Seeing your own characters come to life through animation is a magical experience. This class will teach you the essential 3D character animation skills you need to get started.

In this class I shall first demonstrate how to build a 3D character rig in Blender. This rig contains all the controls which are essential to be able to successfully animate your character.

Once the rig is complete, we will go on to analyse how a fish swims, using that information to help create a simple looping animation cycle.

Finally, I will show you how to make use of that cycle as an element within a longer animation which will truly bring your character to life.

Whilst this class builds upon the previous classes in the series, it also functions as a standalone class. If you’d simply like to learn about character rigging or character animation, you are free to follow along using the provided models as a starting point.

If, however, you have already taken the earlier classes in the series, you will be able to apply everything that I demonstrate to bring your own character model to life.

By the end of this class, you will have all the skills necessary to both rig and animate simple characters of your own, giving you everything required to start bringing your characters to life.

What you will learn:

How to create a simple armature and control its influence using weight painting.
How to analyse reference footage for animation.
How to create a perfectly looping animation cycle.
How to use the Non-Linear Animation editor to manipulate animation.
How to control animation along a path.
How to break up a cycle to make it believable.
How to render your final animation.

What you will create:

By following along with the class, you will first build a character rig for your own character or the provided model.
You will then go on to create a fully rendered 3D character animation of a swimming fish.

Good to know:

This is a beginner level class using the free 3D software application Blender.
This class was created in Blender 3 and has been updated to remain fully compatible with Blender 4.2 or higher.
No prior character rigging or character animation 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.
If you would like to rig and animate a character based upon your own design, consider starting out with my Into the Ocean: Character Design Essentials and Into the Ocean: Character Modeling Essentials in Blender 3D classes.
The Blender software application can be downloaded for free from: blender.org

By the end of this class, you will have the essential rigging and animation skills required to bring appealing characters to life for your own 3D 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.

Yu Puno

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