Animation Careers: eHow Video Series by Tim Hodge

I stumbled across this video series by Tim Hodge which he put together for web site eHow in which he gives short glimpses into the world of the professional animator.

Tim Hodge is a writer, director and animator in Nashville, Tenn. He worked for many years as an animator and story artist with Walt Disney Feature Animation. His most recent work includes writing and directing several entries in the popular Veggie Tales animated program.
 
I describe the videos as 'glimpse' because each one is quite short and briefly touches on the topic of the title without going into it in any real depth. However as a series it makes for a good insight into the career of a professional animator.
 
As someone who is learning traditional style animation using flash the first video in the series I watched was Episode 12: How to create a walking animation (embeded below). Despite having access to many examples of how to make a character walk I seem to struggle making my own characters walk. Often they look more like they've got a bit of a limp.
 
This particular video shows how to make a convincing walking character in just six frames.
 


Tim covers a range of topics in the rest of the series including different careers, how much you can expect to get paid, styles of animation and more. He's not too technical and has a fairly casual and easy to listen to presentation style.

Watch the whole series on eHow or, if you prefer Youtube's player, watch the series on Youtube.