3D Animation in Films

& Cartoons
RESEARCH PAPER

By
Ishan Agrawal

Enrollment no- A70349319011

Roll no- BSCANI1914

Under Supervision of

Onkar Arvind Patkar

Amity University, Mumbai

2022
 DECLARATION

I, Mr. Ishan Agrawal hereby declare that I have

successfully completed the Research Paper and it
is an original work developed and submitted by
me under the guidance of Prof. Onkar Arvind
Patkar.

The information incorporated in this project is true

and original to the best of my knowledge.

Place: MUMBAI

Date: 01-06-2022

Signature:
 CERTIFICATE

Certified that this Research is a veritable work of Mr.

Ishan Agrawal, from B.Sc. Animation and Visual
Graphics, Semester VI, Roll No. BSCANI1914, who
has carried out the whole research under the
guidance of Prof. Onkar Arvind Patkar. We also
certify further, that to the best of our knowledge, the
work reported herein does not form any part of any
other project report or dissertation based on which a
degree or award was conferred on an earlier
occasion on this or any other certificate.

HOI / HOD

External Examiner Project Guide

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The success and outcome of this project required a lot
of assistance and guidance from many people, and I
am extremely privileged to have got all this during the
completion of my project.

I would like to thank Prof. Onkar Arvind Patkar for

providing me an opportunity to work on this research
paper in Amity University, Mumbai and giving me all
the support and guidance, which helped me
complete and submit the project duly.

I am extremely grateful to him for helping me with this

research paper.

(Ishan Agrawal)
 INDEX

SR NO. CONTENT PAGE

1 Introduction 6-8
2 Evolution Of 3D Animation 9-12
3 3D Animation Production 13-16
Pipeline
4 Steps to create a memorable 17-19
3D Character Animation
5 Important Terms Of 3D 20-22
Animation in Industry
6 Difference between 3D 23-25
Animation Films & Cartoons
7 Best 3D Animation Softwares 26-31
Used In Industry
8 Animation Studious who are 32-34
working in 3D Animation
9 Different Styles Of 3D 35-37
Animations
10 Uses Of 3D Animation Other 38-40
than Films & Cartoons
11 Future Of 3D Animation Industry 41-44
12 Future Of 3D Animation Industry 45-49
In India
13 Conclusion 50
 Introduction

The very first 3D animation style was called clay animation or ‘claymation’ and came to life in
the early 1900s. It involved making clay models of real life objects and creating a stop-
motion film of the models being moved and manipulated into positions. One of the first
claymation films was Edison Manufacturing’s trick film entitled The Sculptor’s Welsh Rarebit
Dream in 1908. The film company Aardman became famous for their use of claymation of
characters like Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. Whilst claymation creates a really
impressive effect, it is extremely time consuming to undertake. It involves moving each clay
model in a long sequence of positions and taking a photo of each position. The photos are
then linked together to create a single animation. As computers became more widely
adopted in the sixties, computer animation started to take off. Computer generated imagery
or CGI replaced claymation as the most common animation style. In 1995 Pixar released Toy
Story, the first completely computer animated film in history. It proved hugely successful,
grossing $362 million worldwide! It also exposed the enormous potential of 3D animation
through the use of computers.

These days, 3D animation is a common sight across online and television videos. Companies
use it to showcase their services, train staff, explain complex terms or deliver informational
messages. The beauty of 3D is that anything is possible! At The Animation Guys, we love
creating 3D animation. It’s a really interesting and dynamic art style and can look really
realistic or completely conceptual. AutoRek is a global provider of financial controls, data
management and regulatory reporting software. They challenged us with creating a piece of
abstract Fintech 3D animation and visualisation to sit as a moving video background and be
used as additional assets throughout their website. Our animation had to fit seamlessly with
the style of the rest of their website. We kept in mind throughout the design process that we
were creating additional content that would be used throughout the website.

Before computers, early 3-D animation involved materials like clay being formed into shapes.
The shapes were moved a little bit for every shot. Piecing all of the hundreds or thousands of
shots together created the animation. This is called stop-motion, or claymation. Claymation
is very time-consuming, but can be wonderful to watch. Favorite characters and shows like
Gumby (which first aired in 1956), Wallace and Gromit (1990), Shawn the Sheep (1995) and
Robot Chicken (2005) were all created this way. While 2-D animation has been around since
the 1800's, it was not until the 1960s that an employee at Boeing, (an airplane
manufacturing company) started to experiment on the computer with early forms of 3-D
imagery of airline pilots. Usually, this is attributed to William Fetter, a graphic designer and
artist, who created the first real 3-D image of the human form to be used in short films for
Boeing. Most people credit him with creating the term computer graphics.

By the early 1970s, 3-D animation capabilities had evolved to include realistic human faces
and hands created by the designers Frederic Parke and Edwin Catmull. They used both faces
and hands in the first film to use CGI technology, Futureworld, in 1976. Edwin Catmull went
on to be one of the founders of Pixar, along with George Lucas of Star Wars fame. In 1977, a
small scene in George Lucas' Star Wars IV: A New Hope showed the android C-P3O fighting it
out with Chewbacca in what looked liked a 3-D version of chess. This ignited the imagination
of many people about 3-D animation and what it could do. Even though 3-D animation was
used throughout the film, it was this little scene in the movie that fueled public interest in
the great possibilities of 3-D animation. In 1986, George Lucas of Lucasfilm sold its computer
graphics division to Steve Jobs. Jobs renamed this division 'Pixar Animation Studios.' This
independent studio went through a remarkable transformation, creating now-famous 3-D
short films like Luxo Jr. (1986), Tin Toy (1988), and Knick Knack (1989), and becoming a
leader in 3-D animation. Even more 3-D animation came in the early 1990s. Terminator 2 in
1991 was followed by Jurassic Park in 1993; while not amazing by 3-D standards today, the
public went crazy to see those realistic dinosaurs. 3-D animation was now firmly established.

In 1995, Pixar Studios (later bought by Disney in 2006) revolutionized 3-D with the release of
Toy Story, the first full-length 3-D animated film. The breath-taking, human-like quality of a
group of toys fighting for survival is the hallmark of Pixar animation: a good story with
cutting-edge 3-D animation. Toy Story was followed by the much-loved 3-D megahits like A
Bug's Life (1998), Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), Wall E
(2008) and Up (2009). Where would we be without Woody, Buzz, Dory, Sully and Mike? By
1999, George Lucas used 3-D animation in nearly every scene in Star Wars I: The Phantom
Menace, including creating the well-done, but not very popular, Jar Jar Binks. This work led
to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), which was the first real attempt at photo-quality,
computer-generated humans. Then the ultimate CGI-generated character, Gollum, was
created in The Hobbit series of movies. The first use of 3D wireframe imagery in mainstream
cinema was in the sequel to Westworld, Futureworld (1976), directed by Richard T. Heffron.
This featured a computer-generated hand and face created by then University of Utah
graduate students Edwin Catmull and Fred Parke which had initially appeared in their 1972
experimental short A Computer Animated Hand. The same film also featured snippets from
1974 experimental short Faces and Body Parts. The Oscar-winning 1975 short animated film
Great, about the life of the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, contains a brief
sequence of a rotating wireframe model of Brunel's final project, the iron steam ship SS
Great Eastern.The third movie to use this technology was Star Wars (1977), written and
directed by George Lucas, with wireframe imagery in the scenes with the Death Star plans,
the targeting computers in the X-wing fighters, and the Millennium Falcon spacecraft. The
Walt Disney film The Black Hole (1979, directed by Gary Nelson) used wireframe rendering
to depict the titular black hole, using equipment from Disney's engineers. In the same year,
the science-fiction horror film Alien, directed by Ridley Scott, also used wireframe model
graphics, in this case to render the navigation monitors in the spaceship. The footage was
produced by Colin Emmett at the Atlas Computer Laboratory.

Advances in computer power combined with an increase in affordability and new

developments in commercial software meant that throughout the 1980s meant that the
quality and prevalence of computer animation and computer-generated imaging kept
increasing. This was the era in which solid 3D CGI was improved and developed to the point
where it could be used in a movie for the first time. Walt Disney’s Tron was released in
1982, and it is now regarded as a real milestone in the movie industry, with its use of solid
3D CGI a first for a film representing a giant step forward. The vehicles and digital terrains of
the film are all produced by CGI, and showed what could be achieved with the technology.
From here on in, we see CGI being used in more and more movies, right up to the present
day. Morphing or tweening also improved dramatically in the 80s. Up to this point,
morphing was mainly used with vector animations, but by the early 1980s the technology
was enabling morphing to happen between photographic images to create photorealistic
animation. The first public example of this in action came from the New York Institute of
Technology in 1982 when at a conference Tom Brigham from the institute presented a video
sequence of a woman morphing into a lynx.

Motion capture’s initial application was as a biomechanics research tool. It was then first
used for more commercial purposes in video game production in the late 1980s, before
being adopted by the film industry in late 1990s. A notable example of this time was the use
of motion capture to create the Jar-Jar Binks character animation in Star Wars: Episode I The
Phantom Menace. A lot of people had a strong dislike for this character, so perhaps it wasn’t
the best use of the new computer animation technique after all.

One of the biggest breakthroughs in motion capture was Andy Serkis’ performance as
Gollum in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. This was the first time that a feature film
used a real-time motion system. The technique was able to transform nuances of Serkis’
performance onto the facial animation of Gollum and gave the CGI a real human character.

