IAniimate Elite Games Workshop 3 character animation to tell a story.

iAnimate.net announces the Elite Games Animation Workshop 3, an interactive 14-week program directly pairing students with top working animators at the most recognizable game studios in the industry. The workshop offers a collection of master classes designed to sharpen artists game animation and storytelling skills. Courses begin September 8, 2014.

Watch the iAnimate Games Video.

The Elite Games Animation Workshop 3 includes a series of live talks, demos, reviews, and assignments that are designed to resemble an actual games production pipeline. In the workshop, instructors focus on techniques for games animation, which include timing, creating strong body mechanics, posing characters, player reactions, responsiveness of action, and more. Students also learn how to create interactive battles, cinematics, staging, and integration with popular game engines such as Unity.

“Our Elite Games Workshop brings together students and top animation instructors from triple A games studios around the world to share what it takes to excel in games animation today,” says Richard Arroyo, Head of Games Animation, iAnimate.net. “We give our students the tools and techniques they need to showcase their true value and be industry ready for games studios.”

THE COURSES AND INSTRUCTORS

Interactive Battles (weeks 1-2): Instructor Kevin Rucker, senior animator at Blizzard Entertainment, kicks off the workshop with the does and donts of game animationfrom planning parametric sequence references to simplifying the approach to execution.

Workflow, Camera Theory, and Cameras in Practice (weeks 3-5): Instructor Simon Unger, lead animator at Robotoki, has more than 13 years professional animation experience and recently served as animation director on the award-winning “Hitman: Abosolution” for Square Enix. Unger will cover the layout process, parametric animation, posing and framing as well as context, implementation, camera theory and cameras in practice, including basic composition, and how to stage a charcter on screen.

Creature Behaviors (weeks 6-7): Instructor Darryl Purdy, who before joining Eidos was animation director at Warner Bros. Games, Montreal, will use his more than 13 years experience in animation to demonstrate the processfrom layout to blocking. Purdy will also cover aligning worlds, setting up sequences, the block-in process, straight ahead and layered animation techniques, and more.

Cinematic and Games Performance/Interactive Games Cinematics (weeks 8-9): Lead Cinematic Animator and Instructor David Lam has more than eight years experience in games animation, working on numerous triple A titles for prominent games studios such as Activision, Lucas Arts, Bungie and Naughty Dog. Lams courses focus on cinematics, performance, and interactive games, including animation over technology, using references or mocap, keyframing, Interactive Game Cinematics (IGC), and more.

Special Lecture: How We Did It (weeks 10-12): Instructor Kristjan Zadzuk, animation director at Ubisoft Toronto, has more than 15 years industry experience, including credits on Ubisofts Splinter Cell Blacklist and Assassins Creed. Zadzuks course is a special lecture covering how we did it for an existing gamefrom animation, blocking, and setting up sequences to animation tips and techniques, workflow, and more.

The Game Engine (weeks 13-14): Instructor Bennie Terry III has more than 18 years experience as an art director and technical director in the film and games industry, working with companies such as Rhythm & Hues, Disney, and Marvel. Terry will focus on game engine development and analyzing and integrating an animation system.

JOIN THE WORKSHOP

For more details or to apply for the Elite Games Animation Workshop 3, begining September 8, 2014 and ending December 14, 2014, please visit iAnimate.net.

View the iAnimate Games Animation Student Showreel and Previous Games Workshop 3 Student Assignment Video.

ABOUT IANIMATE.NET

iAnimate.net puts students and veteran animators from top studios in direct contact to deliver the most effective online training in the industry. Our instructors are passionate about their craft and are dedicated to giving students the knowledge they need to be the best animators they can be.

iAnimate is a trademark of iAnimate.net. All other products or brand names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.

There is no doubt about it, the knitting craze has needled its way into pop culture and is here to stay. But for those knitters who have ideas that surpass the knitting patterns available to them, a new revolution in knitting is finally on the horizon. With Teach Yourself VISUALLY Knitting Design (Visual, an imprint of Wiley; January 2007; $ 24.99), today’s creative knitters can break free of pattern dependency. This handy book provides all the tools a person needs to create garments that match his or her personality, shape and style. Now you are free to stretch your imagination as far as the yarn.

Author Sharon Turner (Teach Yourself VISUALLY Knitting) starts off with the basics — such as checking gauge, using master patterns in multiple gauges, choosing appropriate yarn and calculating yarn yardage. Armed with these basic tools, you will be able to create your own unique designs. With color photos to guide you every step of the way, Turner provides pattern instructions for hats, sweaters, mittens and scarves and then moves on to a variety of ways to customize the garment, from changing yarns and shifting structures to adding creative embellishments. With a special reference that provides stitch patterns, garment sizing charts and pages to sketch designs on, it’s never been so easy to knit outside of the box.

This innovative book is the only tool knitters of all levels need to create something completely unique that matches their tastes. With step-by-step instructions each accompanied by a detailed photo, knitting ideas to life has never been easier. And the best part is you won’t need to wade through complicated text to get there.

