Becoming a 3D animator

[Wabit]

This is a question that has been in debate for a veeeery long time. Myself I went to study traditional animation in order to progress onto 3D in my career, I don’t have the strongest of drawing skills but what I can say is drawing really does help.



In order to be a good animator using the digital medium its not essential that your drawing skills are of the highest standard. But what the drawing skill can give you is an immediate access to the ideas in your mind by scribbling down and planning in a visual form. I would highly recommend that even though you may feel your drawings are not quite as advanced as you may like, still go to a life drawing class. By studying the human form it gives you a good idea of how the body supports itself through the poses you may want to incorporate into your animation. Drawing also gives you a great way just to let your mind relax, go with the flow and free your self up. This way you will much more about your environment. All of these things can be directly used towards improving your animations.

[SheepFactory]

if you can draw stick figures you are fine. the planning drawings dont have to be quality illustrations , its purpose is to give you an idea of what the scene will look like so you see early on if it works or not. Just keep drawing from life everyday , thats the most important.

[stewartjones]

if you can draw stick figures you are fine. the planning drawings dont have to be quality illustrations , its purpose is to give you an idea of what the scene will look like so you see early on if it works or not. Just keep drawing from life everyday , thats the most important.

Quoted for importance! Ali knows the deal! :thumbsup:

[kevinw]

you may be able to get by without drawing skills... but.. If your dream is to get into a big feature studio, they will want to see a traditional background. I don't know of anyone off hand (not to say they aren't out there) who works as an animator for a studio like pixar/dreamwroks/disney and who can't draw their asses off.

To start, I strongly recommend picking up "Simplified Drawing For Planning Animation" by Wayne Gilbert..

Also take a life drawing class or 2.

It will make you a better animator and it's good for impressin' the ladies...:thumbsup:

[ReBootedOne]

I started out with drawing and traditional animation, and it comes in handy a LOT. I mean, it's probably not essential, as many have said, but I really do think that having at least 'some' knowledge of traditional animation is really important.-eric

[Studev]

Just go study it. It does help a lot ! And don't listen to a person telling you that "You don't need to draw, everything inside computer", Stay away from them like a disease.

Just DRAW !

[Headless]

Personally i'd say you don't have to be amazing at drawing, but i'd say you do have to have artistic ability. I think one of the reasons that alot of great animators happen to also be great at drawing is that there's alot of general art skills that are common to both: patience, attention to detail, observation, etc, and I think you definitely do need those kinds of skills to be a good animator.

In terms of blocking out an animation on paper, the drawings don't have to be particularly sophisticated. Here's one of my animation sketches to show you what I mean...

http://xs48.xs.to/pics/05393/jump_sketch.jpg

Now obviously, by no means is this great art, but it does the job of quickly and clearly illustrating how the character is going to move, and that's all that you really need to worry about in terms of any drawing you might actually need to do on the job.

Having said all of this, if you're learning then I would definitely recommend that you start with traditional 2D animation before you look at the computer. I think alot of beginners think of 2D and 3D animation as being so different from each other that they're so despirate to get onto the computer and away from the 2D side, that they miss out on the fundamental rules of animation. Really, 2D and 3D are just the medium; the animation side of things is pretty much the same. The beenfit of 2D over 3D though is that 3D has alot more technical complications which can get between the animator and the actual animation that they want, where with 2D you just draw what you want and it's there.

I'd concentrate on learning and really understanding all the fundamentals (all the stuff in Animator's Survival Kit (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0571202284/002-5299114-7959267?v=glance)), in 2D (even if it's just with stick figures), and once you know all that stuff through and through, then move on to the computer. It'll really help your animation in the long run.

[Ristintin]

Hi. i have read this a nd learn alot. So thanks. I also want to be an animator (mainly for video games though) i am 16 I am taking a traditional animation class in january and then a comunity collage maya 3d animation after. I will soon be going to collage, so what type of collage oe what collage is good for it? I have found collages like full sail and DigiPen to art instutiets. but its all kinda confusing cause i dont know what is best for my goal. if you would give me some advise on what i should be looking for, it would be great.
thank you ( sorry for the spelling i dont know where the spell check is please forgive.)
sarra

[Remi]

Wow...headless you go further than I do in the thumbing process...I guess I keep mine ultra sketchy and quick with notes next to them drawings so I know what I was thinking....I guess what i'm trying to say is...if you can do it go ahead:)

[Headless]

Xing Xing: First of all i'd say that you needn't limit your course search to games specific courses. Computer animation courses, and courses which may seem more focussed towards CG for film and tv, will still teach you exactly the same skills that are required in the games industry, and in many cases the schools which teach those courses are more respected in terms of the quality of teaching, facilities, etc.

