Creature Animation:
Locomotion
Pro Animators Mentor You to Be Successful
Our creature mentors have over 100,000+ credits combined and are from well-known studios such as Industrial Light & Magic, Blue Sky, The Chudnoffs and Sony Imageworks into the battle. Work with veteran animal and creature animators 1:1 every week.
Why Take Creature Animation: Locomotion at Animation Mentor
1-on-1 Feedback From a Studio Pro
During the 12-week workshop you'll have live Q&As with your mentor each week in addition to receiving a recorded training video from a professional game animator and an assignment designed to build your skills. Plus, your mentor will review and critique each of your assignments and provide you with a weekly video of their feedback so you can improve your work.
Gain Access to Pro Animal and Creature Rigs
You'll gain access to professional rigs like four-legged animals, a fantasy creature, a mechanical robot, and an ape. After you finish learning you can keep them for future projects.
Live Weekly Q&As
Join weekly live Q&A sessions with your mentor on top of on-demand lectures and creature animation assignments: real-time guidance to keep your shots progressing.
Ongoing Rig Access
Keep access to the professional animal and creature rigs after the workshop so you can keep building your creature reel beyond class.
What You'll Be Able to Do
- Create a quadruped walk cycle using a leopard animal rig
- Animate realistic predatory movements using a big-cat rig
- Bring fantasy creatures to life by animating a fantasy creature theory and walkthrough
- Understand the principles of animal locomotion across walks, runs and other gaits
- Apply weight and physicality to your creature animation so movement reads as real
- Push facial expression and exaggeration so your creature reads with personality
- Polish and refine your animated creatures into reel-ready, portfolio-quality shots
- Review and apply an introduction to animal and creature animation across the workshop
Skills You'll Gain
Reel Pieces You'll Walk Away With
Creature Animation: Locomotion is built around hands-on animal and creature exercises, each one a polished, portfolio-ready shot for your demo reel.
Quadruped Walk Cycle
A believable four-legged walk cycle animated on a leopard rig, demonstrating weight, timing, and the mechanics of animal locomotion.
Predatory Movement
A realistic big-cat performance: a prowling, stalking or running predator that shows mass, force, and lifelike physicality.
Fantasy Creature Walk
A fantasy creature brought to life from theory to walkthrough, refined and polished into a reel-ready shot with personality and appeal.
The Creature Animation: Locomotion Curriculum
Quadruped Walk Cycle & Principles of Locomotion
Create a quadruped walk cycle on a leopard rig and learn the principles of animal locomotion.
Start with the foundation of all creature work: the four-legged walk.
- Create a quadruped walk cycle using a leopard animal rig
- Learn the theory and mechanics of quadruped walks
- Understand the principles of animal locomotion
Animal Locomotion & Performance
Build on weight and physicality, then animate a realistic animal locomotion and performance shot.
Move from cycles to performance, grounding your creature in real-world physics.
- Understand weight and physicality in creature animation
- Animate animal locomotion and performance
- Apply locomotion principles to a moving creature
Realistic Predatory Movements
Animate realistic predatory movements using a professional big-cat rig.
Capture the force and intent of a predator on the move.
- Animate realistic predatory movements
- Work with a professional big-cat rig
- Convey mass, power and lifelike physicality
Fantasy Creatures: Theory & Walkthrough
Bring fantasy creatures to life with a guided theory and walkthrough.
Take everything you've learned and apply it to invented anatomy.
- Animate a fantasy creature from theory to walkthrough
- Adapt locomotion principles to non-real anatomy
- Build a personality-driven creature performance
Polishing & Review
Polish your animated creatures and review the foundations of animal and creature animation.
Refine your shots to a professional finish and consolidate your skills.
- Polish your animated creatures to reel quality
- Apply final refinement and clean-up
- Review the introduction to animal and creature animation
Ready to Start Animating?
Creature Animation: Locomotion is a 12-week, mentor-led course. Apply at Animation Mentor, choose your mentor, and register for class.
- 12-week mentor-led course
- Weekly live Q&As + 1:1 feedback
- Taught in Autodesk Maya
- $2,499 USD
Frequently Asked Questions
Creature animation is the craft of bringing animals and imagined creatures to life through movement, from believable quadruped locomotion to the weight, physicality and performance that make a creature read as real.
Creature animation appears across feature films, VFX and games: any project where realistic animals or fantasy creatures need to move and perform believably on screen.
Students apply what they learn here to animal and creature work across studios. You choose your mentor from working professionals who have shipped on major productions.
The workshop is taught in Autodesk Maya. You'll also need a computer that meets the minimum requirements, and the course is taught in English.
You need a working understanding of Autodesk Maya. If you're brand new to Maya, start with our Maya Workshop first, then come back for Creature Animation: Locomotion.
If you're not satisfied, reach out about the workshop's refund policy. The course is application-based. Apply at Animation Mentor, choose your mentor, and register for class.
