Enrolment is now closed
(Reopens later in 2026)
As animators, it's our job to create characters which feel so believable that an audience will become lost in the story. This is impossible without first mastering body mechanics.
Put simply, if a character's movement lacks believability, you will lose your audience.
Once you've mastered the creation of convincing body mechanics, you'll be able to layer on personality, and performance, giving you the power to truly captivate any audience.
What if you could learn everything required to create professional quality body mechanics animation, within just twelve weeks?
Into Action is a programme which takes you far beyond the basics of walk and run cycles (information you can find freely on YouTube).
Instead, its highly structured curriculum provides you with the skills and knowledge required to move characters around in a truly believable and entertaining way.
Over the course of twelve weeks, you'll learn the same techniques which I've used throughout my long career as a professional animator.
With a solid understanding of mechanics, you’ll be able to convincingly move characters in any way you can imagine.
In week one you’ll become familiar with the penguin character you’ll be working with for the duration of the course, whilst exploring the essential art of posing characters.
In the second week you’ll begin to get your character moving. We'll start out by analysing some reference before animating a simple exercise designed to explore weight and balance.
The third week will take things up a notch as you learn to create a full body jump animation.
In week four you’ll start to explore locomotion. We'll analyse the mechanics of a walk before constructing a walk cycle and learning how to move it through space.
Building upon the previous week, week five explores how you can use a walk to express a character's personality and emotion.
In week six, you’ll pick up the pace as you learn how to make a character run. After learning about the mechanics, you'll construct a run cycle before modifying it to show personality.
This week, you’ll explore how to move characters on complex paths, and irregular surfaces, all whilst avoiding the common issue of sliding feet.
In week eight, you’ll start to add some real life and performance to your animation.
This is where you'll learn how to add variation within your animation as well as starting, stopping, and transitioning between cycles.
In week nine, you’ll explore weight and prop interaction as you learn how to lift and carry objects. You'll make use of constraints, which are essential for succesful interaction with props.
Week ten features more prop interaction. You'll explore pushing and pulling actions whilst learning to show the force and effort required to create a believable sense of weight.
The final weeks are all about putting everything you’ve learnt into a final, complex, piece of animation. In week eleven, you’ll plan and block your final animation.
To help you get started, we'll discuss the use of cameras in animation before I walk you through my approach to making the animation from the course introduction.
Week twelve is about wrapping everything up, as you finish your final project and create a piece of body mechanics animation you can be proud of. In addition, I'll take you even deeper into the animation of the course introduction.
Enrolment is now closed
(Reopens later in 2026)
The Into Action curriculum consists of more than 20 hours of lectures and practical demonstrations, delivered over the course of twelve weeks.
All demonstrations are in real time so that you can see exactly how I approach everything.
This is the closest you can get to looking over my shoulder as I work.
Throughout the course, you'll learn the same professional techniques and workflows which I've used for many years within a range of animation studios.
The first week of lessons will be available immediately upon enrollment, with the remaining lessons released in manageable batches each week.
Alongside the lessons you will also recieve weekly assignments.
This is where you'll put theory into practice and start to see real progress.
All animation assignments can be submitted to receive feedback.
High quality feedback can really accelerate your progress, and Into Action has two different levels of critique to choose from.
If you ever have technical issues, you'll always recieve a rapid response to any questions.
All of the lessons are pre-recorded, allowing you to watch the videos at a time which suits you.
If you need more time, don’t worry, the course will be yours for life, so you can take it at your own pace and return to lessons at any point in the future.
I've designed and built this little Rockhopper Penguin character specifically for this course, using a rig setup similar to that which I've used in professional studios.
Not only is this character fun to animate but, since it's not available anywhere else, your work will stand out from the crowd.
Once you've completed the course, you're free to use the character for your own animation practice.
High quality, professional, feedback can make all the difference when you're trying to improve your animation, but this is hard to find outside of a mentorship.
I wanted to ensure that more people have access to feedback, so I'm offering two different levels of critique with this programme.
Whichever option you choose, you'll receive valuable insights into how to improve your animation.
With the standard programme, each week, you can share your animation assignments to receive written feedback on your work.
I will personally review every assignment and provide notes to help you improve your animation.
In addition, you can learn even more by reviewing the feedback offered to other students.
If you really want to accelerate your learning, the advanced programme adds weekly one-on-one mentorship sessions where you'll be able to work directly with me.
During each half hour session, I'll provide detailed feedback on your work, demonstrate how to fix any issues that you're having, highlight techniques which might help, and answer any other questions that you have.
"I’ve watched a lot of tutorials on character animation — some made by amateurs and some by professionals. Most of the time, their methods are quite personal and rather fragmented, lacking a complete structure. But this penguin animation tutorial is different: the instructor is a professional animator who also knows how to teach effectively. It includes many techniques that you don’t usually see in other videos, so I think it’s really worth recommending."
John Cheng
Hi, I'm John Knowles!
Before building Into Animation I worked as an animator and animation director in children's television for over 15 years.
When I was first starting out, I really struggled with body mechanics. Many of the things that I now know, were learnt over the years from other animators, or were discovered through endless trial and error.
As an animation director, I consistently found that junior animators struggled with body mechanics and, regardless of where they studied, they had never learnt many of the important techniques required by professional animators.
That’s why I’m really excited to be able to teach my own body mechanics course based on the many things I’ve learnt and practiced over the years.
By the end of this twelve week programme, you'll have learnt the same techniques that I've used, every day, throughout my many years of professional animation.
By completing the exercises, and applying the feedback, you'll also come away with animation you can truly be proud of.
Mastering body mechanics will give you the power to convincingly bring any character to life.
(Mentorship sessions must be used within one year of purchase)
Honestly, you can probably learn many of the more basic things that I teach in the course, if you spend long enough sifting through YouTube videos.
What you'll really struggle to find are the professional techniques that I share, which will help to accelerate, and elevate, your work.
What you'll definitely not find on YouTube is a highly structured curriculum, my production quality character rig, the chance to watch every step of my animation process, and my feedback on your work.
I know that sometimes life gets in the way of the things that we really want to achieve.
Whilst it would be great if you could follow along, and complete the course in twelve weeks, I know that's not going to be realistic for everyone.
That's why all lessons are pre-recorded, with lifetime access, giving you the flexibility to progress at a pace which suits you.
Assignments can also be submitted for feedback whenever you're ready.
I’ll be fully breaking down the creation of this animation within the course but, my intention is to give you the skills and knowledge to create your own, unique, final project, similar to my animation of the penguin chasing the egg.
This course does cover a small amount of performance, since this is what provides the entertainment value in our animation, but it’s primarily focused on teaching animation body mechanics. Therefore, it doesn’t cover lip-sync and it only touches on expressions briefly.
These are subjects best reserved for a dedicated performance course.
This is something which I’d love to do, but it’s entirely dependant upon how many people choose to take this body mechanics course.
Performance is something which really does depend upon a detailed understanding of body mechanics. I wanted to release this course first, to ensure that students, in any future performance course, have a sufficient depth of body mechanics knowledge.
Whilst it's likely that I'll reopen enrolment later in 2026, no date has yet been set.
If you're eager to make real progress with improving your animation, now is the time to jump in!
This course is designed for anyone who wants to learn how to create professional quality body mechanics animation within Blender.
Whilst no body mechanics experience is necessary, an understanding of the animation foundations is essential. Fortunately, my free Into Motion course has you covered!
The latest version of Blender can be downloaded for free from: blender.org