Recent studies have concluded that up to 40 percent of all adults may be “visual learners” who learn faster by seeing and imitating, rather than simply reading. Teach Yourself VISUALLY Knitting Design takes readers on a visual journey from mastering basic designs and patterns to adding personal flourishes, to designing your own unique knits. The designs of the future are in your hands.

Knitting Design: Teach Yourself VISUALLY

By Sharon Turner

ISBN: 978-0-470-06817-5

$ 24.99 U.S. / $ 29.99 CAN

293 pages; paperback

VisualTM an imprint of Wiley

VisualTM

Combining clear, step-by-step screen shots with minimal text, Visual guides are the ultimate resource for visual learners, who represent up to 40 percent of the world’s population. Written by top experts, the Visual guides are perfect for everyone who wants to avoid long-winded explanations and jump right into a new skill or hobby. Visual guides teach a wide range of topics — everything from computer graphics to guitar playing to knitting to dog training to mastering software to practicing yoga. For more information, visit wiley.com. Visual is an imprint of Wiley.

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Many schools and accredited institutions provide dog grooming training for people interested in following a career in this field of activity. The programs are meant to teach the trainees all the skills required for pet care professions either in part-time or full-time businesses. At the end of the training course you can get a job in a pet care organization or start your own pet grooming business. Traditional dog grooming training is conducted in accredited institutions that function on the basis of a well established curriculum. And although Internet programs are a lot more flexible, their reliability is doubtful most of the times. Home training is also criticized for the lack of resources and the impossibility to develop skills by working with live pets.

With distance dog grooming training a lot of emphasis is placed on the use of video didactic materials that take care of the practical part of your education. It is up to you to decide whether this kind of programs are suitable for starting a new career or not. Certifications are provided at graduation, but before paying for any such courses it is important to check whether the program or the center organizing the training is accredited and corresponds to the legal policy of the Better Business Bureau.

The costs are very important. Traditional school classes are more expensive than long distance programs. Nevertheless, good bits and bad bits can be found for any situation, yet, an expert recommendation will always go for the in-class form of training because of the possibility to develop skills more rapidly and in better circumstances. Thus, if you have the possibility to complete dog grooming training in a local school, choose this variant over the Internet distance studies.

All forms of dog grooming training are very modern in terms of educational background. The demand for professional groomers have increased over the last three decades but thirty years ago, dog grooming definitely didn’t sound like a promising job, not to mention career. Social changes and transformations have actually come to shape and improve dog grooming training because of the higher demands for quality services. Consequently, a grooming school that has a fifteen year tradition is more reliable as compared to one that has just been founded. The longer the history of a training school, the better the references.

If you have adopted an older dog only to learn it has some behavior problems, don’t worry-you can teach an old dog new tricks. It is a good idea to know something about a dog before you adopt it, but sometimes you just won’t know what you are in for. Adopting an older dog means he may come to you with some behavior issues. Common problems pet owners have with newly adopted older dogs, are aggression, barking too much or even soiling inside the house. Whatever the case may be, if you use the right techniques when training your new pet,  you will be able to help him to behave properly, learn his place within your family, become a great addition to your household.

When you first adopt an older dog, be sure to really check it out for any behavior issues. If your dog has any aggression problems-maybe he is aggressive towards other dogs, people, or over his food. You will need to pay immediate attention to correcting aggression problems, as these could lead to someone getting bitten.  Try to determine if he has any behavioral problems needing special attention and the level of his previous obedience training-if any at all. Try giving your new pet some basic obedience commands and see how he responds. If he doesn’t know the basic commands, you’ll know he hasn’t been given any training. If he responds fearfully to a command to come or sit, this may mean he was abused by a previous owner. Make sure he is totally house trained, too. Take a thorough look at his disposition and behavior so you can see where to begin training your older dog.

The best way to get started training an older dog is to follow the advice of the best  professional dog trainers, and use a step by step program that takes you from basic obedience training exercises right through more advanced training. This takes all the guess work out of how to train your older dog, and also will enable you to avoid making the same mistakes everyone always makes when trying to train their dog without a good system in place. All the best professional trainers emphasize using positive training techniques. Using positive reinforcement, you will give praise and rewards to your dog for correct behaviors, and teach him how you want him to behave. You will also learn how to communicate with your dog in a way that dogs understand. Knowing how to use your voice and your body language has a lot to do with training your dog effectively.

You will learn how to be your dog’s leader-the Alpha dog. Once you have earned his respect, confidence and trust as the Alpha dog, he will be eager to follow your leads. It is a dog’s essential nature to try to please the superior members of his “pack”-that’s you and your family.

The whole family needs to learn to be consistent with the training, to avoid any conflicting and confusing training. With the right training methods your older dog quickly learns his place within his new “pack”.By establishing yourself as the Alpha leader, you will good results with solving behavior problems your dog may have brought with him.

Training an older dog to be the best addition to your family that he can be will provide you with a pet that you can be comfortable with in any social situation. Since you adopted the older dog to be a new part of your family, don’t allow him to be anything other than a joy to have. Be sure you take the time to train your older new best friend  and have the best relationship with him you can have.