The Gnomon Workshop has released Creature Animation for Film & VFX, a new Maya course from Senior Animator Francesco Barbera. Over four hours and seven lessons, he takes a single documentary style dinosaur shot from reference to final animation.
One thing to be clear on up front: the video is a trailer. The full course sits behind a Gnomon Workshop subscription, which we cover further down.
Who is Francesco Barbera?
According to CG Channel, Barbera is a Senior Animator at Frame by Frame with more than a decade of experience in film and VFX. He has worked at some of the biggest names in the business, including MPC, Framestore and DNEG.
His credits cover both features and TV. On the film side he lists Project Hail Mary, The Fantastic Four: First Steps and Masters of the Universe. For series work, he has animated on Prehistoric Planet and House of the Dragon, which makes a dinosaur shot a very natural subject for him to teach.
What the seven lessons cover
Rather than jumping between unrelated exercises, the course follows one shot all the way through. Gnomon has not published a breakdown of each lesson that we could confirm, but CG Channel describes the overall path like this:
- Studying reference and picking out the key elements that make a performance engaging and fit the client’s brief.
- Building the shot up through blocking, where the main poses and timing get locked in.
- A simulated review with a client and a supervisor, followed by working through their notes.
- Taking the shot from primary animation through to final polish.
That review step is the part many self taught animators never get to see. In a studio, your shot gets picked apart in dailies and you are expected to turn notes around quickly. Watching someone handle that process, and explain their choices, is a big part of what makes a course like this useful.
Barbera also talks through what is expected of an animator inside a VFX studio, and which tools he leans on to move faster in production. One thing the course does not cover is the creature interacting with water, since that would normally be handed to the effects team.
Software and tools used
The course is taught in Autodesk Maya. Barbera also uses animBot, a popular animation toolset for Maya, plus Andy J. Latham’s free Image Plane Loader add-on. The dinosaur rigs come from Truong CG Artist.
CG Channel notes that the focus is on professional process and decision making rather than any one toolset. So even if your setup is a little different, the thinking behind each step should carry over.
Price and how to access it
Creature Animation for Film & VFX is not sold as a one off purchase. It is part of a Gnomon Workshop subscription, which gives you access to more than 300 tutorials. CG Channel lists the price at $57 per month or $499 per year, and free trials are available.
FYI: CG Channel is owned by Gnomon, the company behind The Gnomon Workshop, and it says so on its coverage. We still found the course details useful, but it is good to keep in mind.
Who this course is for
Gnomon pitches this one at junior to intermediate animators who want a look at how a VFX studio workflow actually runs. If you already know your way around the Maya graph editor and can block out a walk cycle, this is the kind of course that shows you what changes when a client and a supervisor are in the loop.
Complete beginners may want to build the basics first. If you are still deciding on a learning path, our guide to VFX schools is a good place to compare options.
Before you sign up, watch the trailer closely. Pay attention to how the dinosaur’s weight shifts as it moves and how much of the shot is about small, subtle beats rather than big action. That is a good preview of the level of detail the full course is built around. For more training picks like this one, browse our Tutorials category.
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