If you want to learn animation in Blender, what better way to learn it that to watch some video about it?
After all, animation goes hand in hand with motion and it is hard to visualize the pacing by using blog content only. So let's look at some great animation tutorials on Youtube that can enhance your learning experience towards becoming a great Blender animator.
The title of this video promise a lot to the extent that you might think that it is clickbait, but it is actually a really good introduction to animation if you already know some basics about Blender. The tutorial is by CGGeek a well known content creator in the Blender community.
The character and rig used is called rain and you can get it from the Blender studio website for free by following the link below.
External content: Rain - Character Rig - Blender Studio
Simply press the download button and extract the zip file to access the blend file containing the rig and character and follow along with the tutorial below to learn some character animation.
The next video is called animation for beginners and it really is just that. It starts by teaching you some basic animation using the default cube. This is a great way to start for those that have a little bit less experience with Blender or 3D software in general.
The channel behind this video is called Ryan King art and he does some amazing teaching on his channel.
This tutorial is a bit longer than your average Youtube video but to learn something in depth you really need to dedicate the time to it and here you will get quite far into animation in a single video.
Another channel that provide excellent content for aspiring animator is polyfjord. In this tutorial he doesn't focus on a character as in a humanoid character. Instead he shows how to animate a glorified cube with legs.
These kinds of simpler characters can be a great place to start as you dive into animation. They don't contain all the complexities of a full humanoid character but still teaches the technical concepts along with great nuggets of wisdom on how to make a character come to life.
Polyfjord also released, probably the most popular Blender tutorial on rigging that I also highly recommend that you check out. As an animator it is always good to have at least basic knowledge of rigging as well so that you know how the tools you use are getting created and so that you can create your own riggs at least for simpler tasks.
You can check out this rigging tutorial here. It is about rigging robot arms that sprout from a humanoid body. There is also a part two in the description.
Tutorial: How to Create Robotic Arms in Blender (Part 1) - YouTube
Another lengthy tutorial. This time about how to create a folding box. In this tutorial by Derek Elliott he takes us through the full process of creating this folding box. He shares step by step while also giving away some really nice hits through the process.
The pace of this tutorial is quite slow so if you are inpatient like me you might want to bump the speed to 1.25x or so, but if not, it can also be a really relaxing process to follow along with just as it is. This is a great start for learning more about how to create things like commercial animations and product focus 3D projects.
The channel also have several other cool animation projects that you can follow along and learn a lot of tricks from.
I especially like the artstyle of Derek Elliot. He creates simple designs with intriguing details where it makes sense. Spot on when you are learning something new to see the potential of the art being created.
In the almost legendary doughnut series by Andrew price you can find another tutorial that is a great start to get your feet wet with animation. This one is also a good tutorial to check out if you are into more of the product visualization and animation field.
In this case we get to follow along as Andrew show us how to make a doughnut spin nicely. But this could be any kind of product or logo, so don't be fooled by the doughnut that almost has become somewhat of a symbol for Blender.
If you are completely new to Blender, the entire series is well worth watching. It coveres most parts of Blender and what you need to know to get to the second level of your Blender journey.
Recommended ofcourse.
In this tutorial by CBaileyFilm he takes us through the animation of a robot character that we get to create if we follow his entire series. It is a fairly long tutorial with clear instructions and a very approachable and down to earth instructor.
A lot of time is spent getting the timing right, this is an essential part of animation and something that is fundamental to get right to avoid the uncanny valley.
There is also a lot of other content on this channel covering different aspects of animation and different projects where we can follow along.
Where would we be if we didn't include some logo animation along with all of these product and character animation on this list?
In this tutorial we are taken through a pretty easy setup with a simplistic yet amazing result. The idea comes from the Eternals marvel movie as we can see in the beginning of the tutorial.
We are taken through the full process of creating the curve, adding materials and ofcourse animation.
This tutorial demonstrates how short the animation process can be sometimes while still getting a really cool result.
In this last last entry in the list I wanted to feature an entire playlist. This time from the CrossMind Studios. In this series we get to follow along in the creation of a soda advertisement. There is a lot to digest here including some product advertisement animation and CGI.
A great weekend project for anyone interested in getting into product visualization in Blender. If you are primarily interested in the animation, part two is where you would want to go. But part three where fluid simulation with mantaflow is covered goes hand in hand with animation.
Below is the introduction for the series, click on the icon in the top right corner to access the other parts of the playlist.
In this article we covered some of the best tutorials to get started with animation in Blender. No matter if you are into character animation, product showcase, or logo animation I think you should be able to find something here to get you started.
Thanks for your time.
