SO, YOU WANT TO BE A TECHNICAL DIRECTOR?
TIPS FROM ANIMAL LOGIC’S JESSICA D’ALI ON HOW TO GET STARTED AS A TD IN ANIMATION
1. ANIMATE SOMETHING IN 3D
You will be required to work with animators every day, so it is important to know the basics of what they do. Your animation doesn’t need to be Oscar-winning, and even transforming a cube around a 3D space is enough to learn the common tools. For those who have no animation experience, I strongly encourage you to give it a go – in say Maya, Max or Blender – before diving into the scripting.
2. PRACTISE SCRIPTING IN A 3D SOFTWARE
Autodesk’s Maya is a very common animation software used by many big animation companies, including Animal Logic. Writing small scripts in Maya is a great way to familiarise yourself with concepts and APIS. A great tip for learning in Maya is that the script editor log will print the MEL (Maya Embedded Language) command for every manual process you run in Maya. Experiment with automating manual processes by observing and collecting these MEL commands.
3. KEEP UP TO DATE
There are scripting tutorials online which are a great way to learn how others use code to complete processes for artists. If you are having difficulty inventing problems to code solutions to, look up a tutorial, find what problem they are going to solve and attempt to solve it yourself. You can then compare your solution to the one in the tutorial and hopefully learn new techniques. Also, read up on emerging technologies in the film and animation space.