animation. We also become power users of the timeline and brush up on shortcuts.

During the last week we'll apply everything we've learnt into a short scene. You can choose to work with 1 or 2 characters (rigs are provided) and we'll develop your ablity to direct the eye, stage the acting in a 'two shot' and adding the final touches. We also cover showreel tips, using reference effectively and how to work in a studio environment.

Week 1 deals with building a solid foundation of knowledge, ready to layer the fundamentals in coming weeks. You will become acquainted with your new best friend, the node view and lots of other useful tools (think deformers and cutters) that will make your rigs incredibly useful and easy to use.

During week 2 we will step up your learning with a deep dive into the power of art layers and re-ordering of artwork. We'll create non-rendering visual helpers to make things easy to select, organise our node view and discuss the best structures for the job. Oh, and templates!

In week 3 we'll continue our character build by solving some major problems within the upper body. How to build arms? What method works best in Z depth? Is there a solution for perfect shoulders? All is revealed along with a handy guide to importing Photoshop and Illustrator files with ease.

The fourth week means finishing off our character rig with a set of legs. We cover lots of great details on reversing deformers, kinematic outputs, using textures and complex cutter mask set ups. There's also an advanced lesson in here about a true IK leg set up, if you're feeling brave 🙂

Over the final week we take a giant leap forward into the future of rigging and build our very own master controller set up, complete with sliders. We also cover 2 point constraints, how to rig various types of hair, dynamic springs and troubleshooting common problems.