Phoenix Atelier, a digital animation and design program that allows budding creators to build upon their skills, has posted a great new interview with Andrew Baker, the Senior Designer for The Hobbit trilogy.

[youtube=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1r_AYjlvkvU”]

Phoenix Atelier also announced that Baker will teach a program beginning September 16, in conjunction with Weta Workshop, entitled Breathing Life and Presence into Digital Creatures. Here are the basics:

In this program, you will learn to use digital sculpting as a conceptual tool for creatures and characters in the film industry and create some evocative 2D artwork for presentation alongside a finished design maquette.

“We’ll be covering how to interprate the brief, creating new ideas, interesting and new anatomy, executing and presenting the final concept efficiently.

The 8 week program rings up at $800 a person.

You can get all of the details here.