3D Animation

After learning foundational art and computer animation skills and exploring a variety of 3D disciplines, you may elect to specialize in 3D Animation. Animation is known as the "Illusion of Life"; animators create performances that allow an audience to forget they are seeing pixels on a screen. Students refine their focus in disciplines such as Storyboarding, Visual Storytelling, Art Direction, Character Design, Modeling and Setup, 3D Animation, 3D Texturing, and 3D Lighting. Under the guidance of instructors and industry mentors, you will develop a complete animated short film, from concept development through the processes of animation, lighting, texturing, rendering, and sound.

Animated films showcase a wide range of skills, and a great many projects are screened at festivals around the world. Students specializing in 3D Animation most often go on to work as character animators, texture and lighting artists, and pre-visualization artists in film and television. For more about career paths, check out the 3D Animation & Visual Effects Careers page.

You will:

• Develop a concept for your own original film
• Research the concept/character back story
• Create the characters for your film
• Develop and write a pitch package including a script, color script, and style guide
• Create 2D and 3D animatic storyboards
• Model characters
• Prep character for animation, including facial setup
• Create animation cycles that express a character's personality
• Thumbnail, block, spline, and polish animated sequences
• Animate a professional-level workload each week
• Present progress regularly to mentors

3D Animation in Action

For a sense of how varied the styles in 3D animation student work are, enjoy these two very different films:

See more 3D Animation Reels in the VFS showcase.