The best 3D character animation starts with an appealing model. This class will teach you the essential 3D modeling skills required to bring simple character designs to life in 3D.

Character Modeling for animation can be time consuming and take many years to master. By starting out with simple characters, you can quickly learn the essential modeling skills which will provide a foundation for all your future projects.

During this class I will share my approach to modeling, texturing, shading and lighting a character based on one of the designs from my Into the Ocean: Character Design Essentials class. We will also go on to place this character into a simple underwater environment.

You are free to follow along using the provided design or, if you have already followed my character design class, you may wish to use one of your own designs.

By following along with the class, you will gain valuable skills which can be applied to modeling many other simple character designs.

What you will learn:

By the end of this class, you will have all the skills necessary to model simple characters of your own.
You will also be ready to move forward into my next class, Into the Ocean: Character Animation Essentials in Blender 3D, where you will learn to add controls in the form of a character rig and fully animate your character.

What you will create:

By following along with the class, you will create a 3D character model and a final, fully rendered, image.

Good to know:

This is a beginner level class using the free 3D software application Blender.
No prior character modelling experience is required but a familiarity of Blender’s interface would be very helpful.
If you are new to Blender, I would recommend starting out with my Into Animation: Blender 3D Essentials for Animators class which will provide a solid foundation to build on.
This class has been fully updated to be compatible with Blender 4.3 or higher.
If you would like to model a character based upon your own design, consider starting out with my Into the Ocean: Character Design Essentials class.
The Blender software application can be downloaded for free from: blender.org

By the end of this class, you will have the essential character modeling skills required to bring appealing characters to life for your own 3d illustration or animation projects.

Let’s get started!

Once you have finished this class, don't forget to check out the other animation classes here on Skillshare.

Monica Kaminski

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