Class Catalog

Class Details

Summer 2026:

TERM DATES: Jul 5, 2026 - Sep 19, 2026
LEVEL: Intermediate
COURSE PREREQUISITES:Animating Characters

Body Mechanics

$1620

Students learn how to make characters move with more weight, solidity, and believability in action scenarios. They make a biped character move in two assignments, blending different actions to create complex scenes with an emphasis on weight during movement, balance, direction changes, action, realistic force, and Ik/Fk switching. Students also learn quadruped locomotion in a third exercise of animating a dog walk.



The class provides students with a strong foundation and understanding of body mechanics so they are able to tackle physical shots in real production environments. Students will continue to improve their workflows in order to work more quickly and efficiently and meet realistic deadlines.
Critique Time * Class Time Instructor Notes
Monday 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM Tuesday 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Aleksandar Kolev
Monday 10:00 PM - 11:30 PM Thursday 11:00 PM - 12:30 AM
Samuel Macero
Tuesday 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM Wednesday 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM
Brendan Martin Fagan
Wednesday 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM Sunday 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
Gwilym Morris
Tuesday 9:00 PM - 10:30 PM Thursday 9:00 PM - 10:30 PM
Jose Salinas

ABOUT INSTRUCTORS

Aleksandar Kolev

Canada Flag Canada

Aleksandar is a Bulgarian animator currently working at DreamWorks Animation. With over 15 years of working in different areas of the entertainment industry such as Feature, TV, VFX, Adverts and Games Cinematics , he has animated on award winning projects like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Mitchells vs The Machines, Over the Moon, Paddington 2, Angry Birds 2, Hotel Transylvania 3, Spirit: Untamed, Addams Family 2, Charlie the Wonder Dog, Bad Guys 2, Ice Age 6 (still in production) and supervised projects such as Netflix's Sonic: Prime, Apple + WondLa. Aleksandar is a flexible animator with background in hand-drawn animation that utilizes a variety of workflows to suit the style and needs of the show he is animating on.
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Samuel Macero

United States Flag United States

Sam is currently and Animator at DreamWorks Animation. After graduating from AnimSchool he worked at Sony Imageworks on the film "In Your Dreams" before going to Dreamworks where he has worked on Trolls 3: Band Together, Kung Fu Panda 4, Bad Guys 2, Shrek 5, and the upcoming Forgotten Island
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Brendan Martin Fagan

Spain Flag Spain

With 17 years of animation expierence, I have worked across the globe at many different Film and game studios. Some of the titles I worked on include Guardians of the Galaxy, Jungle Book, Peter Rabbit, Ready Player One and recently My Little pony, The new generation on Netflik. I have spent time at ILM, MPC, Framestore, DNEG, Animal Logic and currently at Ubisoft. Im the Lead animator at Blizzard and focus on teaching keyframe animation. I have a huge passion for VFX and feature film animation.
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Gwilym Morris

United Kingdom Flag United Kingdom

After winning European Junior Animator Award 2001 for his short film Bmovie, Gwilym was given the opportunity to work at Framestore on such films as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Two years later he headed to New Zealand to work at Weta on Lord of the Rings Return of the King and King Kong, returning three years later to work at Double Negative where he continues to work as a lead animator on such films as In the Heart of the Sea and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
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Jose Salinas

Mexico Flag Mexico

Jose Salinas is a CG Animator with experience in videogames, VFX, feature animation, and animated TV. He has worked with studios including Paramount Pictures, Cradle Games, Cinesite Studios, MPC, Warner Bros Games, Mikros Image Canada, Next Level Games, Sony Imageworks and Bardel Entertainment. He is known for his work on films like Sonic the Hedgehog 2, SpongeBob SquarePants: Sponge on the Run, Captain Underpants, The Emoji Movie, Storks, Sausage Party, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, A Haunting in Venice, Strays, The Mandalorian Season 3, True Detective: Night Country, Matilda the Musical, Dashing Through the Snow, Goosebumps, Ticket to Paradise, Animal Farm and G20. As well as animation work on videogames like Luigi's Mansion3, Snoopy and the Great Mystery Club and Gotham Knights. He embraces new challenges and opportunities for growth, whether exploring innovative animation techniques or mentoring aspiring animators. Currently he is a Lead Animator for Japan Productions on their first game, "Resonant Q"
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