Important Animation Basics Necessary To Be A Good 3d Animator !!!

Animation is an art and good animation is a difficult art. This difficulty level and efficiency required in the animation industry jobs make the work of 3D animators more challenging and harder. Skilled and innovative 3 D animation designers are really the most sought-after artists in the animation industry.

Animation is hard to learn as the person needs to have the creativity and innovation of such level that enables him to create animation works that are believable and entertaining. Thorough skill and hard practice are the requisites for grabbing a great job opportunity of an animation designer.

Compared to 3D modeling, animation requires completely different skills. Both animation and 3D modeling are two different fields. 3D modelers are very rarely animators and animators can rarely do 3D modeling. Well known studios usually hire dedicated animators to do the bulk of the animation.

Important Basics of 3D Animation

Major productions use 3D animation applications that generally take place in two primary ways.

Keyframe animation

Keyframe animation or keyframing is the most well-known and oldest style of animation. The history of animation goes back to 1600 B.C. Egypt where frame-by-frame animation examples are found by the researchers. The people like Winsor McCay, Walt Disney created the modern keyframing techniques through their early cartoons.

Most of the basic keyframing principles used in animation have not changed since the early 1900s, only the change has come in the use of 3D software packages. The newly introduced and updated versions of software packages make the task easier.

The keyframing in 3Danimation is essentially changing the shape, position, spacing, or timing of an object in successive frames, with major changes to the object being the key frames.

In traditional 2D animation, each frame is usually drawn by hand. When frames are shown in succession, as in a movie, the slight differences in each frame of animation create the illusion of motion. 3D software packages make keyframe animation easier by interpolating, or "tweening," the in-between frames. The software automatically calculates all of the in-between frames, including the squish at the bottom, making actual process of animation a matter of creating a few great key frames.


Motion capture

Motion capture or mocap is the way used in 3D animation that was introduced but was not used on a large basis due to the limitations of the technology. But gradually this vital technology came into use and was accepted well in various areas from video game animation to CG effects in movies.

The technologys added qualities and modifications helped and augmented its use. Compared to keyframing which is very precise but slow animation method, motion capture offers speed usually not found in traditional animation techniques. In motion capture or the mocap its subjects or the characters are placed in a special suit containing sensors that record the motion of their limbs as they move. This data is then linked to the rig of a 3D character and translated into animation by the 3D software.

Acquiring a good knowledge of keyframing and motion capture becomes essential for becoming a good 3D animator. Taking up a job of a 3D animation designer in a leading animation studio is a dream for many of us. Achieving command over the techniques that play an important role in the 3Danimaiton career becomes the first decisive step towards a successful career of in animation industry.