Course Outline

Working alongside Head of Animation Loyd Price and Aardman Co-founder and Creative Director Peter Lord we are pleased to offer Stop Motion 2, an industry-led online stop motion course. This 12-week course is standalone and you do not need to have completed our Stop Motion 1 Course to be able to join. More information about what is covered on this course and what level of skills are required to enrol are covered in the “PARTICIPANTS & APPLICATIONS” section below.

While Stop Motion 1 develops an understanding of principles of physical character movement, Stop Motion 2 delves into the advanced facial performance including conversational acting, lip sync, sculpting through mouth shapes, advanced full-body acting, acting with props, and creating characterful bi-ped performances alongside a vocal audio track. You will also learn aspects of the animation production pipeline, giving you an understanding of how work develops from animatic (moving storyboard) through to final shot and the vital role an animator plays in this.

The course is built around 12 weeks of supported teaching and tasks to develop practical skills in advanced character animation performances, delivered by a team of highly experienced tutors and mentors. This course is aimed at people from the industry, animation students, graduates and self-taught animators to help improve their practice, skills and abilities. 

You will be introduced to the week's activities via a live-streamed lecture with the course leader where you can ask questions, share ideas, discuss animation techniques and watch inspiring work. You will then be invited to explore the week's masterclasses and subsequent tasks, run and hosted by the animation team. These lessons have been created especially for this course alone. You can watch them as many times as you want, pause, freeze, and step through frame-by-frame should you wish. The tasks are usually in the form of two filmed briefings which invite you to attempt a task at home. When completed, you upload your finished task to our secure and private course community where your mentor will watch it before your weekly feedback session. From week 9 to 12 you are supported while you make your final moving image piece. There is a fully moderated active online community hub where you can share ideas, thoughts and support throughout the course.

We estimate that the weekly activities will take you around ten hours to complete. Once you start making your final moving project, you decide how much time you want to dedicate to it.