By 1988 morphing had made its way onto the big screen in Ron Howard’s movie Willow, and
it was also used to great effect in Terminator 2, Judgment Day in 1991. The technique
probably reached the peak of its trend when Michael Jackson used it in his music video for
Black or White. The video premiered simultaneously in 27 different countries to reach an
audience of 500 million people and brought morphing to the forefront of public
consciousness. Computer animation was heading for the big time. Nowadays, computer
animation and computer-generated images are the absolute norm in the television, film,
and video game industries. Incremental improvements in technology have increased the
capabilities of CGI while simultaneously making it more accessible. Increased processing
power and better software means that high-quality computer animation is no longer
confined to major players with powerful workstation computers. Many home computers are
now capable of producing computer animations that would have previously required giant
dedicated rendering machines. This has created new opportunities for individuals and
companies to experiment with animation. If you want to learn how to animate, the barrier
to entry has never been lower and the potential has never been greater. You know longer
need an animation degree to get started in the field, you can start right now. The reason
why CGI and computer animation have become so popular is because it makes almost
anything possible the only limit is your imagination. As with most technology, knowing what
the future holds is difficult to predict. It’s hard to imagine 3D animation becoming even
better than it already is! But the rise of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) shows
how much it is already evolving.

As we’ve seen in recent years, it’s likely 3D animation will become even more mainstream
and be used for business and in everyday communication. Now, you’re just as likely to see a
brand using animation in their marketing as you are a new animated television show. It’s
also probable that machine learning in which an input is assessed by a computer and a
relevant output is automatically created will help animators speed up their workflows. And
with all that time back in their workdays, we’re likely to see even more animated content
hitting our screens.
 Evolution Of 3D Animation Industry

Computer 3D animation production creates moving images in a digital environment in

layman’s terms. Oh, and we mustn’t forget the objects are all far more sophisticated and
pompous than their 2D counterparts they’re three-dimensional! Animators can export
picture sequences to give the illusion of movement through precise manipulation of objects
(known as 3D models).

Like most forms of animation, the main goal of 3D animation production is to trick the
human brain into believing that static images are moving when they are simply a series of
successive images appearing in a highly fast-paced sequence. That’s right – animators are
real-life magicians in their art.

There may be discrepancies between critics and lovers of animation as to where the roots of
a 3D lie. At Animation Explainers, we believe that the first 3D animation style is in clay
animation, which came to life in the early 20th century. In short, ‘Claymation’ entails
creating clay models of real-life objects to produce stop-motion films depicting the models
as they move. Characters are made from segments of clay, and subsequent stories are told.
A trick film by Edison Manufacturing titled The Sculptor’s Welsh Rarebit Dream in 1908 is
one of the earliest claymation films.

The film company Aardman, founded in 1972, has become synonymous with claymation, so
much so that it is the heart and soul of their brand. Aardman brought us loveable characters
such as Wallace and Gromit, and Shaun the Sheep. Making clay animations seems all well
and good, but we must disclose: it is by no means a walk in the park or, should we say, a
rocket trip to the moon. A Grand Day Out took an entire six years to finish and appeared on
Channel 4 on Christmas Eve, 1989.

Like stop-motion in general, the process is notably time-consuming and requires a lot of
patience and dedication. For this reason, it’s not surprising that clay animation movies such
as A Grand Day Out tend to be short features. The technique is very creative yet intricate.
However, the uniquely funny and charming results are so impressive they are undoubtedly
worth the painstaking process.

Despite its age-old roots, Aardman’s claymation has continued to achieve acclaim with its
clay-inspired animations. Their most recent collaboration was Arthur Christmas (2011) with
Sony Pictures. While the film is fully animated with 3G elements, it is clear to see the
influences of claymation throughout. In the sixties, as computers became more prevalent,
computer animation followed suit. Soon, computer-generated imagery (CGI) replaced
claymation as the most common animation style.

While 2-D animation has been around since the early 1800s (yes, it’s that old! ), it was not
until the 1960s that a random employee at Boeing started experimenting on the computer
with early forms of 3-D imagery of airline pilots. And the rest, as they say, is history. The
mystery man’s name is William Fetter, an artist who created the first real 3-D image of the
human form in short films for Boeing. This wireframe drawing was used in pilot modeling to
test a pilot’s ability to reach the aircraft’s instruments. Drawn by William Allan Fetter, this
was acted as a 3D representation of a human. William also worked for Boeing using
computers to animate and design models.

Modern CGI

Without a doubt, CGI (computer-generated imagery) truly transformed animation. A critical

difference between CGI animation and traditional animation in the drawing is substituted by
3D modeling, creating a more digital version of conventional stop-motion. A form of
animation that combines the two and uses 2D computer drawing can be considered
computer-aided animation.

In 1995 Pixar released Toy Story, the first completely computer-animated film. It won
multiple awards and grossed $373 million worldwide! The best part? It opened up a chasm
exposing the colossal potential of 3D animation through computers. In one of the most
iconic sequences in animated film history, In one of the most iconic sequences in animated
film history, Woody and Buzz Lightyear race to catch a truck while cheering one another on
during flight. The scene exhibits the sense of unity and friendship that runs as a motif
throughout the film and the natural emotions and imitative features the animators could
evoke through new technology. 3D thus can connect with audiences on an emotional level
more closely than any other style due to its capacity for life-likeness.

The character models were deemed remarkably sophisticated for their time, with high-
quality lighting, multiple layered textures, and a wide variety of facial animations that had
not been achieved anywhere else on such a scale. Toy Story was followed by the beloved 3D
smash hits like Monsters, Inc. (2001), Finding Nemo (2003), The Incredibles (2004), and Up
(2009). Could you possibly imagine a life without Sully, Mike, Dory, Edna Mode, Jack-Jack,
and sweet old Carl Fredrickson? We certainly couldn’t.

The Ultimate CGI Character

By 1999, George Lucas used 3-D animation in nearly every scene in Star Wars I: The
Phantom Menace, including creating the well-done, but not very popular, Jar Jar Binks. This
work led to Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), the first genuine attempt at photo-
quality, computer-generated humans. The film saw a significant development in computer-
generated graphics. Then the ultimate CGI-generated character has to be awarded to
Gollum, created in The Hobbit series of movies. Gollum unquestionably epitomizes CGI done
right as a CGI masterpiece.

Gollum helped pave the way for such CGI successes as Avatar and Rise of the Planet of the
Apes. These cinematic phenomena further prove just how far animation technology has
come. Gollum has subsequently been rightfully placed in the cinematic hall of fame: one of
the most significant CGI characters in film and one of the greatest characters of all time.

An Animation 360

What better way there to kick off the Millenium than with the animation milestone that was
DreamWorks’ Shrek? DreamWorks bravely sought to contend in an industry Disney had
dominated and defined over the past seven decades.

The studio endeavored to establish itself as a dangerous contender to the Disney empire in
its artistic rendition of the biblical epic, The Prince of Egypt. But with the film achieving less
success than expected, directors punished lagging animators to work in “the dungeons” of
the newly proposed low-budget venture Shrek. The animation process for the film was
deemed so bad that they labeled their assignment to it as being ‘Shreked’ (and no, we’re
not kidding).

Highest Grossing Animation

Yet, defeating the odds, Shrek roared as a cultural phenomenon. Winning the first-ever
Academy Award for the animated feature while generating a whopping $484 million in
worldwide sales despite its original low budget. The sequel, worth $919 million worldwide,
topped “Finding Nemo” as the highest-grossing animated film of all time. The movie’s
opening sequence encapsulates much of what made Shrek an all-embracing change from
what had come before: parodying the Disney classic with a storybook scene depicting the
tale of a Princess trapped in a tower.

Just as it teases you in, Shrek himself interrupts and halts the narration. In a 360 flip
sprinkled with filth and vulgarity, our much-loved protagonist tears out a page of the
elegant volume as he utters What a load of before flushing it down his outhouse hole. That’s
what Shrek thinks of Disney’s long-established dignity. As he busts open the outhouse door,
the ogre showcases his morning swamp-infused routine Smash Mouth’s “All-Star” with
audiences witness to the most impudent and anti-princess behavior possible: cracked
mirrors, animal cruelty, unpicking wedgies and, we mustn’t forget, breaking wind that would
later inspire Gru’s Minion’s fart guns.

There is no other way to describe DreamWork’s Shrek than inexplicably audacious so anti-
Disney that it produced a new set of rules at the turn of the century. Before we even bear
witness to the film’s main action, in the opening sequence of Shrek alone, DreamWorks
declared that the old ways were dead and buried. After all, only shooting stars break the
mold.
3D Takes Television

In the early noughties, it was the case that cartoon shows began to follow the silver screen’s
path by using CGI. Leading the way was Jimmy Neutron, a cartoon show on Nickelodeon.
These kinds of cartoons were soon produced to air every week. Creating a totally dynamic
way of working for 3D animators who had previously worked on extended film features.
Similar to 2D animation for TV, compromises were often taken to keep expenses at bay. This
meant and still means even now, that we may see characters having simplified, stiffened
gestures and mouth movements that neglect to match the dialogue perfectly. Although they
aren’t as detailed, using less intricate character models significantly reduces the costs it
would take to animate specific details. When comparing the movie Madagascar to its spin-
off show Penguins of Madagascar, we can see distinct differences, such as efforts to
animate the fur of the Penguins.

3D Animation – What Possibly Comes Next?

All we can say is: get ready for some significant changes.3D animation has transformed
hugely over the years. As our human minds expand, new technologies broaden almost as
quickly. 3D animation is arguably one of the most significant inventions known to modern
man. Not only has it re-defined the entertainment sector, but it has also opened up an
entirely new world for gaming. Today, we can find ourselves playing games in virtual
realities. Feeling the senses while watching movies all thanks to innovations executed in our
field of animation.

Since 2000, the 3D animation industry has continued to develop further in the new
millennium. We should be prepared for major changes and innovations beyond current AR
or VR trends, considering its history.

