School of Motion - Character Animation Bootcamp

12 Weeksof video lessons, podcasts, guides, community and critique from pros!

What's in a Pose?

Meet your classmates, get comfy with the course format, then dive right in with a lesson on using rigged characters. Be prepared for an Evaluation exercise designed to let us see where you are starting from.

Jumping right in

We'll kick things off by creating strong silhouettes and poses, which are the foundation of good character animation. After that you’ll move on to your first big animation challenge: setting the key poses for a jump. Nailing these key poses will enable you to easily transition to a solid jump animation next week.

Of Weight and Walk Cycles

Now we’ll move on to the fun part: Start animating the jump by "tweening", or adding the in-between frames, which After Effects does for you automatically. You will get plenty of practice in the graph editor tweaking the timing and spacing of those key frames to make the jump feel realistic, as if it has weight and mass. Then move on to your next challenge, nailing those key poses for a walk cycle.

Time to Throw Down

It's time to polish up that walk cycle and learn how to “stick” a character’s feet to the ground. You can even speed things up and take your character for a run in a bonus lesson. After that you'll learn the basics of a ball throw. This challenging pose requires a good understanding of how a character's body should move when completing a motion.

Momentum and Reference

This week is part lesson and part focus time. Start off with tweening your ball throw, which requires a mastery of demonstrating weight transfer in a character. During the focus week portion, Morgan will give you a quick lesson on how to create your own animation reference, and why it's important as a character animator to have this skill.

Breaking Down a Scene

Practice putting all of your skills to the test by animating an entire scene with a character. This is a great opportunity to start stringing all of the various movements you’ve learned together into a complete performance.

The Devil's in the Details

Practice putting all of your skills to the test by animating an entire scene with a character. This is a great opportunity to start stringing all of the various movements you’ve learned together into a complete performance.

Let's See what You've Learned

We'll put the final touches on the scene that you started in Week 6, and then it's time for your final project! We've devised a movie trailer complete with music, VO, character rigs, and extra artwork, giving you everything you need to create a killer piece of character animation for your portfolio.

Extended Critique Period

The final 4 weeks of class are Extended Critique. You can use this time to catch up, complete your final project, and then turn it in for critique.

A woman watching a school of motion lesson

Better than in-person training
School of Motion courses are unlike anything you've ever experienced. Along with world-class training, you'll also get 1-on-1 feedback from an industry pro, a 24/7 network of likeminded artists, and more support than you'll know what to do with.

Over 20,000 artists have taken School of Motion courses, find out what all the hype is about.

What makes us different?

Cohort-Based Learning

Join artists from around the world on our custom learning platform. Never learn alone, as you’ll have immediate access to a forum of fellow students to share work, ask questions, and improve together. 

Exercises and project files for every lesson

Each course comes packed with free project files, assets, and additional material to keep you learning and growing long after the course ends. Our exercises are designed from real world briefs, so you’re learning the skills you need to excel on your next project or venture.

Technical and creative support along the way

You’ll be assigned a Teaching Assistant with years of experience in your chosen course. They’ll provide technical and creative feedback to guide you through new skills, improve your techniques, and provide encouragement along your journey. 

Verified credential upon course completion

Completing a course isn’t just about bragging rights. Once you’ve completed at least 70% of your work in a given course, you’ll earn a verified credential that can show current and future employers exactly what you’ve accomplished.

Permanent access to course materials

We all need a refresher now and again, which is why you’ll keep access to your course—and all the assets and project files—for the rest of your life. Come back to listen to exclusive interviews, review old lessons, and try out new techniques using your old assets.

A world-wide alumni community

You’ll gain instant access to our alumni platform, The Square. Here you can network with professional artists at every stage of their career. You’ll get access to new job opportunities and exclusive alumni events, such as meetups, virtual hangouts and reel reviews.