Animation Rigs: Interview with Kevin Freeman
BIO: Kevin Freeman Founder of AnimationRigs.com
Kevin Freeman is a senior level character rigger and animator who has worked professionally for the last 6 years and with 3D since 3D Studio Release 1 (1991, back in the day). He is currently animating on "Open Season" after recently finishing up character rigging and animation for "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." His work as a character rigger and animator brings a unique understanding to how animation and character rigging work hand-in-hand. In addition to his current work he has also worked as a character animator and rigger on films such as "Spider-man II", "Monster House", "Charlie's Angels" and more.
AnimationMentor.com:
What is AnimationRigs.com?
Kevin Freeman:
We are an online character rigging training site dedicated to providing professional level training, tools and rigs for character setup. Animators, character setup artists, and anyone wanting to learn more will find a growing range of training courses covering beginning, intermediate and advanced skills for character set up all taught by industry professionals.
AnimationMentor.com:
What inspired AnimationRigs.com?
Kevin Freeman:
Originally AnimationRigs.com was going to be a book called, "The Guts of it. Everything I wanted to know about character setup but could never find explained." It molded itself into an online training site as I became frustrated with the limitations of the book medium. The site is always "live" so if the technology changes or we find better ways of explaining an idea we can update it right away. If we want to add another training topic we can do so without reprints and the content is available to our subscribers right away. As with many books I began talking to my co-workers and friends about how they would like to contribute and ultimately decided to open the site for industry professionals to contribute anything they would like: how to's, interviews, work flows, tips and tricks, and more on the topic of character rigging.
AnimationMentor.com:
What do subscribers get when they sign up?
Kevin Freeman:
Subscribers have complete access to interactive full resolution (1024x768) Maya training videos that can be watched from INSIDE Maya or viewed through a normal web browser. You may watch as many videos and lectures as you want, as many times as you want, for the duration of your subscription. No Limits. This includes all new videos posted during your subscription period (we will be posting at least one new video each month). All non-commercial subscribers will have access to all of our animation and rigging tools as part of their subscription.
AnimationMentor.com:
What is the relationship between AnimationRigs.com and AnimationMentor.com?
Kevin Freeman:
Animation Mentor and AnimationRigs.com make a great team. We have been building, and will continue to build a long standing relationship with our friends at Animation Mentor. Our training courses are available as supplemental learning for all AM students at a discount rate (10% off). Animation Mentor students are already using some of our first generation tools in their curriculum to help their animation work flow and several AM students have helped us beta test our "Fundamentals of Rigging" training and provided insightful feedback as we prepared for launch. We believe that Animation Mentor is doing amazing work with the right approach and AnimationRigs.com is going to continue to support them in that endeavor by providing training, tools, and support.
AnimationMentor.com:
What can you tell us about the vision of AnimationRigs.com?
Kevin Freeman:
Our goal is to help diminish the learning curve and to educate people on all aspects of character rigging with the animator in mind. We envision our site as a community where riggers, animators, modelers, etc can come to learn, share ideas, and contribute toward the overall improvement of animation and how we work with animated characters.
We strive to constantly improve and will use feedback from our users to help us do so. We are in the process of implementing a "What do you want to learn" program so that our users can request and vote for what type of training will be released next. We love our jobs and we look forward to sharing some of the tips we have learned along the way with anyone that would like to learn.
Kevin Freeman is a senior level character rigger and animator who has worked professionally for the last 6 years and with 3D since 3D Studio Release 1 (1991, back in the day). He is currently animating on "Open Season" after recently finishing up character rigging and animation for "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." His work as a character rigger and animator brings a unique understanding to how animation and character rigging work hand-in-hand. In addition to his current work he has also worked as a character animator and rigger on films such as "Spider-man II", "Monster House", "Charlie's Angels" and more.
AnimationMentor.com:
What is AnimationRigs.com?
Kevin Freeman:
We are an online character rigging training site dedicated to providing professional level training, tools and rigs for character setup. Animators, character setup artists, and anyone wanting to learn more will find a growing range of training courses covering beginning, intermediate and advanced skills for character set up all taught by industry professionals.
AnimationMentor.com:
What inspired AnimationRigs.com?
Kevin Freeman:
Originally AnimationRigs.com was going to be a book called, "The Guts of it. Everything I wanted to know about character setup but could never find explained." It molded itself into an online training site as I became frustrated with the limitations of the book medium. The site is always "live" so if the technology changes or we find better ways of explaining an idea we can update it right away. If we want to add another training topic we can do so without reprints and the content is available to our subscribers right away. As with many books I began talking to my co-workers and friends about how they would like to contribute and ultimately decided to open the site for industry professionals to contribute anything they would like: how to's, interviews, work flows, tips and tricks, and more on the topic of character rigging.
AnimationMentor.com:
What do subscribers get when they sign up?
Kevin Freeman:
Subscribers have complete access to interactive full resolution (1024x768) Maya training videos that can be watched from INSIDE Maya or viewed through a normal web browser. You may watch as many videos and lectures as you want, as many times as you want, for the duration of your subscription. No Limits. This includes all new videos posted during your subscription period (we will be posting at least one new video each month). All non-commercial subscribers will have access to all of our animation and rigging tools as part of their subscription.
AnimationMentor.com:
What is the relationship between AnimationRigs.com and AnimationMentor.com?
Kevin Freeman:
Animation Mentor and AnimationRigs.com make a great team. We have been building, and will continue to build a long standing relationship with our friends at Animation Mentor. Our training courses are available as supplemental learning for all AM students at a discount rate (10% off). Animation Mentor students are already using some of our first generation tools in their curriculum to help their animation work flow and several AM students have helped us beta test our "Fundamentals of Rigging" training and provided insightful feedback as we prepared for launch. We believe that Animation Mentor is doing amazing work with the right approach and AnimationRigs.com is going to continue to support them in that endeavor by providing training, tools, and support.
AnimationMentor.com:
What can you tell us about the vision of AnimationRigs.com?
Kevin Freeman:
Our goal is to help diminish the learning curve and to educate people on all aspects of character rigging with the animator in mind. We envision our site as a community where riggers, animators, modelers, etc can come to learn, share ideas, and contribute toward the overall improvement of animation and how we work with animated characters.
We strive to constantly improve and will use feedback from our users to help us do so. We are in the process of implementing a "What do you want to learn" program so that our users can request and vote for what type of training will be released next. We love our jobs and we look forward to sharing some of the tips we have learned along the way with anyone that would like to learn.