If you are developing your own business’ marketing strategy we urge you not just to sit and
wait. Take advantage of 3D animation’s benefits today, and put it to good use for the long-
term success of your company.
 3D Animation Production Pipeline

• 3D Layout Designing

Firstly, the 3D layout design takes the storyboard from the pre-production phase and
establishes a good foundation for the rest of the animation project. Designing the 3D layout
is a process of conceptualizing and creating the characters and the environment where the
story will be taking place. Sometimes, the design for the layout can come as early as the
storyboarding stage in the pre-production phase. These can take the form of rough sketches
of the set, which can then be further stylized and adapted following the project’s stylistic
choices. Once the settings and environment are finalized, the artists can translate them into
a 3D virtual space. These environments and settings are built using software from the
computer. During this stage, the models will take the form of low-resolution polygons.

This way, the director and everyone else involved can get a rough idea of how the scene’s
composition will play out. This includes how the characters interact with the environment
and the movement of the camera.

• 3D Modeling

Once the 3D layout is finished, the production process moves into the modeling stage. 3D
modeling is the process of creating 3D models that will replace the low-resolution polygons
found in the 3D layout. Artists will create models for all of the characters, backgrounds, and
even small props found in a scene. They’ll take the design data given to them, including
drawings and sculptures, and use them as references for when they start creating the
models. To do this, they manipulate points called vertices and form them into various
shapes to recreate the models called meshes. Artists will also need to consider that their
models will need to move around. Therefore, they will need to accommodate the
movements done to their models by creating deformities in the mesh. Doing this will
optimize the mesh when it is animated later down the line. In general, all of the 3D meshes
will be created in a flat gray color. The next step of the production phase will then bring
these meshes to life.

• 3D Texturing
The job of a 3D texture artist is to apply realistic textures to the gray meshes created in the
3D modeling phase. Giving the meshes physical properties makes the models more
authentic, if not photorealistic, to the viewer. To do this, artists will need to research
available materials and colors they can give to the models. Research can be done in several
ways. Some examples include looking for reference images and researching the setting’s
specific time and location. Depending on the scale of the project and the budget, texture
artists may even get the chance to study and observe similar objects and textures in the real
world. Experienced texture artists can also opt to save these references to build a library for
future projects. The first step to texturing will be to unwrap the 3D mesh into a 2D map
which the artist can then assign colors and textures. Some software such as Maya or
Photoshop offers a few tools that let the artist automatically unwrap the mesh.

However, a texture artist can also choose to manually unwrap the mesh. This can be more
time-consuming but can make the painting process much easier. Once the mesh is
unwrapped, the artist will then assign colors and properties to the mesh. This is done by
putting different types of maps onto the unwrapped mesh. The artist will need to think
about the material’s surface properties and how it behaves and reacts to light. These
include a displacement map, a roughness or glossiness map, and more. If the wrong
material or property is assigned, the model might not achieve its job of making the 3D
texture photorealistic to the audience.

• 3D Rigging
Rigging is a crucial step in the production pipeline. It’s a process that creates a bone
structure for the models so that an artist can freely animate how they move and interact
with objects. Most, if not all, models can be rigged to be animated and do not necessarily
need to be a human model. A model of an animal, a door, a spaceship, or even an entire
solar system can be rigged to mimic real-life. It’s also important to note that the bone
structure of a model does not need to follow the exact bone structure of its real-life
counterpart. The artist will only put in the number of bones they deem necessary for the
character to move in the way that they want.
 • 3D Animation
Once the models are rigged, the production pipeline then moves on animating these
models. The animator manipulates the bones found in the model by moving their position,
rotating, and even scaling them to mimic different poses and movements. If an animator is
happy with the position of the model, they will then save these positions on the timeline
by keyframing the bones at certain points during the animation.

This process can be time-consuming, as artists need to animate multiple scenes that span
the entire length of the project’s runtime. Animators will also need to review their
animations to make sure that the movement of their models is smooth and seamless.

• VFX

The production pipeline’s visual effects or VFX stage focuses on animating the minute
details that the other artists did not move during the animation stage. The reasoning behind
this is that some of these elements can possess more complex textures that may be too
resource-intensive or too difficult to animate in 3D software. Examples of these elements
can include hair, fur, explosions, water, and the like.

For this step, artists will usually turn to physics-based systems to generate the textures and
motions of those elements. The artist will need to set the parameters such as gravity or air
movement, then the system will take into account these parameters when it simulates
movement.

• Lighting
Effective lighting can enhance a 3D animation scene by being able to support a scene. It
heightens the scene by depicting the mood of the shot, the time of day, location, and more.
An experienced lighting artist can even manipulate where the viewers should look if they
use the right lighting. By using a combination of lighting techniques, a 3D lighting artist will
make both the set and the models look realistic. Inversely, a poorly lit scene might not be
able to look convincing as the models may look flat to the viewer.

• Rendering

The final part of the 3D animation production pipeline will merge all of the elements done
during the production stage. The layout, models, textures, animations, and others will be
combined and rendered into a still 2D image or frame. In some cases, different aspects of
the scene will be rendered separately. For example, a complex scene of a spaceship landing.
The background, foreground, and spaceship may be rendered separately. This will give the
artists in post-production more options to tweak and fine-tune the effects, and adjustments
to the final scene.

3D rendering software such as Blender or Unity is responsible for rendering the scenes.
Depending on the complexity of the scene, rendering can take as much time as a few
seconds to even several days. Once the renders are done, the production process will then
move to post-production where artists add the final touches to the scenes.
 Steps to create a memorable 3D Character
Animation

3D character animation is the process of creating three-dimensional images that are in a

moving state. Creating character animation in 3d involves adding a thought, personality, and
emotion in the characters. A 3d character animation can be used in explainer videos or
product videos to explain a concept or a product. 3D character design adds life to the
characters; therefore, it is one of the easiest ways to grab the visitor's attention and convert
them into the lead. So, what are you waiting for? Create 3D characters.

Step-1 Brainstorm idea and work on storyboard

Whenever you get access to your character animation, observing and creating an idea is one
of the essential steps in creating 3d character animation. If you successfully conceptualize
your ideas and have a clear thought of what we want, how to do it, and why it is crucial, you
can easily plan out to add your video characters' nuance. To make your video 3D character
animation convincing, observe what people want, how they talk, how they display their
emotions, etc. The more you get deeper into human interactions, the easier it becomes to
make the right decision. After brainstorming the ideas for an animation topic, don't forget to
translate your ideas into visuals by creating a perfect storyboard. A storyboard is a sequence
of illustrations that helps in showcasing how the entire story will look. The storyboard will
help you get a view of the story in two dimensions. This is the step where you can plan out
the impact of your character animation on the audience
Step-2 Start 3D character modeling
Once clients approve your storyboard, it's time to design characters, and the task of creating
characters is known as modeling. It is how you proceed with shaping the things and are
modeled to finally complete 3D mesh. You can take a simple object and redefine it to create
a 3D object. In this step, you can draw or model the assets in different dimensions. By using
the right animation software, create models in 3D. All its features allow you to produce
characters without any hassle.

Step-3 Don't rush during design texturing

Once you successfully model the characters, it's' time to provide clothes to your 3D models.
During texturing, 2D images will be overlaid with designs, colors, and textures, and this
overlapping is mapping. To do this, you can use Photoshop, Substance Painter, etc. to make
seamless patterns.

The people who perform this step are highly responsible for writing, painting, and shading
texture. You can easily design the texture according to the concept of art, which can be
assigned to the model.

Step-4 Process with Rigging and Skinning

Once you add texture to your characters, it's time to acquire a unique skeleton. Here all your
characters will get the ability to move from animators. A rig is nothing but a virtual skeleton.
During rigging, all the body parts are integrated as an entire body. While putting the
structure in 3D characters, we basically aim to drive the movement of characters to bring
reality to it. After rigging, you have to continue with skinning, which involves combining all
the 3D models with a rigged skeleton. The purpose behind this step is that it controls the rig
can easily change the 3D model.

Step-5 Animation
It is one of the most critical and time-consuming tasks that will add life to your 3D
characters. In this particular step, the animator will change the objects on a frame-by-frame
basis. It is quite relevant to the old concept where cartoons are drawn with hands. Besides
this, there are various ways by using which you can perform this animation task very quickly.
You can add the objects on splines and do a setting to make sure that it follows the path of
curves. Moreover, you can also use 3D applications to make sure the objects are adjusted as
per the needs.
Step-6 Consider lightning and camera movement
While creating 3D character animation videos, having good camera angles and techniques
besides considering lightning. You can use this amazing tool to shoot a scene that takes the
audience to start a new journey. There are various 3d cameras and real-life cameras
available in the market that can be used to pick an exceptional view in the video. Besides
keeping a note of the camera and location movement, make sure you use proper lightning
because improper lightning can destroy all the hard work.

Step-7 Rendering and composition

Rendering is one of the last steps of the 3d animation pipeline. In this step, all the
information is translated into the file so that all the shots can be compiled into a single
frame. Based on models, effects, lighting, and materials, it becomes easy to calculate each
pixel from every perspective. Whenever you produce a final render of a scene, it is vital to
take care of all the aspects, including camera placement. Once the rendering is completed,
it's time to do compositing. This is where all the renders are brought into the compositing
and can be edited. You can also consider composting as the creation of computer-generated
footage from the live footage.

Once it's all done, you can also add music to your animated video to make it highly
productive and exciting.

Step-8 Edit and final output

Once everything is completed, it's time to make the final changes. This step is basically to
ensure that everything is created with perfection. This step needs the editor checks. So,
before sharing the entire 3D character animation video with your client, make sure
everything is looking perfectly fine. This is where it all ends! This is where the composited
renders, music and foley are compiled and edited to ensure that everything is in
synchronization. Once satisfied, the compiled product is exported as one of the many
formats suitable for broadcasting standards and delivered to the client. Once all the
elements have been animated, rendered and refined it is time for the final render. When
production is complete and the final polishes are in the can the render button is pushed and
there is no turning back! Animation completed!

