Animation… where do I start?

I graduated from university back in 2018 and after a couple years of soul searching I’ve realised that I would really like to get into animation as a career if at all possible. Looking into it I would really like to get into character design or concept artist or along them lines.
I have no idea where to start or where to look for evening courses. I can’t go back to university as my funds are limited. I am from Stoke on Trent so something along near there (Staffordshire area) or online. If anyone has any advice or websites they can offer I would be very grateful.

Reply 1

David Jin

5

Staffordshire university have some very good course animation related. I think you can try to apply for MA.

Reply 2

ShanC

OP

6

Would I be able to apply for a masters in animation even though I didn’t do animation for my subject for my BA Hons? Probably a stupid question just not sure how it works

Reply 3

De Montfort University

Official Rep

16

Original post by ShanC

I graduated from university back in 2018 and after a couple years of soul searching I’ve realised that I would really like to get into animation as a career if at all possible. Looking into it I would really like to get into character design or concept artist or along them lines.
I have no idea where to start or where to look for evening courses. I can’t go back to university as my funds are limited. I am from Stoke on Trent so something along near there (Staffordshire area) or online. If anyone has any advice or websites they can offer I would be very grateful.

Hi @ShanC,

I would highly recommend checking out ScreenSkills! This website is great to find out everything you need to know about getting into the Animation Industry. Here is their page about being a Character Designer or a Concept Artist.

Feel free to ask me any questions on how to break into the industry! I just finished up my Animation undergrad at De Montfort. I can give you insight on studying through a university or online if you'd like; I have a few friends who've taken the online studying route and gave me their fair share of what it's like.

I hope this helps,
- Jesse

Reply 4

David Jin

5

Original post by ShanC

Would I be able to apply for a masters in animation even though I didn’t do animation for my subject for my BA Hons? Probably a stupid question just not sure how it works

Yes you can , if you have a strong portfolio proving your ability and enthusiasm.

Reply 5

Angry Coffee Mug

9

Hey hello!
In my opinion it's great that you're taking an interest in the animation industry.

And to answer your question, yes, it's definitely possible for you to get into it as a career, especially if you're talking about 3D animation (I don't know about 2D animation)
So yeah! First question you could ask yourself, 2D or 3D?

Have you checked if something else in the industry interest you as well?
Just in the 3D industry you have people taking care of the modeling, rigging (creating the skeleton and controllers of a character, so that the animators can actually animate) Animation, lookdev artist, VFX artist, you just have SO MANY OPTIONS.

Hell, are you interested in the video game industry or the movie industry?

Honestly you don't need to have an answer to all of these questions, just know that you have options. In my case, I am currently taking more of a generalist formation in 3D that touches a bit of everything, and then I'll specialize into something at uni.

But I've heard of people who completely skipped that whole going to school part and learned on the internet. Because all that matters in the end is the content of your portfolio, not your grades.

I hope it helped... you could also ask someone who's already in the industry, have an interview, I dunno. It shouldn't be so hard to find a website made specifically for that.
Best of luck

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 6

ShanC

OP

6

Original post by De Montfort University

Hi @ShanC,

I would highly recommend checking out ScreenSkills! This website is great to find out everything you need to know about getting into the Animation Industry. Here is their page about being a Character Designer or a Concept Artist.

Feel free to ask me any questions on how to break into the industry! I just finished up my Animation undergrad at De Montfort. I can give you insight on studying through a university or online if you'd like; I have a few friends who've taken the online studying route and gave me their fair share of what it's like.

I hope this helps,
- Jesse

Hi Jesse,

I would love to pick your brains a bit more if that's okay with you? I'm mainly looking at the online route, but any university information you could give me would be much appreciated as well.

Thank you,
Shannon

Reply 7

ShanC

OP

6

Original post by David Jin

Yes you can , if you have a strong portfolio proving your ability and enthusiasm.

Ah that's interesting, thank you will definitely look into this

Reply 8

De Montfort University

Official Rep

16

Original post by ShanC

Hi Jesse,

I would love to pick your brains a bit more if that's okay with you? I'm mainly looking at the online route, but any university information you could give me would be much appreciated as well.

Thank you,
Shannon

Hi @ShanC,

No worries, I'm more than happy to help. First of all, what medium of animation do you want to explore? 2D, 3D, or Stop Motion?

After talking to my friends about University vs Online, I found that the difference between the two is the interpersonal experience. At uni, you'll be pitching your ideas in front of your classmates and lecturers. You'll be in a room surrounded by other creative and aspiring animators. Online, on the other hand, will be in an online video call conference.

Online learning is comparatively more affordable than studying at a university. The content is essentially the same, but I find online learning more streamlined; due to the mentors coming from the industry and teaching students what they need to know to get picked up by the industry. They teach their students what you need to have in your showreel.

I had a debate with my tutor about this as well. It was interesting what he had to say. Essentially he mentioned that online is perfect if you want to be solely taught the technical side of animation - How do I do this? How do I create that? At university, it challenges you to push past just the technicality - What makes a compelling narrative? How can I bend the principles of animation?

Honestly, it all depends on why you want to study animation. Do you want to be taught animation to work for a studio? Or are you learning how to animate to express yourself and your creativity? There are no right or wrong answers!

I hope this helps!
- Jesse

Reply 9

Coventry University Student Ambassadors

Official Rep

16

Original post by ShanC

I graduated from university back in 2018 and after a couple years of soul searching I’ve realised that I would really like to get into animation as a career if at all possible. Looking into it I would really like to get into character design or concept artist or along them lines.
I have no idea where to start or where to look for evening courses. I can’t go back to university as my funds are limited. I am from Stoke on Trent so something along near there (Staffordshire area) or online. If anyone has any advice or websites they can offer I would be very grateful.

