LEARNING PATH

Character Animation for Games

Animation for games presents unique challenges and responsibilities to an animator. While film and animation are linear and inherently story-driven in performance, character animation in games also requires thought about the player's interactivity. Given the myriad genres of games, including action, adventure, sports, strategy, platformer, MOBA, MMORPG, first-person, third-person, and so on, animators in the games industry must understand how to create behavior loops that will react and blend in a manner that fits that game’s style.

In the Character Animation for Games Path, nine animators from studios including Blizzard Entertainment, Riot Games, Santa Monica Studio, and Treyarch share their tips, techniques, and workflows using Maya, Unity, and Unreal Engine. Instructor credits include Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat, League of Legends, God of War, and World of Warcraft.

Beginner to Advanced 50h 26min 9 Workshops

By 9 Instructors

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Character Animation Fundamentals for Games

Senior Gameplay Animator Juan Cervilla details his professional Maya workflow to create gameplay-ready animations. This workshop focuses on core mechanics: walk cycles, run cycles, and attack animations, covering planning to final polish and presentation...

by Juan Cervilla

General

4h 28m

12 Lessons

Character Animation Lighting & Rendering

Maya

Creating Runtime Cinematics in Unreal Engine 5

Character Director Bill Buckley demonstrates how to seamlessly integrate character animation with interactive gameplay in Unreal Engine 5. This workshop focuses on trigger planes, Level Sequencers, animation montages, and the Control Rig for narrative-driven game experiences...

by Bill Buckley

General

3h 03m

8 Lessons

Character Animation Character Rigging Game Engines

Unreal

Animating a 3-Hit Combo for Games in Maya

Lead Animator Brandon Yates shares his advanced process for creating a 3-hit combo for AAA games using motion capture as a base. This workshop details Maya's HumanIK, retargeting, Time Editor, and professional techniques for polishing mocap data and creating blendable strings...

by Brandon Yates

Advanced

6h 33m

16 Lessons

Character Animation Character Rigging Motion Capture

Maya

Creature Animation for Games

Animation Lead Christian Brierley guides aspiring and experienced animators through the principles and techniques for creating compelling, lifelike creature animations for video games. This workshop covers reference gathering, motion studies, blocking, and polishing a run cycle, attack, and death animation for a creature...

by Christian Brierley

General

7h 28m

14 Lessons

Creature Animation

Maya

Animating a Recall for Games

Gameplay Animator Benjamin Davis guides you through the professional, AAA pipeline to create a stylized, League of Legends-inspired recall animation. This workshop details ideation in Clip Studio Paint, blocking in Maya, splining, and polishing an action sequence for a strong portfolio piece...

by Benjamin Davis

Intermediate

6h 17m

11 Lessons

Character Animation

Maya

Clip Studio Paint

Game Animation: From Concept to Unity

Senior Gameplay Animator Ali Pournassari guides you through the entire game animation pipeline, from initial concept and blocking to polishing and integration into the Unity game engine. This workshop is tailored for both professional and indie developers...

by Ali Pournassari

General

5h 30m

11 Lessons

Character Animation Game Engines

Maya

Unity

Animating First & Third-Person Shooter Attacks for Games

Senior Animator Brad Faucheux details the AAA studio workflow for creating and syncing professional attack animations for both First-Person and Third-Person Shooter games. The workshop covers pre-planning, blocking, splining, and final polish of attacks using Maya and Photoshop...

by Brad Faucheux

General

9h 30m

14 Lessons

Character Animation

Maya

Photoshop

Combat Animation for Games

Riot Games' Senior Animator Jason Shum teaches the full combat animation workflow from idea to final polish in Maya, emphasizing strong posing, aggressive timing, and appeal. The workshop covers a professional process for creating a compelling attack combo...

by Jason Shum

General

4h 12m

11 Lessons

Character Animation Game Engines

Maya

Creating a Combat Finishing Takedown

Senior Animator Patrick Przybyla shares his AAA workflow for creating a production-quality combat finishing takedown in Maya. The workshop covers self-reference shooting, blocking, breakdowns, and in-betweens for a realistic, polished action sequence...

by Patrick Przybyla

Intermediate

3h 25m

9 Lessons

Character Animation Character Rigging Lighting & Rendering

Maya

Frequently Asked Questions

Everything you need to know about the Learning Path.

Learning Paths have been organized to help both aspiring and professional artists, who are looking for training based on the fundamental categories of creative work in the visual effects, animation and games industries. Each Learning Path has been curated to contain a collection of workshops that guide artists through a series of topics relevant to that path, but they are not necessarily sequential. When appropriate, however, we have organized the workshops in a path to be in a logical order. All workshops are tagged with their level (beginner, intermediate, advanced) so that you can browse the path and choose a title that matches both the subject matter and level that you are looking for.

All Gnomon Workshop instructors are professional artists from the entertainment industry, who have worked with us to structure their time, experience and knowledge into practical and inspiring training. We believe that it is important to learn from masters of the craft, who have honed those skills via years of experience working in production, collaboratively with their peers. Through time and experience, artists develop not just their creative and technical ability, but also their communication skills. These become critical aspects to being an effective lead artist, supervisor or, in our case, instructor.

Whether you choose an Annual or a Monthly Subscription, your plan will give you unlimited access to all 26 Learning Paths, allowing you to learn at your own pace. Your subscription also gives you access to the entire catalog of 350+ workshops, with new comprehensive workshops added every month.

While many workshops include Project Files, these are at the instructors’ discretion. You will find details of any project files provided on each workshop page, along with the software/tools required to tackle the workshop. If you have any questions, you can contact us via our Live Chat or email the team at support@thegnomonworkshop.com.

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Over 350 Workshops. 250+ Instructors.
Concept Art, Visual Effects, Games and much more.
New Workshops released every month.
Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Levels

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If you're an artist at a Studio, School, College, or University, we have Team License options available for every scenario. Join top studios and schools including Blizzard, Riot Games, Disney, Gnomon, LCAD, Digipen, London Met and many more.

Character Animation for Games

Character Animation Fundamentals for Games

Creating Runtime Cinematics in Unreal Engine 5

Animating a 3-Hit Combo for Games in Maya

Creature Animation for Games

Animating a Recall for Games

Game Animation: From Concept to Unity

Animating First & Third-Person Shooter Attacks for Games

Combat Animation for Games

Creating a Combat Finishing Takedown

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Join thousands of artists from around the world, who are developing their skills with The Gnomon Workshop.

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