The production pipeline is uniform in most studios, however some studios likely to tweak
around and create a custom pipeline determined by the type of project they are currently
undertaking. Animation production is a collaborative and coordinated process where artists
work together, making most of the available to achieve the final goal.
 Important Terms Of 3D Animation In
Industry

#1. Grab Viewport (GVP)

When the rough cut of a CG animation with all the main scenes and models, but no textures
yet, are ready, the team of animators shares this intermediary result with the client. To do
that quickly, they use the GVP, or Grab Viewport feature. Essentially, GVP is a preview of an
animation created by recording the screen in the 3ds Max software without actually
rendering the video. It saves a lot of time and allows the client to see the draft CG footage
and ask for necessary corrections at the early stages of the project.

#2. Grayscale
Next on our list of 3D animation terminology is grayscale. That is CG imagery, or in our case,
a video without any colors or textures applied to the 3D models. Usually, clients see
grayscales in GVPs when approving the geometry of the models and the composition of the
scenes. At this stage, if the architect wants to make changes to some items in the footage or
arrange them in a different way, 3D animators can do that rather quickly because there’s no
need to change any textures.

#3. Camera Path

A camera path is a trajectory along which the virtual camera moves through the scene. Using
this bit of terminology, the client can help the 3D animation team to determine the starting
point of the video, the order in which the 3D objects will appear, and the endpoint. For
instance, in the case of architectural visualization, the camera can first fly around the
building to show its exterior and then go inside to reveal the interior design.

#4. Camera Movements

These are the ways the view shifts in an animation to change the frame or perspective
through the movement of the virtual camera. There are many types of such movements, and
knowing the basic terminology here is essential to clearly explain ideas and understand
suggestions from the 3D project team. Here are the main terms:

• Zoom In/Out — “moving” closer to/ further from an object by magnifying the frame;
 • Pan — changing the angle horizontally from side to side;
• Tilt — changing the angle vertically upwards or downwards;
• Dolly — moving towards or away from an object without zooming;
• Truck — moving from one side to another along a fixed point;
• Pedestal — moving upwards or downwards in relation to an object.

#5. Script/Scenario
This term is a more universal piece of 3D animation terminology, as it also applies to
filmmaking in general. A script, or scenario, is a narrative that explains in detail how the
video begins, progresses, and ends. To get a mind-blowing 3D walkthrough animation, an
architect should try to explain their vision and message in the brief as clearly as possible. But
not to worry CGI specialists are always ready to help shape and fine-tune even the raw ideas
of their clients into breathtaking animated CG visuals.

#6. Storyboard
The next item on our list of terminology is storyboard — a sequence of images, such as
sketches, that is used to pre-visualize 3D animation. Namely, a storyboard shows what
various frames will look like in terms of angles and composition. An architect can prepare
one themselves and then finalize the concept with their project team. Doing that will help to
communicate the ideas and speed up the process of creating a 3D animation.

#7. Simple VFX

Simple VFX, or visual effects, can be added to an architectural animation using specialized
software like Adobe After Effects to imitate real-life phenomena. For instance, that can be a
fire burning in the fireplace, water running in the pool, steam above the cup, flying birds, etc.
Overall, such visual effects really help to increase the realism and add ambiance to the CG
footage. So, it’s quite important to be familiar with this part of 3D animation terminology.

#8. Frame Rate (FPS)

Frame rate, expressed in frames per second, or FPS, is the frequency at which frames
consecutive images appear on the screen. Higher frequency rates like 120fps and 240fps are
usually used in 3D animation with a lot of movement, particularly when there are animated
characters. At the same time, lower rates like 30fps and 60fps allow for achieving a more
cinematic effect. These are used the most often in architectural animation. Also, one should
know that video files with high frame rates are large in size and take longer to render.
#9. Post-Production
Another important piece of 3D animation terminology is post-production — the last stage of
the pipeline. At that point, the final rendering is done and then CGI specialists add final
touches to the CG footage. They do color correction, adjust brightness and sharpness, and
can add optical effects like lens flares. Also, that’s when the 3D animation experts can add
contextual elements, such as figures of people, pets, and vehicles in the streets. And, finally,
the CG video gets music, voice-overs, and subtitles added to it.

#10. Match-Moving
When it comes to 3D animation terminology, match-moving is one of the most important
terms for those who want to get the most realistic footage. It’s a technique that allows an
artist to seamlessly insert a 3D model of a building into a video shot with a real camera. For
example, an architect can have their design placed in the aerial footage of the expected
construction site captured by a drone from a bird’s eye view. That will allow them to
demonstrate how the future structure will look in its actual surroundings.

#11. Render Farm

To complete our terminology list, we must mention render farm a cluster of computers that
work together in sync to render many 3D images in a short time. It’s particularly necessary
for the creation of 3D animation, which consists of a great number of such CG renders
frames. Because, compared to rendering on a single machine, visualizing on a farm is a lot
faster thanks to the combined power of multiple state-of-the-art computers. Using a render
farm, 3D animators can deliver even rather long and complex CG videos within a short
amount of time.

That was our shortlist of the must-know 3D animation terminology. Learning those 11 simple
terms will help any architect get on the same wavelength with their team of CGI experts
quickly and easily. As a result, you’ll be able to get amazing CG presentations faster! Plus,
you will really enjoy the process of coordinating the production of your 3D visuals.
 Difference between 3D Animation Films &
Cartoons

Cartoon basically refer to two things. It can either refer to a simple, non-realistic, drawing
depicting a humorous situation or humorously exaggerated characters. This type of cartoons
is often found in newspapers and magazines. Cartoons often use satire to offer subtle
criticism. An artist who creates cartoon (drawing) is called a cartoonist. Cartoon can also
refer to a short film or television show that uses animation techniques to photograph a
sequence of drawings rather than real people or objects. Cartons are usually aimed at
children and often feature anthropomorphized animals (animals that act like humans),
superheroes, the adventures of children and related themes. Asterix, Scooby Doo,
Adventures of Tin Tin, Duck Tales, Tom and Jerry, Thunder Cats, Dora the Explorer, Garfield,
etc. are some examples of popular cartoons.

It’s easy to intuitively spot the difference between 2D and 3D animations in the final
product. In terms of movies, Cinderella and the Little Mermaid are two examples of 2D
animation, while Minions and Frozen are examples of 3D animation. But let’s break down
this difference a little further. In 2D animation, all of the images and actions are flat,
occurring over an x and y axes. 3D animation adds in the appearance of depth and other 3D
features so that actions and objects can move along the third z-axis as well. However, the
true differences between 2D and 3D animation occurs in how they are made. The entire
process for 2D animation happens in two dimensions. A sequence of drawings are created,
and by slightly altering each drawing, a progression is created that when played rapidly
creates the illusion of movement. 3D animation is created entirely in the computer, but it is
made in three dimensions. In the first part of the process of creating 3D animation, three
dimensional models are created. The animations are made by moving around these 3D
models, much as you would move a puppet. Once the model has been created, animation is
completed by changing the poses and placements of the model.

It’s easy to get lost in the animation process and start picking at details, losing track of the
bigger picture. It can save you a lot of time and frustration if you smartly arrange your
priorities basics first, details later. Focus on your key poses first, as those are imperative to
move the storyline forward. You can always come back and fill in the details later, but first,
make sure you have your keyframes nailed down. Not only will this allow you to keep track
of timing, but it will also help to focus on your characters’ main motives instead of getting
distracted by trivial details. A sequence of drawings are created, and by slightly altering each
drawing, a progression is created that when played rapidly creates the illusion of movement.
3D animation is created entirely in the computer, but it is made in three dimensions. In the
first part of the process of creating 3D animation, three dimensional models are created. As
a 3D animator, you’ll come to notice that the more time passes, the more of an observer you
become. After all, your goal is to make your 3D characters and objects as realistic as possible.
And the best way to imitate real life is to know how it functions.
Observe and study the physics of everyday life. This doesn’t mean, though, you should
pursue a physics diploma. Just doing some research and understanding the effects of gravity
will do the job. Basic knowledge of gravity will help you give reasonable weight to your
objects and make their movements more convincing. The first known experiments with
computer graphic animation occurred in the 1940’s and 50’s, including by John Whitney,
who is often considered the father of computer animation. Whitney’s early films made on a
rig with an anti-aircraft analog computer are all the more impressive when considering that
the first digital image was not made until 1957, when Russell Kirsch attached a drum scanner
to one of the first programmable digital computers. However it was not until the 1960’s
when digital computers were more available, that computer animation began to be used. In
the beginning it was primarily for research and scientific purposes, but by the middle of the
decade people began experimenting artistically with the medium. However, the world’s first
computer drawn film was actually made for marketing purposes. A 49-second vector
animation of a car driving down a planned highway, from the driver’s perspective was made
by the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology for the Royal Swedish Road and Water
Construction Agency in 1960 and broadcast in 1961 at primetime during a news program in
Sweden.

3D animation is often used for character animation in TV and movies. The technique can
make characters seem more lifelike, enhancing the emotional connection viewers establish
with them. A 3D animated character is more vivid and engaging, almost like playing with a
toy. This makes 3D animation very useful for kids’ entertainment. The “Frozen” movies are a
great example. Elements of the story, like the main character Elsa transforming objects into
ice, become more enchanting in 3D. Scenes like having the character sing, dance, and twirl
also gain impact in a 3D image. Even facial expressions gain poignance. 3D animation can
also give a more lifelike feeling to video games, intensifying the action for the player. When
you’re battling an enemy or racing through an obstacle course, having the 3D sensation can
make for a far more thrilling experience. 3D animation can also be used with virtual reality
and augmented reality special effects, giving the player the sense that they’re inside the
world in real-time. Horizon Zero Dawn is one example of how a video game animation can
leverage 3D technology. The action game involves a lot of physicalities, from avoiding traps
to solving puzzles and battling enemies. The combatant robots in the game are far more
intimidating in 3D, making for a more adrenaline-pumping experience.