Hi there!

My name is El and I'm a graduate of Illustration & Animation and thought I would share some of my knowledge to you! It's fantastic to hear that you want to explore art, especially concept art and character design; that's what I love too!

Firstly, I would make accounts on ArtStation and Linkedin, these are fantastic for meeting new creatives, finding voluntary work, paid work and courses! ArtStation has a whole part of their website solely for courses!
There's also companies like Aardman who have an Academy of animators and have courses that vary from £100-£2k and although you're on a budget, the cheap ones might be good as even I'm considering on doing these in the future! Sometimes Aardman do offer short courses such as 15 minutes lessons with the creator of Morph through Sky and if you're a member you can experience these for free sometimes! I did this and it was fantastic.

Secondly, there is youtube! youtube is your greatest friend even inside of University. You can find so many tutorials and artists willing to share their skills and techniques. I learnt a lot of my animation from YouTube and also books but I will come to the books next...

Books! Books are fantastic to get as an artist, especially concept art books of films and games. The best book I got was the one my lecture gave me, it is called 'The Animator's Survival Kit' by Richard Williams. It's £35.00 and it has everything you need to know and learn about animation from simple ball bouncing animations to walking animations to jumping and facial expressions! This was my life line in University and I still use it to this day. It shows you frame by frame sketch work and shows you how to even draw if you're struggling with perspectives or character designs.

I do most of my animation on photoshop too as due to my background as a Graphic Designer, I do most of my work digitally on there. Photoshop has an offer of a timeline where you can simply click and it adds a timeline ready for an animation to be made. This may be a good starting point/programme for you as photoshop is very simple to use... Then you can move on to other programmes!

For stop motion animations, you can simply use your phone to take pics and edit them on photoshop too in a similar way or Premier Pro. Or you can use Aardman's own app on your phone where it does all the editing for you!

3D animation is a bit tougher due to the programmes being quite expensive, especially the one that companies use which is called Maya. Maya was great to learn in University as then we didn't have to worry bout the costs as I heard it could be around £1,000 for a subscription. This may work for your budget but for a student it was a lot! But you will see job searching that almost everywhere wants you to be skilled in 3D and especially Maya. ZBrush is a lot cheaper and is the one I use- you can get a free mini version of it but it is restricting when it comes to making proper models.

I hope this helps!
El

Reply 10

Unclecomp

8

The genre of "animmation" is massive. If you want to do 2d animation I would reccomend a software like Adobe After effects (or Paint)
3d Animation i more fun and i would reccomend Blender www.blender.com
It is a free program which allows you to not only animate but a frikload more beides. if you want to talk more about this i can message you/ or you can message me.
I know this is not really what you were askling but i hope it does slightly help

Original post by ShanC

I graduated from university back in 2018 and after a couple years of soul searching I’ve realised that I would really like to get into animation as a career if at all possible. Looking into it I would really like to get into character design or concept artist or along them lines.
I have no idea where to start or where to look for evening courses. I can’t go back to university as my funds are limited. I am from Stoke on Trent so something along near there (Staffordshire area) or online. If anyone has any advice or websites they can offer I would be very grateful.

Hi @ShanC!

It's really awesome to see someone pursuing an interest in Animation! My name is Rohnak and I'm currently studying The Art of Computer Animation at Escape Studios. If you're looking at Animation as a career, I genuinely do recommend one of their online Short Courses. Their approach to the subject is focused on making students industry-ready. As a student, I have worked in modules that were created with input from British Animation and Visual Effects studios. Here are examples of some of our courses which are available online.

• (3D) Animation
• 2D Animation
• Storyboarding and Previsualisation
• Character and Creature Creation

Most of these courses are also available in an "Advanced" 18-Week version. You can find the full list of courses here! All Escape students, whether on a Short Course, Undergraduate Course, or Postgraduate Course, also get access to our library of animation tutorials. These show you how to do everything from making characters "lip-sync" to audio, creating awesome parkour scenes, and even animating a sprinting tiger!

Hopefully these are right for you. If you have any more questions about Escape Studios or Animation in general, feel free to reach out! I hope that you have find success as an Animator. :biggrin:

Good Luck!
Rohnak
Escape Studios Student Rep

Reply 12

ShanC

OP

6

Hi Rohnak,

Thank you for your response and advice.
This is a massive coincidence I have signed up for a course with Escape Studios a couple of weeks ago in 2D Character Design, I start in October and I cant wait :smile:

Kind regards
Shannon

Original post by ShanC

Hi Rohnak,

Thank you for your response and advice.
This is a massive coincidence I have signed up for a course with Escape Studios a couple of weeks ago in 2D Character Design, I start in October and I cant wait :smile:

Kind regards
Shannon

Hi Shannon!

My name's Zoe and I'm also a Student Ambassador at Escape Studios studying The Art of Computer Animation (3D).

I just wanted to pop on here and say good luck! It's great to hear that you'll be joining us and if you have any more questions, feel free to reach out!

- Zoe
Escape Studios Student Rep

Hello.

I’m currently in my final year is studies - studying 3D animation.

Great news to hear you’ll be joining us - I have thoroughly enjoyed my time studying at escape and I hope you will too. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or ever need any help.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 15

Unclecomp

8

Hey

Animation… where do I start?

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