Character Animation Fundamentals in Blender By Beorn Leonard
This training series covers all the fundamentals of Character Animation in Blender. During this series, you will learn many of the fundamental skills that are essential for all character animators. This series makes use of both simple ball rigs and a complete character to allow you to really focus on what really matters, the animation. Some highlights of this series include fundamental exercises, timing and spacing, working with overlapping motion, animating walk and run cycles for film or games, understanding IK and FK, using the Grease Pencil for animation sketches, and much, much more! You can view the complete chapter breakdown HERE
This series makes use of a pre-built character named Clive, modeled by Jonathan Williamson and rigged by Beorn Leonard. Clive works as a great introductory character that lets you focus on the movement during animation, rather than a bunch of accessories and other items that would only distract away from the task at hand.
What you’ll learn
This training series takes you through many of the essential skills every character animation artist should know by heart. You will learn about timing and spacing, overlapping motion, squash and stretch for cartoon character animation. You will also learn how to animate walk and run cycles for film or games, be given an understanding of IK and FK constraints, including when and how to use them. Not only that, but you will also learn how to use the grease pencil for sketching out animation sequences and much more.
To see much of this in action, check out the video below by Beorn for a look at what he covers throughout the serie. It’s full of awesome! You can find complete details on what is covered, and view some sample training and animations from the series by visiting the full training page HERE
Who is Beorn?
Beorn is a very proficient Blender user best known for his work on Sintel, on which he did a large amount of character and creature animation. He also just recently finished working as part of the animation team on Happy Feet 2
Order Now on DVD or as a Digital Download
The series is available for order from our shop! You can order now by clicking the button below.
I WANT IT. i’ll get it when i have more money. Is this the “great thing” ?
Nope, that will still be coming very soon
any more info on it.
is it a series?
modeling?
cycles?
this week.
I should be posting a teaser for it later tonight. It will include some modeling, Cycles, design, and more
I evidently missed something. What’s this “big thing” that I keep seeing reference too?
Is there a posting that I overlooked?
Thanx.
DJS
I posted a note on the homepage a week or so ago that said something along the lines of: “Get your Citizen pass ready, something awesome is coming your way!”. I am almost done with that awesome thing
Oh. I must have overlooked it. Thanx.
I’ll get my Citizen Pass ready for something Awesome
DJS
will it be a training series like this one and the other ones
Not exactly. I won’t say any more just yet other than to say that Citizen’s be happy
i appreciate there being more exclusive content. not that you post your tut as exclusives bu that you create higher quality content for us.
if it involves cycles then I’m good I just started learning
this actuall series is amazing. it explains a lot on how small little things work. i was floored at how awesome it was.
Me too !
I can’t wait for a volume 2 !!
Looks pretty good but it’ll have to wait til next month. Gonna need another Terabyte ext. hard drive. This one’s almost full. But maybe I’ll wait til I find out more about this “Great Thing” and just get both together, like I did with Kara and the Vehicle Series’. Cause if Jonathan is doing this I already want it. His tuts are more clear and easier to understand then some of the other ones out there.
Pre-ordered it when it was advertised. Also, waht does the “V1″ stand for? Version?
Volume 1
what is the difference between this one and the first one. i bought the first one do i need the second?
There is no difference, it’s the same series. This is merely a promotional post for our many new users who maybe didn’t see this
Having already purchased volume 1, I can highly recomend it to anyone who has an interest in character Animation. I am now looking forward to getting volume 2.
-OldMan44
Hehe, keep replaying the vid @ 2:09 and listen! lol What is that??? Guy sounds like a dragon eating a (semi)human infant. But on a serious note. This reel shows some of the best animation from Sintel in my opinion. I especially dig the part where Scales is winging it back to Sintel at the top of the Temple with his little tail flopping! Cracks me up every time knowing that such masterful body motion came from someone’s imagination.
Cannot wait to reach this level!
I have a problem with the video 2_4
If I save the file and open it again the mesh is no longer tied to the animation. The armature is still animates but the mesh no longer moves.
What should I do to prevent this happening?
i hope somebody can help me
If the armature is moving and not the mesh then you would need to check the armature modifier, that is what makes the mesh deform to match the armatures movement. Check that it is there and linked to the correct armature object, also that the preview/render buttons for it are turned on.
Hello Sambler
Thank you for your answer
unfortunately I can not verify the Modifierer because the mesh is linked.
I can also edit the rig in pose mode only.
Throughout the DVD will only work with proxy.
This makes sense for a large-scale production of a film company.
But for an animation tutorial, I think it’s rather unsuited.
But maybe I see it wrong.
Maybe I just need a shortkey, and everything is very simple …
greetings
patrick
Please excuse my English Google translation
The new architecture series may help explain linked armatures – see 01_07a – to use a linked in item you need to make a proxy of the armature to be able to animate it. An easy work around for learning is to duplicate the character file and use the new file for animating.
Hello
Thank you very much for your great effort to help me.
I have now started the tutorial archidektur make.