The days of boring PowerPoint presentations are long gone. Presentations with 3D animated
features help draw the audience in and command their attention for the entirety of a
presentation. This how-to tutorial from Microsoft featuring imagery of a drone in flight gives
you an idea of how intriguing a 3D presentation can be. 3D animation can also prove
valuable in marketing. For example, a marketer might use this technique to show off all the
product’s features as they would appear in real life. Audiences can get a better sense of
what the goods look like. Brands can also use 3D animation to showcase products through
tutorials or demos. 3D animation can also simply be used to create more captivating
content. In a world where audience attention spans are getting shorter, a compelling video
ad with 3D techniques can keep consumers interested. This ad for online casino app Borgata
is a great example of the visual intensity 3D techniques can create to boost conversion rates.

3D animation is also handy for creating life-like renderings of houses and buildings before
they’re constructed. Combined with VR and AR tools, architects can even step inside and
walk through their designs. This is also useful for interior decorating, letting designers get a
concrete idea of what a room will look like. 3D animation can also be combined with another
cutting-edge tool, 3D printing, to create product prototypes at a low cost. From engineering
firms to medical technology companies, businesses can save money on raw materials as well
as time and manpower by visualizing and crafting a low-cost prototype. They can then tweak
their goods based on the prototype before developing a finalized product.

The tech and machinery industries are especially active when it comes to developing
prototypes using 3D tools. Sculpteo provides a handy roundup of some impressive 3D
printed prototypes, from bridges to eyewear, furniture, and robotic arms. Race car
companies even rely on prototypes to find ways to speed up the wheel-change
process. Finally, 3D animation can be used in simulations across an array of fields. For
example, 3D videos can be used to help enhance employee training. A single 3D animated
video can be accessed by workers whenever they need it, minimizing the need for costly and
confusing mass training sessions. Car brands like Audi use 3D animation coupled with VR
tools to provide employees with training, for instance. By creating more lifelike and
interesting imagery, 3D animation can boost user engagement. This applies across various
contexts from video games to marketing and company presentations by drawing the viewer
in and keeping them captivated, and great animation ups the odds that the viewer will stay
alert and engaged. It’s possible to create clearer images that provide a real-world
impression by using 3D animation. This can enhance communication, eliminating confusion
for example, as to what a product might look like in a 360-degree view. Thanks to its visual
impact, 3D animation can also boost emotional connection, further enhancing
communication. 3D animation allows businesses to better convey their brand by providing
more detailed insights into their products, services, and overall vision. Companies that use
this kind of cutting-edge technology can also establish themselves as a more modern and
forward-thinking brand in the eyes of consumers. The day-to-day duties of a 3D Animator
will vary depending on the type of video production job. For each new project, there must
be new research and planning done in order to properly prepare. Once all information is
gathered on the subject matter, company, and overall goal of the job, the animator can
begin the technical work.

Technical work begins with tasks like keyframing and posing. As each scene goes through
phases of completion, the animator will need to have it reviewed by supervisors and clients.
This feedback will help them make sure the project is turning out exactly as envisioned.
Upon completion of a project, an artist is responsible for rendering the scene and ensuring
that it is delivered to the client in the preferred format. 3D animation is an incredible art
form that allows for a lot of creative choices. Many things can be done in animation that
can’t be done in live action videos, making this technique useful for the most imaginative of
projects. 3D animation services require a lot of planning and work, but are well-worth it in
the end. Carefully crafted scenes can help your company reach audiences and consumers in
new ways. So, these are the things that make animation in films and cartoons different from
each other.
 Best 3D Animation Softwares Used In
Industry

Cascadeur :-

Game developer Nekki are most well known for their Vector and Shadow Fight games, with
over 500 million registered users across all platforms. From making some of the world’s most
viral and popular games, they learned exactly what game makers and animators are looking
for. With that experience they have released Cascadeur, the 3D game animation software for
game designs that they personally use. Cascadeur is a physics-based animation software for
creating physically accurate animations for games and movies. In Cascadeur, developers can
create realistic animations of characters of almost any type – humans, animals or any other
creatures – without needing to use motion capture technology. For decades, when creating
animations for games, developers had to decide between two production methods: either
they had to use motion capture and thus received 100% realistic motion data – or they had
to animate their characters manually by hand.

Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages in terms of time, cost and realism of
the results. Handmade animation, although they can be very expressive, will never look
realistic. Motion capture looks realistic, but has a lot of physical limitations and depends on
the skills of human actors.

Cascadeur introduces a third way of animating. It provides animators with convenient tools,
allowing you to either:

• Create realistic and believable action animation from scratch and then fix the physical
characteristics of the animation with the help of physics-tools, or
• Take existing MoCap data, modify it to the desired result and then fix the correctness
of the physical characteristics.
Cascadeur can be integrated in most existing animation workflows, as it supports import
and export of FBX/DAE data to other software. It’s completely free for non-commercial
users and small enterprises, with paid versions for larger companies offering better support
services and a host of other benefits.

Beginners needn’t be intimidated, as Cascadeur have created numerous tutorials on their

website, ranging from the newest of beginners, to very advanced users. Guides to various
tools are extensively documented, as well as YouTube guides to fun niche uses like
animating characters in zero gravity, or creating somersaults with perfectly realistic physics.
If you run into any issues, or want to join the community, there’s a very active Discord of
members and developers more than happy to help beginners.

Blender :-

There are many free 3D animation software out there, but it’s hard to look past Blender as
the best. This open source 3D animation software can be used for every stage of the 3D
pipeline, from modeling, rigging, animation, and simulation to rendering, compositing,
motion tracking and video editing. It also supports 2D animation.
Blender can be used for a wide range of applications, including advertisements, animated
feature films, TV series, video games, visual effects, architecture and art.

As a 3D animation movie software it offers a number of high-quality tools, such as envelope,

skeleton and automatic skilling, B-spline interpolated bones, custom bone shapes for fast
inputs, unwrapping, texturing, fluid and smoke simulation, and sound synchronization.
Blender also offers excellent rigging tools that you can use to design a skeleton and then
define and location and mobility of limbs and their relationship to one another when
creating a framework for your 3D character. You can even define the influence each of the
bones has on the limbs in this vicinity. You can do this manually or automatically with the
help of commercial plugins. Overall, it’s a great film 3D animation software tool, and great
for developing moving 3D models for video games and other uses. This software is also a
good choice for directly drawing in 2D and 3D, with excellent workflow freedom. You can
combine 2D and 3D right in the viewpoint, while the software has full animation support
with Onion Skinning and layers and colors for stroke and fill.
Blender also supports input from motion capturing software, and you can even use facial
motion capture using markers painted onto actors’ faces. It offers excellent clothing
simulation that can be manipulated by the armature for added realism. You can also
combine live-action footage with animation seamlessly with this software. With its flexible
python-controlled interface, you can easily customize the interface layout and colors and
create your own tools and addons. Blender may be a free 3D animation software, but it’s
still one of the very best around and is a viable alternative to top paid software like Maya.

Autodesk Maya :-

Autodesk’s Maya is widely regarded as the best 3D animation software, and with good
reason. This software is widely used throughout Hollywood and has been used in
blockbuster films such as Harry Potter and Transformers, TV series like Game of Thrones and
South Park, and video games such as God of War and Halo, which gives you an idea of the
exceptionally high quality this software offers. This software does everything, allowing you
to create complex characters, realistic effects and vast worlds. You can procedurally create
dazzling effects using the Bifrost feature, which allows you to build custom graphs or use
ready-made ones for effects like explosions and weather.

For creating characters and scenery, the Arnold feature is an advanced renderer that allows
you to switch seamlessly between CPU and GPU. There’s also an easy-to-use auto-rig tool
that can process quadrupeds and winged models. Other useful features of this 3D animation
and movie making software include geodesic vortex binding for quickly producing
production-ready characters, a native motion library plugin, and a range of automation tools
for animation along curves and paths. It’s also great at modeling, texturing, lighting, and
rendering, with a feature set including particles, hair and fluid simulations.

Like other professional 3D animation software, Maya comes with a sophisticated CG

compositing program, Match Mover. This allows you to combine 3D rendered elements and
motion data from film sequences recorded on set by tracking the camera’s movement. With
a highly customizable, user-friendly interface, Maya isn’t reserved for professional
animators, although this extensive software does take some time to master. As you can
probably imagine, Maya doesn’t come cheap, with a one-year subscription costing $2,479.
However, as the best 3D animation software on the market, it’s well worth the price.
There’s also a 30-day free trial version available.

Cinema 4D :-

Cinema 4D, developed by Maxon, is a very powerful yet simple 3D animation software. Its
intuitive interface makes it ideal for both beginners and experienced animators alike, and it
offers a wide range of tools to help you achieve quality results. One of the best things about
4D Cinema is its easy learning curve. There are loads of tutorials to help you get to grips with
things as well as a large, skilled community that can help first-time animators quickly
develop their skills. There’s also a training site called Cineversity, which you get free
membership to when you buy the software.

This easy 3D animation software is also renowned for its stability. All features and functions
are thoroughly tested by the QA and Beta testers before being released, while regular free
service packs further optimize the software and allow the developers to quickly respond to
changes in operating systems. With this software you can easily keyframe any object,
material or tag parameter, and there’s also automatic keyframing to make things even
simpler. You can also use the software’s effectors, tags and expressions to animate without
keyframes, and you can create your own expressions in Cinema 4D’s node-based XPresso
Editor. The standalone 3D animation version of Cinema 4D costs $719 a year, while the full
package with all Maxon products is $1,199. Overall, it’s a great easy 3D animation software
that even beginners will be able to use.
Houdini :-

Houdini is an industry-leading software that is popular for 3D animation, visual effects and
game development. It is widely used by large VFX companies, including Disney, Pixar,
DreamWorks and Sony Pictures, to create 3D imagery. This software, developed by SideFX, is
designed around a node-based workflow with a procedural modeling approach that allows
you to generate almost everything from terrains to complex characters procedurally. This
helps animators work freely, create multiple iterations and easily share workflows with
colleagues.

