Attention: Mid-level to Pro Maya Animators.
Struggling To Animate Faster in Maya and Can't Hit Those Deadlines?

..or lose motivation easily cause it takes way too long?
Finally, A New Workflow Using Maya Tools Will Skyrocket Your Efficiency.
Animation is an art form that takes a lot of time and patience to master... 

You may be familiar with this scenario:
 
There is something you want to animate, and you get pumped up to create a piece for your demo reel. 

Your interest in the whole shot wears off after a few days.  

Your original spark fades away, and you never complete that shot… 
 And it sits in a folder with some other free rigs you downloaded months ago.

 Never to be revisited…

 Animating something new is exciting, but it takes so much time… It is especially frustrating when you hit a technical wall or when your rig breaks. 

 Having worked in the AAA game industry for 9 years, I have witnessed senior animators fail miserably when animating technically complicated shots. 

 You may have taken classes from other schools that convinced you to make you animate in this order: Planning > thumbnailing > sketching > stepped blocking > blocking plus > splining > polish.

 This is a great workflow, and I believe this will help you to become a better animator… However, this workflow sometimes doesn’t end up being the most efficient when you have deadlines, especially in the video game industry... 

Sometimes you need to get your hands dirty…

 Like temporarily changing the rig controls to work for you, or using tools to save you time, such as Animbot << That’s a really good one, BTW. 
 
You're doing yourself a disservice if you ignore using these tools. 

Hi, My name is Stefan Iverson

I have worked on games such as Tomb Raider, Avengers, and Last of Us Part II. 


and I have taught the game animation techniques to many animators.

You can see my passion started for video games started early.

I matured a little in the second pic, but I still like to play indie games and create game animations.

While working in the video game industry, I wanted to become a faster animator, so I looked into more optimal workflows; I hired different top-level animators to coach me one on one. 


And signed up for high-level animator classes to learn about different workflows... The workflows that I completely had opposition to in the beginning… 

 

I wanted to get out of my comfort zone and bring my workflow to an optimal level with the new techniques I learned.


...Also learn more about the tools that these animators were using. 


 I used to be against tools and hotkeys, but at the end of the day, I concluded that "tools are just tools," and they’re there to help animators.


You can actually animate faster without sacrificing quality with a specific workflow and some tools that help speed up things. (Paid and Free)


Let me give you an example... 


You probably know the layered workflow… 


it's when you work inside out... 


Just animating the hips, then moving on to the chest >> head >> arms in that order. 


Just like you’re working inside out. 


Common misconception: 

You don't always have to animate the hips first
 
instead, you can start with the main leading body parts.
 
...and then easily distribute that motion to other body parts with the help of a tool. 

 >>This tool is called OverRig Script tool. 

It's a paid tool which is a huge part of this workflow. 

So with this workflow, let’s animate the head motion first.

I set only rotation keys on the head while ignoring the lower body motion. Let's focus on the leading body part first! 

Now let's grab the neck control and put that inside the head controller. (This is like the Parent tool in Maya, but it doesn't mess up the motion, it's a safer way) Notice when I move the head controller the necks rotation moves with it. 

Let's select the neck and add that to an animation layer... with the help of this tool, you can shift select the whole timeline and freeze the motion in the layer.


Pay attention when I drag the layer weight to the left neck gets affected less. 


Look, we have a neck control that feels more connected to the head!

Put the Chest inside the Neck Space... 

Now lock the rotations on the chest space using animation layers...

See how you can get realtime feedback by dragging the slider on animation layers?

You can even choose your percentages on how much you want any body part to be affected.

...and that only took like over 1 minute to complete!

now you can do the same today now that you have this information...

 With this workflow, you animate with fewer controls and feel the energy of the shot while squinting your eyes a little. Lol.

Once you understand the workflow, animation becomes very efficient, but this workflow isn't for beginners. 


The fundamentals of creating great poses and a good understanding of timing must come first!

If you got something out of this little section. 


and if you would like to get more in depth workflow tutorials like these, 


I would like to introduce you to the....

AAA GAME ANIMATION WORKFLOWS COURSE

for the last couple months I have been teaching a small group of animators about the workflows that I have learned working in AAA for the last 9 years. 


The workflows that help you to become an efficient animator.


...and I put all these recordings in a bundle. 

What's inside this course?

Tools Lectures

9 short tutorials of my favorite tools inside Maya. 

+4.5 hour video

Why the stepped workflow is slower but has it's benefits when it comes to artistic expression?

How to rig any character using the default bones with OverRig Script.

The Secret mindset to create great poses. 

The quickest and easiest way to animate cameras is with the help of animation tools.

How to retime your shots easily with Maya built-in tools.

How to analyze references before animating. 

+2.5 hour video

How to plan your animations by animating simple objects such as cubes and spheres. ( This is a part demo of one of my favorite workflows called Primitive Planning)

Learn the fastest way to create cycle animations with the help of borrowing motions from the hip and applying them throughout the whole body.

The tips and tricks on how to make a cycle travel forward and change direction.

