Sophoria Academy - Dragon Animation Masterclass

https://lms.sophoria.academy/course/dragon-animation-masterclass

Have you ever wanted to learn how to animate a Dragon? This 12 week course course will take you through all the fundamentals you need to know to accomplish the infamous challenge of animating a dragon in all it's glory. The only one of it's kind online! In this 12 week course you will learn how to animate a dragon flight cycle, dragon walk cycle. build animation asset to use later on, learn how to land the dragon and roar! At the end of the course you will learn how to animate the Dragon taking off. Your instructor has also created animation presets for you to load, aswell as cached animation files to enable you to reference in real-time while you work. Animating a Dragon is no easy task, the course starts off with an in-depth introduction to the character and the rig before you actually begin. Do not skip this part as there is so much to learn! Jonathan Symmonds, your instructor, former lead animator of the Game of Thrones and House of Dragons, will teach you all the tips and tricks you need to know. Join now!

What will I learn?

Introduction to the rig and how a dragon moves
Understand the fundamentals of flight
Create your own set of flight cycles and build up your library
Learn how to animate a character on a path and landing
A much better understanding of weight and timing
Landing a dragon and moving into a roar
Behavioral shifts in creatures during action
Asset library build and layered animation design
Learn how to take-off an extremely heavy creature
Camera switching and scripting cameras
Basic lighting setups for final look with Light Rig
Playblasting techniques and fine-tuning animation
Learn how to animation a Dragon Walk Cycle
Learn how to animate and cut an in-scene camera

About this 12 week course

One of the hardest characters to animate (besides and octopus) is a dragon! Why? Because there is hardly any reference of dragons and knowing how to get the timing correct on such a magnificent creature is a real skill. That being said, Jonathan Symmonds has over 8 years experience animating dragons, so who better to teach you than the man himself.

He will take you on a 12 week course where you will learn how to set up the scene for animating, build the environment and set up the cameras and lighting. You will take a deep dive into the rig and he will explain everything there is to know about the rig and how to use it properly. From there, animation begins, you will learn different flight cycle setups, from climbs, to glides, to turns and then you will put this into practice on a path.

Once the animation path is working it will be time to land the dragon. You will learn all about the weight of the dragon and how to slow it down before settling on the ground. Next you will be animating a roar! This is so cool!

From the roar it will be time to do a walk cycle and build your asset library for the final stages and take-off. The last part of the course will be the take-off and final output for your demo-reels!

Welcome to the course!