I’m not really interested in Archidektur.
I do not believe that it further helps me with my problem.
Furniture is not animated in most cases and have no rigs.
The new B-mesh mesh system I welcome.
Only there is absolutely nothing new for me.
I worked 4 years with Cinema 4d.
In Cinema 4d everything has long been known.
What would really help me would be;
Load a rig with a mesh of Beorn Leonard with a link to the scene.
Animate a few keyframes. If you do it so as Beorn Leonard shows alt Ctrl P and making the rig self-employed, this is not a problem. It is really easy.
Only ….
Then save the file.
open them again.
Now comes the big shock.
The rig is still as it should be. It is animated. Only if you had created a fake user.
But the mesh is no longer assigned to the rig!
You can not change the mesh.
Neither the modifier nor anything else.
The mesh is not really there.
It is linked.
I can not work through the tutorial purchased.
I can not leave my computer on day and night, only because I can not close the file. My wife would be really not happy about it. And they also want to sleep again without engine noise.
I made a support request to Blender cookies.
I am citizen.
But I fear they have no time.
They need more donations so they can employ more people.
greetings
patrick
Hi Patrick,
We’ll do our best to help you! To give us a better idea of what the problem might be, can you please send me the .blend file? I’ll take a look and see what the issue might be.
Cheers,
Jonathan
ok
you can make it append instead of linked.
in this way it goes.
But now to another topic;
I see that the animation is really good by Beorn Leonard (Video 2_4)
Unfortunately, I realize now that I really have no eyes for animation.
When I try to look ahead of what he wil going to do (in future)
I’m always wrong):
I hope I can learn it anyway ….
Hello Jonathan
Now I see the problem.
I went to source/chapter_2/2_3_ball_and_tail.blend.
There was no group.
So I went into the folder “objects”
I now understand that it needs a group!
I understand now that I’ve been looking at the wrong place.
Now I go to to source / rigs / basic_animation_rigs.blend
There, groups there.
With this group, everything works!
I’m sorry I’ve caused so many problems.
Thank you for your patient assistance.
I wish you a nice day
greetings from Switzerland
patrick
I finished the tutorial. Very good.So well explained that makes it easy : D. May I use clive for eleven second club? I’m used to rigify and he moves well. i just changed his texture
Please do
-Jonathan
superb I’ve seen just first tut and already learnt so many
thx.I thing about citizenship too but there is so many tut from you guys and I cant keep up 
or my brain isn’t able absorb it all
greetings from czech rep.
Bought It! … The showreel was too much for me, I had to do it! xD
This looks great!!! And i’m planning on getting it in May, hopefully it is still available by then because i need all the help i can get! Only one question though and I hope it isn’t too much. I understand the Mr. Leonard had been educated at Animation Mentor, which at the time is completly out of my budget finiancially plus i’m not 18 as yet :/ Could anyone please reccommend an alternative to accompany this DVD that will teach character animation? I have no doubts that this training series will be a tremendous help but i’d also like something more in-depth. Until i fit the requirements for AM i’m pretty much at my peak with my animation at this time. My apologies if this is not the appropriate place to ask.
Ianimate is a good alternative to animation mentor and only costs about half the price maybe less now I haven’t checked into the price at AM for a while. Not sure if that is better for your budget.
would it be illegal for me to download this tutorial via a torrent? Its not that I couldnt but I’d not like to hurt you guys coz I like what you are doing.
Cheers
Hi GIWI,
Technically yes, it is illegal to download the series via torrent. We cannot stop piracy of our work, but instead try to encourage people to purchase the series so that we can continue to produce more series the future
Cheers,
Jonathan
That’s OK I will have to wait I guess until I can afford it or maybe ask around if someone I know has already Purchased it.
I’d like to ask on that ik/fk snap in rig .where could I find more info about it.I was thinking to cut that part out but it seems to be very complex
jonathan please i need the caracter can you make a download for it ?
Do I gain access to this video for free if I buy the citizen membership?
Hi Damien,
This is separate product that is not included in the Citizen membership. However, our 2010 series is now free to all Citizen members. Our policy is that all training DVDs will be added to the Citizen library after they are two years old. We are also continually releasing full Citizen courses, such as the Interior Architectural Visualization course.
Cheers,
Jonathan
Hi.
When are you gonna release the Character Animation Fundamentals V2??
I am having issue importing the ball into a new blender scene, I have tried append and it is not working could some one please help.
I’m just going through this series again and I have a question for Beorn:
In the video 1.2 Bouncing Ball Exercise starting at 02:16, (Beorn) you say something like: at this point, the ball should actually be over here. Then you move it from above an ‘impact’ point to the top of an arc (impact point and all drawn with the grease pencil).
So, what I’m wondering is: Why should the ball be in the second spot and not the first at that frame? What are you basing that decision on?
It’s not that I don’t see (when watching the final playback of the animation) that it actually does need to move. It’s more that I’d like to know how to came to that conclusion so I have a deeper understanding.