Where can i learn?

Anonymous · ‎11-05-2016

Hello im a student 13yrs old, but unfortunately my school does not provide graphics most schools in London most schools don't provide graphics which is a disappointment, but where can i learn Maya that can make me a professional or is there someone who can teach me via Skype or anything else and my other question is how can i get this down below

Access free teacher training materials and free teacher certification

Because when i click on the link it says it's no more available

thanks,

Regards

Akshay Thata

saihtam · ‎11-05-2016

Hey Akshay,

Well you're living in the right city to learn/use Maya! If you don't know, you have a bunch of the worlds best VFX companies in London. You've got DNeg on Great Portland Street, Framestore on Wells street, MPC at Wardour Street and Industrial Light and Magic at Shaftesbury Avenue. You also have a ton of learning opportunities with many universities teaching Maya and CG(at varying levels of competence).

You can do some courses, but that'll be a LOT of money that I wouldn't recommend spending right now. I'll link to some anyway, so you have the information. I have no idea how good these courses are or if they're still going. I just did a quick google search for 'learn maya london'. Also, I'm not sure if these courses require anything from you or you need to be a certain age etc. Would be smart to check.

London College of Communication

Academy Class

Flood Light

Here is what I recommend you do. Watch tutorials on Youtube. Google. Try to learn what the different terms are. Google. Do more tutorials. Google. Do even more tutorials. Google. Schools can be good, but there is a ton of opportunities to learn for free online and there is a lot of really good stuff out there as well.

If you have work placement at your school then apply to one of the VFX companies in London. I know there was one student who was 16 I believe who did that one time. Also if you are looking for better tutorials that cover more subjects and programs I would recommend that you look at Pluralsight. It's a good website that has a ton of tutorials that cover a bunch of programs, not only limited to CG. And just make stuff in Maya. Try to figure out what you like. Post your work online and try to get some feedback.

I don't think you'll find a school that does graphics only when you're 13, then again I don't know the UK education system that much. I'd recommend that you learn as much 'normal' school stuff that you can. You'd be amazed at how much maths can help you with CG! You can easily find colleges/universities in the UK that does CG. I'd recommend that you try to learn as much art you can as well. Being good at drawing can help a lot. Having a good eye for detail etc is very, very important in the industry. And one can easily tell who has a good background in arts.

Some other links that I would recommend that you have a look at:

Flipped Normals - Introduction to 3D

Flipped Normals - The Creative Student’s Handbook – Introduction

Flipped Normals - The Creative Student’s Handbook – Schools!

Tutorial sites:

Community sites:

I hope I provided you with some useful information. Please feel free to ask any more questions you may have and we'll do our best to try and answer.

- Mathias

Anonymous · ‎11-05-2016

Cool, thanks for the information, what software should i learn in order to become a Lead Animator for like Games and how to become a modelling supervisor

-So what softwares should i learn for Lead animator for like games

-What softwares or what should i learn for modelling supervisor

-my other questions are is there any private mentoring instead of courses?

saihtam · ‎11-05-2016

Like I kinda touched upon in my previous reply, the software isn't the most important thing. It's your understanding of the profession you're going to do. An animator should know what makes a good animation no matter what tools. You can always learn new software. It's not the program that makes a good animation, it's the artist. Life drawing can be very helpful for modelers and animators as it really trains your eye to understand how a human body can pose it self and create interesting shapes with a body. Especially since you're this young I would very, very much try to open your eyes more to the classical side of things. You might think you want to animate or model now, but in six months you might figure out that you love to do textures instead of modelling. Rigging instead of animation. And all the classic art knowledge that you will have will help you no matter which path you choose. It's just something that I see a lot of in new people, too much focus on programs and not enough focus on actually creating art. The program is just a tool. And such some programs will make your work easier, but it will still be you making the work. Okay, mini-rant over.

Maya is the industry leading program in a lot of creative fields now. Especially VFX. It's getting more traction in games as well after they start to get more and more cinematic. Maya has some very solid animation tools and is getting a lot better on modelling. Just with the last couple of releases it has improved significantly.

So to answer your questions:

-So what softwares should i learn for Lead animator for like games

Maya.

-What softwares or what should i learn for modelling supervisor

Here you usually go for two programs. One for high-resolution sculpting(ZBrush or Mudbox) and one for making the base meshes etc(3DS Max, Maya)

Maya and Mudbox play well together since they are from the same company(Autodesk) and have very similar navigation style as well. And both are quite easy to get into.

-my other questions are is there any private mentoring instead of courses?

There are several websites that provide this, but I would not recommend this at all right now. Find out what you want to do first. Then specialize. Try everything. Don't focus on animation and modelling now. Trust me. Try everything, at least just to know kinda what it is. This will also help you in your career to be able to communicate better with your fellow artists.

You've got websites like Puppeteer Lounge that does modelling and animation mentoring. Again, I would NOT do this until you have found a path that you really like. Do the free tutorials and stuff you can now. Figure out something that you like and that you're good at!

Hopefully I managed to sneak in some more helpful stuff there. Let us know if you still have any questions 🙂

- Mathias