Mastering Motion

The course to take you from amateur to professional in 2D animation

Launches soon!

By completing this course, you will be able to:

☑ Create impressive animation effects

☑ Invent dynamic fight choreography

☑ Simulate 3D looking "camera movement" in your 2D hand-drawn animation

☑ Be guided by an award-winning animator

☑ Train the methods used in Anime and elite western studios

☑ Animate believable character performances

☑ Connect with a focussed class of animation students

WHAT'S INSIDE

MASTERING DRAWING

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All exclusive to the Mastering Motion course.

10 Lessons recapping the principles of drawing
12 Lessons on mastering drawing (beyond principles)
Total Video runtime: 4 hours
3 Assignments
2 test quizzes

Strengthen your ability to draw from observation and from imagination. Drawing is an inseparable part of high level frame by frame animation.
This chapter teaches you to:

✔  Design better characters for your animation

✔  Draw with more confidence

✔  Draw with more energy

✔  Draw your concepts faster

MASTERING ANIMATION

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All exclusive to the Mastering Motion course.

22 Lessons
Total Video runtime: 6.5 hours
6 Assignments
6 Source Files
2 test quizzes

Try a sample lesson here

I've invented 5 NEW SPECIAL ANIMATION PRINCIPLES to enhance your animation. Learn these principles with easy-to-follow exercises step by step. Whether you plan to work in Anime or western animation studios, these tools will make your animations:

✔ "faster" more energetic animations

✔  More visually interesting

✔  More dynamic

✔  Learn it all in one place

✔ Unique to this course

REFERENCE PROCESS

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All exclusive to the Mastering Motion course.

23 Lessons
Total Video runtime: 4.3 hours
3 Assignments
3 Step-by-step demonstrations
3 Source files

Try a sample lesson here

Reference footage is a crucial process in creating a convincing piece of animation. In this section, I show my step-by-step process for finding, creating and interpreting reference footage. After this unit you will know how to:

✔ Obtain the best reference footage
✔ Creatively capture references
✔ Extract the best poses
✔ Re-time keyframes to look dynamic and powerful
✔ Ascend the 3 levels of interpreting reference footage
+ It's a great way to adopt another animator's style - for those wanting to work in studios.

HAND-DRAWN CAMERA MOVEMENT

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All exclusive to the Mastering Motion course.

35 Lessons
Total Video runtime: 8.2 hours
4 Assignments
4 Step-by-step demonstrations
6 Source files

Try a sample lesson here

Exercises and demos which gradually increase in complexity. These will guide you through to mastery of this tough animation technique. Your animations will have more depth and dimension to them. It will feel like you can move anywhere in your scene. This course includes:

✔  Learn the 8 principles of 3D parallax
✔  Construct dynamic action scenes from any angle
✔  Characters feel like they are moving in 3D space
✔ Source files to explore
✔  Assignments of gradually increasing difficulty
✔  Watch me walk you through step by step demonstrations

COMBAT CHOREOGRAPHY

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Combat Choreography is exclusive to the Mastering Motion course.

15 Lessons
Total Video runtime: 1.6 hours
4 Assignments
3 Step-by-step demonstrations
3 Source files

One of the most popular subjects is also one of the toughest to master. This chapter will provide a full package of resources so that you can:

✔  Create an action scene of your own from scratch
✔  Freely improvise movement of the human body
✔  Boost the energy and flow of your choreography
✔  Have plenty of ideas for action scenes

CHARACTER ANIMATION

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All Character Animation lessons are exclusive to the Mastering Motion course.

45 Lessons
Total Video runtime: 10.3 hours
Supplementary tutorials on Adobe Premiere, Photoshop, OBS
1 Complete walkthrough from planning to final render
2 Assignments
1 Source file

Try a sample lesson here

Create a character animation scene from concept to finished render - with practical exercises set to help you learn.
Beyond the technicalities of drawing keyframes, I go in-depth with how to create a great character acting performance. You will learn how to:

✔  Act out your reference footage
✔  Shooting and interpreting
✔  Lip sync and character expressions
✔  Cel shade and colour fill
✔ Environment painting and animation
✔  The full workflow from concept to final render
✔  Acting performance workshop

ASSIGNMENTS

Hand-picked assignments throughout the course to exercise your creativity and introduce new animation concepts. The assignments build in difficulty as the course progresses. Watch your portfolio grow as you make your way through these chapters.

EXCLUSIVE COMMUNITY

Connect with other like-minded students in our private Discord server. This is a dedicated server where students can exchange resources, feedback, job postings and hold each other accountable to our goals.

USE THE SOFTWARE YOU ARE COMFORTABLE WITH

20% DISCOUNT - TVPAINT SOFTWARE

Save yourself ~$295 when buying TVPaint professional edition, or ~$118 with standard edition.

