Disney cartoons and popular video games have already made 3D animation a familiar part of the entertainment industry. With the development of computer technology, 3D graphics have become more dynamic, crisp and cool.
The entertainment industry is not the only sphere in which 3D animation is in demand. It has found wide application in education, health care, architecture and, of course, advertising. 3D animation has become the most popular of all types of animation, especially among the younger generation.
Viewers, of course, like 3D animations: they are bright, appealing, and convey emotions well. That’s why many brands prefer to tell stories, create a trusting image and attract new customers with 3D-animation videos.
3D animation is the result of placing and manipulating characters and objects in three-dimensional space and creating the illusion of movement. Objects are created from 3D models assimilated into a digital environment using 3D modeling tools.
What 3D animators strive for is the most realistic movement of objects and characters. You can create the perfect cartoon character, but if his movements are unnatural, not smooth or like a robot, all the work will go to waste.
Did you notice how smooth and realistic every movement of the 3D characters in the video above is? Even though the action takes place in an animated world, it works according to the laws of real-world physics (more or less).
Let’s move on to the practical part, and more specifically to how 3D animations are created. Pre-production of 3D animation is somewhat similar to 2D animation. The process begins with scripting and storyboarding, followed by sketches of 3D characters, setting up the background and preparing for the animation process itself. The whole process of creating animation is complex and multidimensional, so we will give only the basic steps.
Before our picture with objects and characters begin to move, you need to create these very 3D objects. As we said, objects are created based on 3D computer models. A simple computer model is a 3D object from a grid consisting of vertices, lines and curves, which give the object its shape.
But before a character can begin to move, a controlled skeleton, such as that of humans and animals, must be created. The process of creating a skeleton is called rigging. Once the skeleton is created, a 3D model (also called a skin) is attached to the skeleton to prepare the character for animation.
When the 3D characters are ready, they are placed in their respective scenes and set in motion using 3D animation computer programs. In the video below, you can see that the animation at the initial stage is not set up – the movements and transitions are abrupt and unnatural.
The final stage of animation creation is rendering. The process involves refining the animation and obtaining an image. This stage requires close attention to detail, the final result depends on it.