Houdini has some brilliantly intuitive, artist-friendly tools. You can easily create biped and
quadruped 3D characters with the auto-rig tool, while the procedurally generated fluids and
particles add realism. You can also carry out complex crowd simulations and create highly
accurate 3D animations with the software’s built-in muscle simulation pipeline. Overall,
Houdini allows you to create incredibly high-quality animations with an unparalleled
flexibility. There are four plans for Houdini – FX, CORE, Indie, and Apprentice. The Apprentice
version is free and is designed for hobbyists, while the Indie version is best for independent
animators and costs $269 a year. The CORE and FX packages, designed for professional
animators, cost $1,995 and $4,495 a year respectively.

Houdini is most commonly used for the creation of visual effects in film and games. It is used
by major VFX companies such as Walt Disney Animation Studios, Pixar, DreamWorks
Animation, Double Negative, ILM, MPC, Framestore, Sony Pictures Imageworks, Method
Studios and The Mill. It has been used in many feature animation productions, including
Disney's feature films Fantasia 2000, Frozen, Zootopia and Raya and the Last Dragon; the
Blue Sky Studios film Rio, and DNA Productions' Ant Bully. SideFX also publishes Houdini
Apprentice, a limited version of the software that is free of charge for non-commercial use.
Autodesk 3Ds Max :-

Another Autodesk product, 3DS Max is a popular 3D modeling and rendering software that’s
used for animation, game development, visual effects and architectural visualization. 3DS
Max boasts comprehensive 3D animation capabilities, including two separate character
animation tools. The Character Studio is designed to create bipedal characters, while the CAT
tool allows you to rig and animate non-human characters. These both provide ready-made
yet customizable character rigs that can be skinned with the Physique or Skin modifiers and
are compatible with motion capture file formats. There’s also Populate, a self-contained
crowd simulation system. Another useful tool is the 3DS Max Fluids, which allow you to
create realistic liquid behaviors like water, oil and lava, and can also be used to replicate
gravity and collision effects. Other animation tools include wire parameters that link any two
object parameters in the viewpoint, a motion mixer that allows you to combine motion data
for biped and non-biped objects, and linked hierarchies that can be used to animate a
number of objects or bones at once. This Windows 3D animation software will set you back
$2,488 for a year-long subscription, and there’s a free trial if you want to try the software
out before purchasing it.
Animation Studious who are working in 3D
Animation

Walt Disney Studio :-

It all began with an experiment famous. Mickey Mouse became the creation of the Disney
animators collection. The short animation series with a beloved character has stolen the
hearts of young and old. Disney clipart is at the top search for various animated characters. I
believe many had Beauty and the Beast, Bambi, Alladin, Mulan, and other amazing fairy tale
pictures as part of Walt Disney’s home video collection tape set at their houses. Of course,
since then a lot has changed, including the choice of stories to tell, plot development, and
characters have become more modern and sophisticated. But in the end, it still provides the
same experience in the universe of Disney little people. Having won numerous prizes and
awards, including the Oscars, their unquestionable success is evident. Undoutfully, it is a
tremendous success when while watching yet another film one feels that it is my story
animated by Disney.

Pixar Animation Studios :-

Pixar is highly agile in its technical possibilities among other animation production
companies. They use their own award-winning rendering technology that helps them
producing excellent imagery for VFX and feature film animation. But it wasn’t always like
that. Back in the day, Pixar was a part of Lucasfilm, functioning as a computer graphics
division. Who could have thought that one of the most advanced top animation studios in
the world would have to drop their work on pre-production of a movie called Monkey in
1985 due to their technical limitations? To date, Pixar has released 24 animation films, one
better than the other. But not everyone knows that the creators of the most recognizable
Pixar wallpaper started from making commercials. Mental floss claims Tropicana, Life Savers,
Listerine, Pillsbury, Trident, Volkswagen, and the California Lottery among the clients of Pixar
ad campaigns in the mid-90s. Pixar was not the only company among other animation
production companies that worked as a contractor for some time. Based in California, it is
considered to be one of the best animation studios in the world. The first Pixar animation
film was Toy Story issued in 1995. Little did they know there would be 3 more sequels,
zeroing on its biggest financial success with a gross of over $1 billion on Toy Story 3.

Being a subsidiary of Disney, 2005 was marked on the calendar as the first big collaboration
with another animation giant Warner Bros. on a live-action production. Nonetheless, shortly
after the beginning, major script problems sent the picture to push daisies. Among other
animation companies, Pixar was always heads up for interesting collaborations. Such as
assisting Hayao Miyazaki films from Studio Ghibli for localization in English.
Dreamworks Animation Studious :-
When Pixar was busy getting massively famous for their cartoons, DreamWorks dove deep
into outsourcing their computer-generated animation for CGI games. DreamWorks acquired
40% shares of renowned special effects house Pacific Data Images. To understand the scale,
they are known for creating special effects for Terminator 2: Judgment Day, True Lies, and
Batman Forever. DreamWorks became more powerful and technically skilled. They showed
their new colors when making 1998’s Antz, which is by the way considered to be Pixar’s Bugs
Life rip-off. In 2000 the two companies fully merged creating a computer-based animation
giant. 2-D animation wasn’t the trend anymore. DreamWorks wanted to move forward to
become better than the rest of the animation production companies. The last traditionally
animated film was Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas. The studio’s first hand-drawn picture
The Prince of Egypt rocketed to gross over $200 million worldwide. It even brought home an
Oscar for Best Original Song. Nonetheless, their last $60 million budget stop-motion film
wound up with a domestic tally of just $26 million, which killed 2-D animation for the studio
once and for all. Up today DreamWorks is one of Disney’s strongest competitors. Among its
most iconic films are Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, and Kung Fu Panda.

Sony Pictures Animation :-

The first massively successful full-meter film was Open Season 2006, which gained
worldwide popularity. Voiced by Adam Sandler, Andy Samberg, and Selena Gomez. their
animated film Hotel Transylvania became wildly popular in 2012, transforming into a media
franchise. After 2 more sequels by Sony Pictures Animation, Hotel Transylvania is getting
ready for round 4 with its Transformania coming out in fall 2021. Their latest adventure
fantasy picture Wish Dragon, issued in 2021, was rated 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, however,
holds a strong 7,2/10 on IMDB. But you are more than welcome to form your own decision
since it’s already on Netflix. Their upcoming slate of films includes Vivo in 2021 and an
untitled sequel to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse in 2022.

Illumination :-
The studio was created in 2007 as a division of NBCUniversal, an American film and
animation studio. The animation company has produced 10 feature films and 27 short films
in less than 15 years. The stars of the company are The Secret Life of Pets franchises, film
adaptations of the world-renowned nursery rhymes Dr. Seuss’ books; as well as The Lorax –
a famous orange guy with a mustache, and How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Illumination
became one of the most famous animation production companies due to the success of the
studio’s highest-grossing films: Minions – $1.159 billion worldwide, Despicable Me 3 –
$1.034 billion, and Despicable Me 2 – $970.8 million. All three are among the 50 highest-
grossing films of all time, and six of their films are among the 50 highest-grossing animated
films. The Minions became the studio’s mascots, as their fame literally invaded the whole
planet. The latest release of The Secret Life of Pets 2 awaited this year.
Warner Bros :-
The world went crazy when Warner Bros. issued the Harry Potter movie series, owning the
copyrights for everything from the film itself to toys like Harry Potter magic capsules. The
studio also works closely with DC comics. They worked on the Batman movie series, and
Superman movie series and other DC Extended Universe movies. Warner Bros. even hosted
the production of the beloved TV show Friends. Interestingly enough the cast found the
iconic orange couch in the basement of the Warner Bros Studios. They decided to use it for
the scenes in Central Perk cafe. Warner Bros have made nearly 7,000 movies and about
5,000 TV shows. Warner Bros. also issued 3D animated films, such as “Storks”, “Lego: The
Movie” and “Happy Feet”. However, it is still famous for its classic smear technique in its
hand-drawn cartoons, which originally was merely a time-saving approach that became the
key element to that the company was recognized for.

Paramount Animation :-
When I was a child, seeing the Paramount logo on the screen meant a cozy movie night with
my family. In the 90s the company functioned primarily as a popular film studio, famous for
its’ catchy American girl movies. Paramount Animation is the youngest animated video
production. Paramount collaborated closely with Fleischer Studios, Famous Studios, and
Nickelodeon Animation Studio and released their theatrical films. The latter collaboration
gave birth to a sensational animation film The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water. It
was at the top-3 highest-grossing animation films produced by Paramount getting
$325,186,032. The other two were The Adventures of Tintin bringing $373,993,951 and
Rango grossing $245,724,603.

The square pants character has become an icon for young children. Spongebob quotes
became the captions for numerous internet memes that catch on in a blink of an eye. The
Spongebob logo maybe a decoration element of various youth organizations and festivities.
It has also become one of the most popular images for anything from prints on copybooks,
diaries, backpacks to the most unusual of gifts, such as Spongebob chocolate. Just a couple
of years ago Paramount Animation decided to start a new slate of animated features. They
announced starting work on cartoon Spice Girls film, a live-action/animated Mighty Mouse,
The Tiger’s Apprentice. They even claimed to be working on a musical film Under the
Boardwalk. Fans of Sonic the Hedgehog must be counting hours for the release of their
beloved gaming character.
 Different Styles Of 3D Animations

1. Digital 3D
This type of animation is intended for an exclusive visual experience; more precisely, the
players do not interact with the objects from the digital environment. Game artists usually
work with software programs such as Cinema 4D, Maya, or SketchUp to make these digital
3D animations. It is also used to create digital heroes for live-action movies and in-game
videos for video games.