The benefit of games specific courses are that they're good for networking with other aspiring game developers and the syllabus may be slightly more games focussed. The downside to games specific courses is that depending on the course, there may be a requirement to do some programming, games design, or other such topics which might make the art side of the course seem somewhat diluted compared to the pure art experience you'd get from most of the computer animation courses I mentioned. As I say though, both types of course teach you the skills that you'll need to be a games artist, so it's really up to you.

If you check out this thread (http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?t=69427), it has a list of pretty much all the CG courses in the world. You could go to any of those and probably learn what you need to know, but some are better than others. Specifically, the most respected places in the world for CG (in my opinion), are Vancouver Film School (http://www.vfs.com/), CalArts (http://www.calarts.edu/), Academy of Art University (http://www.academyart.edu/) (in San Francisco), Bournemouth University (http://courses.bournemouth.ac.uk/3details.asp?programmeCode=BACVA) in the UK, and Supinfocom (http://www.supinfocom.fr/index.html) in France. There are others which are probably just as good, or more games related, like say, Tesside University (http://www-scm.tees.ac.uk/), which is where I went, yet really those five are pretty close to the top places for this kind of thing.

For modelling and texturing, the stuff coming out of Vancouver Film School always looks incredible. For animation, i've seen alot of great animation work recently from Academy of Art University, and Supinfocom is also good for animation. Supinfocom is also very 'artsy', which you might consider a good thing or not. Bournemouth is very good for the more technical side of CG, which is good for landing work in film, but not quite so relevant for games. Really it's all a matter of what you want to do, where you want to go, and which place speaks to you the most.

About schools like Full Sail: They seem to have alot of games industry connections and they're obviously very games focussed, and that's great, but having seen some of the work that's come from there, the art just doesn't seem up to the standard of the stuff from other CG schools. That's just my opinion, and i've heard some rumours that say their graduates are getting snapped up into games jobs pretty quick, which i've no reason to disbelieve, but personally, i'm not convinced by these types of schools yet.

Anyway, this is all just my opinion, other people with more experience might well feel differently.

Wow...headless you go further than I do in the thumbing process...I guess I keep mine ultra sketchy and quick with notes next to them drawings so I know what I was thinking....I guess what i'm trying to say is...if you can do it go ahead:)With this particular one my main reference was this parkour clip shot at this weird kinda skateboard video angle, so I wanted to just clear things up for myself. Sometimes i'll do things simpler, sometimes I won't even bother with sketches.

[jakiloblanco]

Being a 2D animator and wanting to make it into the 3D side of things, I have one thing to say that 3D has a hard time explaning... and getting a grasp on. line of action.

In 2D, the line of action is the base of all movement. You can base all other movement of your character off your line of action. That's where life drawing comes in. You need to understand energy direction, and flow... and there's no better way, in my opinion, than to whip out really quick and loose sketches to understand the line... that's the problem with 3D, you can't get the looseness that a pencil can give you. It takes time to make up a good, loose pose in 3D... while in 2d, you can whip it out rediculously fast (look at any animation drawing from Glenn Keane) and then refine it.

In the end, I don't know better, but that;s what I personally think what 2D can offer to 3D.

Rant over... yeah, drawing is good, but I would recomment understanding the flow of line before trying to make a life like, fully refined and shaded drawing. Understand the direction and looseness of the line, and you'll be fine. :D

[jonathanmontubig]

hi, ive never expected this much reply, but thanks anyways, it really is a great help.there are different replies and different opinions and its great. books here in the philipppines are scarce, i kinda study those small animations ive got in the web and try to see all 12 principles in action.After all Animation is observation, that's what they say. but i think in terms of blocking out my animation, 2d sketches and poses are really important, thats why im beginning to draw now. thanks guys.

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