The 11 Second Club holds a monthly character animation competition in which animators from all over the world can participate. The challenge is to animate a character speaking a line of dialogue provided by the club. During the competition participants can share their progress with each other and evaluate each other’s work. At the end of the month, everyone votes for the submission they consider the best for that month. The idea is to give animators a chance to practice their skills in a fun, challenging environment.
To take part you download the current month’s audio file then animate a character performing the line, using whatever action you feel interprets the audio best. The style and the animation medium is up to you, be it pencil, puppets, computer, etc. Finally upload your movie to the site before the end of the competition.
A useful feature for budding animators is the critiques given to the winners by professional animators. They run through the winning videos and suggest improvements and give notes on the animation. Watching the critiques given to past winners is a good way of learning about character animation.
For more information visit the 11 Second Club website.
