Week 1: Introduction to Animation & Maya Basics

• Day 1: Introduction to animation, industry insights & animation pipeline

• Day 2: Maya interface navigation, object manipulation & basic tools

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Industry guest lecture (optional), Q&A

Week 2: Maya Interface & Keyframe Animation

• Day 1: Understanding Outliner, layers & organizing a scene

• Day 2: Basic keyframe animation & Maya’s timeline

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Reviewing object animation assignment

Week 3: 12 Principles of Animation (Part 1) & Bouncing Ball

• Day 1: Squash & stretch, anticipation, staging

• Day 2: Timeline & Graph Editor basics, bouncing ball animation

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Peer critique on bouncing ball

Week 4: 12 Principles of Animation (Part 2) & Refinement

• Day 1: Follow-through, overlapping action & arcs

• Day 2: Animating a simple pendulum swing

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Reviewing pendulum animation

Week 5: Introduction to Character Rigging & Posing

• Day 1: Understanding character rigs, FK vs IK

• Day 2: Creating strong character poses

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Reviewing character poses

Week 6: Walk Cycle Animation (Part 1)

• Day 1: Understanding weight, balance & walk cycle key poses

• Day 2: Blocking the walk cycle in Maya

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Peer critique on walk cycle blocking

Week 7: Walk Cycle Animation (Part 2) & Refinement

• Day 1: Smoothing transitions & adding secondary motion

• Day 2: Finalizing & rendering the walk cycle

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Reviewing final walk cycles

Week 8: Acting & Gesture Animation

• Day 1: Expressing emotions through body movement

• Day 2: Acting exercises – animating a character lifting an object

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Reviewing acting animation

Week 9: Facial Animation & Lip Sync

• Day 1: Introduction to blend shapes & facial animation

• Day 2: Syncing mouth shapes to a short dialogue

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Reviewing lip sync animation

Week 10: Animating a Short Scene (Practical Focus)

• Day 1: Planning an animation shot (storyboarding & reference)

• Day 2: Blocking a short acting sequence

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Reviewing animation blocking

Week 11: Polishing & Rendering in Maya

• Day 1: Spline animation & refining movement

• Day 2: Rendering & finalizing animation

• Day 3: Feedback & Corrections – Reviewing final animations

Week 12: Final Project & Showcase

• Day 1: Students work on their final animation project

• Day 2: Final touches & preparing for showcase

Day 3: Presentation & Feedback