Hello Creature Animators! We have a special little demo by Peter Kelly, Lead Animator at Industrial Light & Magic and mentor, as he walks through his animation shot of Dozer. Watch, learn, and go animate that creature!

-The Animation Mentor Crew

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When you are a student at Animation Mentor you get all these great perks such as the online Campus Q&As (webinars) which is open to all classes. Our mentors talk about the films they worked on and showcase their animation shots to hone in on a teaching moment such as polishing and staging. Each mentor will also focus on key animation topics and techniques. Students get to ask specific questions and interact with other mentors (that may not be their own) to learn more about their workflow techniques during the Q&A.

We snuck into Peter Kelly’s Campus Q&A where he talked about staging, polish, and some nifty production workflows. It was so awesome that we wanted to share a little bit with you.

In the snippet below, Peter talks about the polishing pass he uses in creature animation to help get an organic and natural performance. This is something that should be “felt” versus overtly seen by the audience and is achieved by adding small subtle overlapping and exaggerated motions on certain parts of the body. He added these subtle movements, such as the chest breathing, the waddle in the neck, the head tilt, the slight adjustment of the jaw, to really make Dozer feel organic and natural. Here’s a snippet of his hour long Q&A and how he approached the Dozer rig test, along with some great animation tips on polishing.

Here’s the final animation in all its glory!

Peter is a 14 year animation veteran and currently works at Industrial Light & Magic. Some of his work can be seen on Pacific Rim, Iron Man, and Transformers. He currently teaches Animation Basics and Creature Animation: Locomotion.