Members of my courses benefit from a 20%* discount on TVPaint software
TVPaint is not a requirement, but it is the software I recommend the most to my students.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

These are more like recommendations. No one will be turned away, but following these recommendations will help you to get the most out of the course.

✓ Animation Software

This course does not teach software. Sometimes you might need to adapt your approach if you don't have TVPaint.
The best software to use with this course is TVPaint (because that's what I use), but other inferior software will be sufficient. These are mostly frame by frame principles.
My pipeline after the animation phase includes Adobe Photoshop (for backgrounds), After effects (for compositing) and Premiere (for sound and final edit). There will be times in the course where I show you how I use these extra software.

✓ A Working Graphics Tablet

You are expected to have a working graphics tablet. Any will do.

✓ Basic Drawing Ability

These Basic drawing fundamentals are taught in my previous course. We also have a refresher seminar inside Mastering Motion to help you remember.

✓ Understand the 12 Principles

A rudimentary understanding is helpful to get the most out of the lessons. there is a refresher seminar inside Mastering Motion to help you remember

Not ready? Take my other course GETTING STARTED IN 2D ANIMATION

MEET YOUR MENTOR

My name is Howard Wimshurst
I'm an award-winning animator from London

I have been making animations for a little over 10 years. During that time, I have worked professionally for a variety of clients, ranging from documentaries to medical animations to commercials and music videos.
I have guest lectured at universities, produced over 170 videos on YouTube reaching millions of people. It has been a joy to read the responses of animators who have benefitted from my lessons. Now I will show you advanced animation methods you won't find anywhere else.

PAST REVIEWS

These are just a few of the past reviews of Mastering Motion and Getting Started. You can read more reviews of my last course on this page.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Will this course ever go on sale?
We don't do holiday sales, out of respect to the students who have already paid full price. We have a launch sale and that's it. The price is likely to increase with time. So what you see now is the lowest it will ever be. So the best opportunity to buy is always... RIGHT NOW!

What if I change my mind?
You have 30 days from pre-ordering to change your mind. I don't want to rush anyone into a decision they later regret.

What happened to the book?
I am in the process of writing a non-fiction book to guide people through the process of becoming a professional animator. The book will become available as a PDF and audiobook soon. I have decided to delay the official release of the book so that I can spend more time getting it to be word-perfect. In the meantime, pre-order students have access to a 20-part video series discussing the topics in the book.

What if I'm slower than the other students, or I need to take a break?
There is no time limit to finishing the lessons. I outline a proposed schedule for you to complete the lessons, but it is just a guideline. Life happens, and sometimes there are obligations that take a higher priority to your learning.

What devices can this course be viewed on?
It should be viewable on any computer, mobile or tablet made in the last 20 years. It is viewable in your web browser - no need to download an app.

I'm getting stung by VAT (value added tax). Is there any way to avoid this?
Teachable identifies the location of your purchase and calculates the tax of your country. Unfortunately it is the law of the land. It goes to the government.

What if I'm not experienced enough?
Take my beginner course - Getting Started in 2D Animation - it assumes you know NOTHING about animation. It builds your drawing, animation and film making fundamental skills from the ground up. Mastering Motion is only a small step up in difficulty from Getting Started. There is also some overlap to remind you of the foundation principles you learned in Getting Started.

Where will the course be available to enroll?
Right here on this webpage!

How long does it take to complete the course?
You can learn entirely at your own pace. If you decided to watch one lesson per day, it would take about 5 and a half months to complete the course. That is without counting all of the assignments along the way. I think it would be reasonable to complete the course within one year, but that will vary depending on the speed at which you learn. There is no restriction to course content, so you can skip ahead to lessons you care most about, or you can re-visit lessons as much as you like. It is a very flexible course.

Does the TVPaint 20% Discount Stack With My Student Discount?
Yes, if you are a registered student at a government-recognised institution your 50% student discount should stack with my 20% discount.

Can I take Mastering Motion without taking the Getting Started course?
Yes. If you have already learned about the basics of animation, or are getting taught the basics somewhere else, Mastering Motion will be ready for you to jump into. I have even added some principles recap lectures just as a refresher for you before getting into the harder concepts.

What can I do to prepare for the full course in March?
Firstly, you can take my Getting Started course if you haven't already. You can get familiar with your animation software of choice. I also recommend doing cafe sketch sessions. Bring your sketchbook to a coffee shop and draw the people / things you see. Do this as a daily practice.

What if I can't afford the course at the moment?
Wait and save up. You can join later on.

Can I download the lessons for offline use?
Yes. Beside each video lesson is a download button.

CONTACT

If you have any questions about the course, or if there is anything holding you back,
feel free to reach out to me, and I will try my best to help you with an answer.
howarddw@hotmail.co.uk

Disclaimer: Images of books and downloads are visual representations only. Everything offered is digital.
Animator Guild retains the right to terminate or refund any sale or membership at their discretion.