Because creating 3D animations is more complicated than it seems at first glance and
requires a high volume of work, it is necessary to involve many professionals. The concept
artist is the one who visualizes the concept of the game and creates detailed sketches of the
characters, the environments, and all the objects in the game. Based on the concept artist’s
sketches, the 3D modeler creates a 3D model of the characters and the entire digital
environment.

In this phase, the 3D animator creates a skeleton of the 3D model and sets its movements
and commands. The workload is enormous for the 3D animator because the 3D objects are
rendered 360 degrees permanently, and all their parts are always visible. Therefore, each
frame is processed by a separate computer so that the work process can take a lot of time.

2. Interactive 3D
Interactive 3D is the ability to interact with the digital world the same way you do with the
real world. Interactive 3D experiences can take many forms from dynamic web-based
experiences to fully immersive VR/AR/MR experiences, all of which fall under the term XR.
As the name suggests, the player can move in the 3D environment with the mouse and
interact with 3D animation. To create interactive 3D animation, game artists use special
software, having countless possibilities to implement this type of animation.

Because players can interact with the 3D environment, this type of animation requires
special requirements. For example, everything must be customizable because the player can
view objects from different angles. This includes creating characters, as they must respond
correctly to all player commands.

3. Virtual Reality 3D
This type of animation is highly complex. In order to play video games that use Virtual Reality
3D, players need special VR headsets such as Google Glass or Oculus. Thanks to these
devices, they are completely immersed in the virtual environment. Therefore, environments
and objects must look very real.

4. Stop Motion

The stop motion animation is made frame by frame with images of the elements. The frames
are physically manipulated in small steps and played quickly to create the 3D animation.
Although artists have a large space to use their creativity, they must pay special attention
and patience to create stop motion animations. An incorrectly captured frame leads to a
complete recreation of the composition.

5. Cel Shading
Cel-shaded animation is also known as Cel shading or Toon shading and is a type of non-
photorealistic rendering designed to make computer graphics appear to be hand-drawn. This
type of 3D animation is often used to mimic the style of a comic book or cartoon. The cel-
shading process starts with a typical 3D model. Where cel-shading differs from conventional
rendering is in its use of non-photorealistic lighting. While the style is not exclusive to Video
Games, it is often used there since this is the only way to produce a hand-drawn look via
computer polygons. In other media, Cel Shading can be useful to render specific items in a
hand-drawn production, if a given scene would be too difficult to animate by hand, such as a
rotating object or an Epic Tracking Shot traveling down the length of a massive vehicle.
Conventional lighting values are calculated for each pixel and then mapped to a small
number of discrete shades to create the characteristic flat look – where the shadows and
highlights appear more like blocks of color rather than mixed smoothly.
6. Motion Capture

This type of 3D animation is indispensable in AAA game titles, mobile projects, and film
developers. Thanks to the 3D motion capture animation, the movements of the characters
become very realistic. The main feature of this animation is the takeover of an actor’s
movement for the animation of the characters.

Motion Capture character animation, is the act of recording an actor's movement and
applying it to a 3D character. Motus does this by attaching markers to the actor's body and
having them perform on a stage surrounded by Vicon motion capture cameras. When
multiple cameras see the same marker, it is able to identify and record the marker's position.
Motion capture offers several advantages over traditional computer animation of a 3D
model. For example, the complex movement and realistic physical interactions can be easily
recreated in a physically accurate manner.

Also, the amount of animation data produced within a given time is considerable compared
to traditional animation techniques. This contributes to both cost-effectiveness and meeting
production deadlines.
 Uses Of 3D Animation Other than Films &
Cartoons

Character animation for film, TV and gaming

Of course, out of the uses of 3D animation, character animation is the most well-known. We
couldn’t leave it out. It’s where it was born, after all. Despite already being strongly
established in entertainment, we’re still seeing 3D animation in more places in the industry.
Namely, we’re seeing more 3D animation in TV programmes, unlike 10-15 years ago. 3D
character animation has always been wildly successful because it’s similar to playing with a
cute toy. Their vividness means there’s more to love, especially for children.

As we said above, 3D characters need to be modelled then rigged before they’re animated.
This allows them to have a life of their own.

Education
If a teacher puts a graph in front of a class of students to illustrate a point, it’s unlikely many
will be riveted. However, if that teacher plays a 3D animation of the same concept, you can
guarantee they’ll sit up in their seats! This is because 3D animation is fun and memorable for
students learning a new process or idea. In a way, young people are more familiar with 3D
animation because they see it so much in entertainment.

Common uses of 3D animation in education include teaching scientific processes. This leads
us onto the next industry we often find 3D animation in.

Medicine
That’s right there are overlaps between school science classes and medical training. Both
often use detailed 3D animations of the human body to walk viewers through complex
processes. When 3D animation is used in medical videos, the need for as much hands-on
experience decreases. 3D animation uses in medicine are also a step-up from the stationary,
physical 3D models used in the past. Now, medical students can see all the movements a real
human body makes.

3D Animation has proved to be a useful tool for the medicine filed too. With the medical
animations, it has become simpler to educate a young surgeon about the different intricacies
of the surgical techniques. Transmission of conceptual information has become simpler and
easy What’s more, 3D animation is a great solution for training for a rare operation or a new
technique. Finally, like in all industries, knowledge is spread much faster when we opt for 3D
animation.

Business
In business, the uses of 3D animation usually include Presentations. Just like when a teacher
presents it to their class, 3D animation can engage like nothing else. In business
presentations, people might use 3D animations to display their products more vividly.

Marketing and advertising. The above idea also goes for 3D animation in marketing.
Marketers use 3D animation to beautify and promote their products. They also take
advantage of the technique if their product by nature looks a little lacklustre. 3D animation
can elevate any product to its maximum potential on screen.

Education and training. Forget wrangling hundreds of employees into the same room at the
same time for staff training. 3D animation frees up this stress completely, allowing you to
post the training online. This means that your staff can access it whenever, and however
many times, they like. What’s more, the 3D animation will make the information a lot easier
to retain.

The military and police

3D animation uses for the military and police training avoid the risk of injury. In addition, the
military and police might also use 3D animation to design their machining and engineering.
This makes for better machinery performance without the need for physical manufacturing
to test.

Engineering and technology prototyping

Speaking of machinery, engineering and technology are industries where 3D animation is
MASSIVE. This is because it saves so much time. Engineers can view their design on a screen
before they waste materials. They are also able to customise and modify their design as they
see fit without any consequences.

What’s more, if there is a need for a physical prototype, 3D printing saves the day by
allowing for rapid creation.

Finally, one great result of 3D animation uses in these industries is that it’s now easier to get
technology to third world nations.
Architecture and design
With 3D animations, architects can now experience their buildings in Virtual Reality (VR) or
Augmented Reality (AR). Architects can move through the building, experience it at all hours
of the day, and identify and amend design flaws. Basically, just think The Sims but for real
buildings to-be.

Before this, architects had to present their designs in flat paper drawings. Now, the building
can come to life before the builder has laid the first brick.

Stage shows
More live entertainers are now utilising the ‘WOW’ effect of 3D animation in their
performances. For example, one technique is to map and project Computer Generated
Imagery (CGI) onto an object on stage.

Another more common method is to display 3D animations on the big screen behind the
stage. This adds more depth to the performance and music.

Gaming
3D animation can also give a more lifelike feeling to video games, intensifying the action for
the player. When you’re battling an enemy or racing through an obstacle course, having the
3D sensation can make for a far more thrilling experience. 3D animation can also be used
with virtual reality and augmented reality special effects, giving the player the sense that
they’re inside the world in real-time.
 Future Of 3D Animation Industry

A rather significant reason influencing the immense growth of 3D animation is the increased
demand for 3D animators. In the world of 3D animation, 3D animators or graphic designers
are the ones who continue to greatly contribute to the growth of this area. As we
continuously shift into a more technologically reliant world, the use and development of 3D
animation have grown across several animation-related industries, particularly in areas
focused on “gaming, movies, and even medical animation” (2021). In our more modern and
technologically advanced world, people have been finding and creating more ways to dive
further into the online and virtual world, which is why 3D animators can work on designing
animations for entertainment areas such as movies and gaming. The designing talents of 3D
animators have actually come to be quite helpful, which is why it is increasingly being used
to develop integral content for the medical field. In fact, in healthcare, 3D animation is
“commonly used for surgical procedures and in the development of medications and
treatments as well as for teaching students anatomy and physiology” (2021). In seeing how
graphic designers are able to span their animation talents across various areas, it is no
wonder that their creative capabilities are in high demand.

The expansion of 3D animation throughout various fields has greatly increased the demand
for graphic designers. In particular, “3D modeling and related technology is used more and
more in many fields, including a growing 3D printing space, manufacturing, CAD, and
marketing” (2021). In view of these several areas in which the utilization and
implementation of 3D animation have significantly expanded, it is evident that these
continuously expanding fields of animation will require a continuously expanding supply of
animators. Graphic designers are also in great need on a global scale. Various countries are
leading the way in 3D animation. The U.S. has actually been a “leader in 3D animation, with
China, India, Japan, and Australia being projected to expand quickly in the future” (2021).
The global demand for 3D animators also highlights that 3D animation is a rather profitable
industry. As animation is an area that requires a certain level of graphic design expertise, 3D
animators are able to have quite profitable careers as their high-quality creative services and
abilities grow in demand within the continuously growing 3D animation industry.

