Thursday 22 August 2013

Why I love Teaching...

My love for teaching is one of those things that caught me by surprise.  I was never one for public speaking, or oral presentations.  I sucked at it.  Ironically, when I was offered a temporary teaching job in the 3D Animation program at Dawson College in Montreal, I said yes instantly.  

The thing I love most about teaching is that I get to fall in love with animation all over again.  I see the look on my students faces when I show them something awesome, and it's so rewarding.  Getting back to the fundamentals of animation and really dissecting it not only gives them a good foundation and understanding, but also reinforces it in my own career.  

I'm not one to recite the Animator's Survival Kit from Richard Williams, nor do I bombard them with cool scripts and tech knowledge about Maya.  I'm more of a show and tell type of teacher.  I love to get my hands dirty and show them how to animate a basic walk cycle from the ground up.  Students want to see you set keys, figure out spacing, add in betweens and settles right from your computer screen.  As artists, we absorb information with our eyes the most, so I find it important to be as visual as possible in my lectures.  

My next teaching gig is with the awesome people at iAnimate.  I'll be teaching the "Intro to Games Workshop", which is mostly about the fundamentals of animation and working with Maya.  Really looking forward to it!

Check out the class ouline here: 
http://ianimate.net/games-intro-workshop-breakdown.html