A step-by-step guide on how to plan your shots by analyzing the reference.

How to add overlap using OverRig Scripts.

+8 hour video

This is a straight-ahead animation workflow for creating combat animations for your demo reel.

You'll learn how to craft dynamic poses by the principles from old street fighter games. 

 How to push the poses to be more dynamic using animation layers, all the tricks about animation layers. 

How to re-time your animations to fit the gameplay. 

Learn all the technical things about hit frames and recoveries. 

How to find your Center of Mass by using a free script you can find online. 

Polish techniques for the last 5 percent. 

+2 hour video

An in depth way of creating personality based locomotions.

Learn how to create animations by the layering method.

Understand how to change the distance and timing of a walk cycle.

How to make a walk cycle move forward infinitely

+30 minute video

In this demo, I will teach you how to add a secondary character on top of the main character with the help of a tool inside.

Learn to create automatic overlap.

+1.5 hour video

First part of the video you'll learn how to layer in a backflip motion

in the second part you'll get a workflow on how to push the poses and timing to make it more appealing. 

+1 hour video

Learn how to put it all together by animating in a layered way and using the space-switching technique. 

This is Stefan's favorite workflow to block things out very quickly.

+1 hour video

Learn to pose a kick animation by looking at references and pushing the timing.

There are many cool workflows in this lecture.

+1.5 hour video

The most efficient way of creating idles for gameplay.

Discover what makes a good idle pose for video games. 

Creature idle and Biped idle demo.

+50 minute video

How to analyze reference and find out the timing of your shot using the Primitive Planning method

How to craft strong combat poses for creatures.

Learn the in-between techniques using OverRIg Script.

+50 minute video

Discover every technical detail you need to know when it comes to animating hit react animations for games. 

How to quickly figure out your timing to test it out if it works for gameplay using the Primitive Planning Workflow.

+30 minute video

Learn how to create acrobatic movements witch space switching, once you understand this workflow it will be hard to go back to pose to pose workflow. 

+2 hour video

This is by far one of the best lectures I have had! in this lecture, you'll see how I animate a creepy move with the layered workflow with advanced techniques using overRig scripts. 

Learn the proper way how you can distribute motion to affected body parts.

I go in-depth into how to use animation layers, arc tracker, mirroring and other tools that I like to use.

This lecture is a great build-up of the stuff we've learned. 

+50 minute video

over the 9 years I have been animating. I used these 3 main techniques on editing motion capture in Maya. 

You'll get an intro lecture on these 3 workflows.

Here's what AAA Game Studio Workflow Members are saying:

This course totally transformed my animation workflow! 

Stefan absolutely nailed it by breaking down techniques and tools in a super easy-to-understand way. He shared some seriously helpful tips for solving the everyday hurdles animators face in game animation workflows.

 I'm now animating like way better and faster, all thanks to this awesome course! 

Felipe Z.
Animator for VR Games

As someone who don't have a lot of experience as a 3D Animator this course was really helpful to have a better understanding of space switching and to learn a very efficient workflow. It's very different of what we learn in school. It's more about the efficient and the easiest way to do things to save time and have things done on deadline. Thanks again for this amazing opportunity Stefan

Matthieu P
Animation student

Stefan helped me understand space switching and how to utilize it efficiently in a work environment. He helped improve my workflow, get my animations into engine fast, and cut down the time spent on animating. Definitely worth the investment!!

Peter 
Indie Games Animator

I was working, so I watched the recordings and learned from them. The best part of the course is that you can see what a professional game animator sees in the references through multiple movements. We also use efficient tools, but I believe that understanding the underlying concepts and why we do what we do will improve your workflow as well. Thank you Stefan!

Yuta
Animator

Originally I planned to sell each of these modules as an individual course for $47 each. 


If you put all these 15 modules together, the price would be $705.


however, I want to give this out for a more affordable price... 


Which is only: 

$250

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Looking to buy this course for your studio? 
Message me at:
gameanimatoracademy(at)gmail(dot)com

  • Total payment
  • 1xAAA Game Animation Workflows$250
    -+

All prices in USD

NOTE: AFTER THE PURCHASE YOU'LL BE ASKED TO CREATE A PROFILE. 


PLEASE ALLOW 8 HOURS TO BE ACTIVATED

Frequently Asked Questions:
  • Does this course provide the tools for free?
    No, it will only show you how to use them to animate faster.
  • Is this class live
    No, this is a recording of a 5 week workshop.
  • When I'm stuck, can I ask questions?
    You can reach me anytime through this website. I will try to get back to you as quickly as possible.
  • Is there a refund policy?
    No. I currently don't give a refund.
    My courses tend to get ripped off and pirated on many sites.
    I don't want to give a refund to these people:)
  • I'm a beginner would you recommend this?
    This course is good for you if you are already familiar with the Maya interface and know how to animate basic objects and rigs.
    If you're starting out newly I don't recommend you buy this course.
  • How long is this recording of these demos?
    There are +33 hours of worth of recordings

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