The Profitability of the Expanding 3D Animation Industry Another rather integral factor that
has catapulted the demand and expansive use of 3D animation is the profitability that this
industry produces. Graphic design is a very costly area, especially concerning producing
works of animation that are of high quality. As there is a significant amount of creative
expertise and efficient programming that goes into 3D animation, the cost for producing
high-quality animation can be quite expensive. This is why being a graphic designer can
provide one with a rather prosperous career.

The profitability of 3D animation can also be seen on a global scale. It was recently found
that with the current increasing success of the global 3D animation industry, it has been
strongly predicted that the global 3D animation market size is “expected to expand at a
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.7% from 2021 to 2028” (2021). Even more so,
the global market size of the graphic design industry has also been valued at 16.64 billion
USD, while as mentioned previously, the entire global industry value of 3D animation is 264
billion USD. In particular, America is a country that has immensely contributed to the global
revenue or profitability fostered by 3D animation. It has been found that the “North
American region accounted for the largest revenue share of around 40.0% in 2020” (2021).
These findings show that America and other 3D animation countries will only continue to
generate significant revenue and profitability from this industry. Even more so, in seeing how
profitable 3D animation is, it is no wonder if there is an increasing demand in this market.

We will see a lot more interactivity in the future, with users having the ability to alter
content in a unique way to increase engagement. We are starting to see a little bit of this
now with interactivity currently being used for e-commerce, storytelling, training, and
education. As this technology advances, it will eventually be used for virtually everything.
Imagine navigating a virtual environment in which you can interact with your surroundings.
This is virtual reality. Deborah Anderson, an Animator at 3D Gum Shoe thinks that two main
industries that are emerging or that we’re in the midst of right now are the 3D printing
industry and the virtual reality industry. The 3D printing industry offers many low cost
solutions to many other industries such as industrial manufacturing and the medical
industry. Professionals are able to make car parts and machine parts at lower cost to find
exact measurements and fit before money is spent to manufacture the actual part. This is
true for replacement parts as well. For medicine, you have anything from prosthetic to
organs. There’s also the fashion industry that is implementing some 3D printing. For the
consumer or regular person, it provides something that is tangible so it has little bit of
power. You can actually create whatever you want and take it home to show someone.
There won’t be printers in every home, but it provides an affordable option for people who
are really interested.

Virtual reality is an interesting thing because it’s not new, but somehow has had a new
emergence. With Oculus, Samsung, and Google making equipment more affordable for both
the consumer and the producer, there are many exciting things happening. You have virtual
reality video games, movies, and other content that is being consumed. Travel companies,
physical therapists and more are taking advantage of it. So many things are happening that
have never been done that even lawyers don’t know how to write up certain contracts
because they have to come up with the language for the deals they’re overseeing. Jason
Schleifer, Co-Founder of Nimble Collective is seeing an unprecedented amount of animation
being created today by big studios, small studios, and even individuals. The combination of
off the shelf animation tools and Internet access to allow users to tap into a vast knowledge
base (as well as distribution and marketing channels) and has democratized animation across
the board. With this constant influx of animators across the globe, being able to connect
with one another and collaborate in a virtual cloud space is going to be a game changer
going forward.

There’s an incredible trend in animation where artistically we are heading towards

intentional craft instead of accepting what the computer can give us. The tools have gotten
to the point where the artists are no longer fighting so strongly against them to achieve
result they want. They are able to work more visually, more freely. You can see it even in
mainstream cinematic masterpieces like Zootopia and Kubo and the Two Strings. Artists are
collaborating to tell their own stories in their own vision – and this is only the start!
 With there being a LOT more software (much of it cheap or free) that allows even beginners
to create their own moving pictures, there will be a lot more shorts and movies put out
independent of major film companies. This is already happening, says Cameo Anderson,
Animator and Digital Illustrator at Wytheria. There are a few places offering free rigs
(characters already molded and given a skeleton) for people to play with and use freely, too.
Not just software to create, but pre-existing content. This is super cool in a way, because it
puts powerful abilities into the hands of the individual. There are also many free/low cost
online lessons for budding animators and forum communities to show off your work and get
critiqued. I think we’ll see a lot of collaborating in the future and likely their creators will
profit by getting streaming companies to license their work. Crowdfunding platforms are
already giving these individuals a big push. There are new tools popping up that make it very
easy for non-animators to create animations such as Adobe Animate. Animate takes existing
Flash animations and exports them into HTML and JS animations. Professional animators,
however, will still need to know HTML and JavaScript. Desktops, mobile devices and tablets
are changing on a daily basis and animation needs to be developed in a way to view well on
all of these ever changing devices, says Steve Cotroneo. When it comes down to creating
video content and interactive videos, I believe the go-to tool will still be Adobe After Effects
combined with HTML and JavaScript. Virtual Reality is a whole new type of animation that
would include a lot of 3D applications such as Cinema 4D, Lightwave, Maya and other tools
that can wrap a visual within a 3D environment application like Unity.

What is breaking news to me for animation is how ubiquitous animation has become. It is no
longer focused only on narrative or interactive entertainment. It is used in:

• Science and medicine to visualize data and teach new physicians;

• Product design and architecture both for presentation and design;
• Courtroom forensic animation;
• Motion graphics, blurring the line between graphic design and animation; and
• Themed environments (think Disney Imagineering) and environmental animation
(projection mapping marketing campaigns on huge buildings); and
• VR is taking us into the animated environment both to tell stories and to experience
places we can’t go to (like distant museums, maybe even distant planets).

I now get teachers from other creative disciplines asking me to explain the 12 animation
principles outlined by the 9 old men from Disney because they are the foundation for
creating persuasive performance in movement of text, objects, and information, and
incidentally of animated characters.

I do see the technology pushing animation further in to areas of design, communication and
visualization. The skills that narrative and interactive animation programs are teaching are
transferable to an expanding area of communication in multiple disciplines. Faculty need to
present a wider range of possible uses to students. I know I’d have been more interested in
learning science when I was in college if I could have animated my findings rather than
having to just write about them, says Shari Nakakura from Shari Nakakura Communications.
According to Cotroneo, It’s a very exciting time. He believes that interactive video and
virtual reality will be everywhere in the near future. And as time goes on, it will be easier
and easier to create. The trend today is personalized content paired with receiving new
information quickly. I don’t see this pace slowing down anytime soon. We will all need to
learn how to design in a 3D environment rather than just within a two dimensional space.

Global consumers are displaying a growing appetite for engaging, high-definition visual
experiences. Moviegoers are demanding high quality productions with engaging visual
effects and realistic animation and studios are including more animation and VFX shots into
films. Consumers are consuming more immersive content across channels such as ultra-
high-definition TVs, tablets and smartphones to head mounted devices. Animation, VFX and
games content is being consumed not only on Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and Twitch, but also on
YouTube, Twitter and Facebook. With the growing internet penetration and access to
multimedia devices, customers are spending more time streaming digital content. Streaming
video is the fastest growing distribution channel for animation and is witnessing double digit
growth and the same is expected to continue. This growth is attributed to the exponential
growth in the number of online video viewers throughout the world.

The demand for animation, VFX and video gaming has expanded with the increase in
targeted broadcasting hours by cable and satellite TV, availability of low cost internet
access, penetration of mobile devices along the growing popularity of streaming video. In
addition, the demand for Animation and VFX content to power immersive experiences such
as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality is growing exponentially. The rapid advancement
of technology has made animation, VFX & games available to the masses, and this industry
has become one of the fastest growing segments in the global media and entertainment
market. We are increasingly seeing more of animation, VFX and games production taking
place in a globally distributed mode. Production work is becoming global with countries as
well as regions offering tax incentives, subsidies, financial support, regional low labor costs
etc. and companies are cutting costs by setting up facilities in such regions. Cloud computing
is playing a key role in character rendering and modeling processes as cloud based rendering
of animation films is more effective and efficient as it reduces the time and cost compared
to traditional rendering.

The promising pace of expansion of the media and entertainment sector, which is one of the
key adopters of simulation software, is also contributing to the growth of the 3D animation
market. The photorealistic representation feature of the simulation technique is expected to
surge the demand from the media and entertainment sector. Moreover, the rising
consumption of media and entertainment content for kids is expected to drive the demand
for 3D animated content soon. Furthermore, the rising trend of integrating 2D and 3D
animation, such as implanting 2D overlays with movement in big-budget commercial videos
and small-scale digital adverts, is providing promising growth opportunities to the market.
The growing preference of designers to retro motion graphics for adding a nostalgic effect
to videos, along with morphing of images and logos to offer smooth and swift transition is
furthering the demand for 3D animation technology.
 Future Of 3D Animation Industry in India

Realistically speaking, the 3D industry in India is in a very sad situation, even in the year
2015 - its still quite young. We have a lot of catching up to do. Do we blame the artists for
it? No, not entirely. They are a part of it but again not entirely. In fact India has some
amazing talents, who can create just wonderful imageries (like these folks TONIC - They are
mainly into product rendering & presentation, they haven't created any short movie or film
yet. But their quality of work is simply amazing.), and many more like them. So how is it
affecting the industry? Well it starts with Indian narrow-minded society (I am talking in a
broader perspective, not saying everyone is the same. Anyone who thinks out of the box in
this country feels ostracised or somewhat discriminated), they can’t digest any career apart
from the typical 10:00-18:00 job, and there is a general misconception, rather a
presumption that a majority, if not all the artist has a over-all look & getup like this no
offence to MF Hussain, just that we all don't really look like this or always dress like this. I
am mentioning this because of the stereotyping of artist's attire

The majority of society’s intellectual outlook towards art is so constrained and in a locked up
state that they don’t realize that a film director, a dancer, a singer, an actor, a stage
performer, a photographer, a song composer are all artists, like wise are the people who are
into the CGi industry. You are mercilessly ignored and avoided if possible and the expression
on fellow human being's face changes as they hear we aren't 'engineer' or a 'doctor' or a
'lawyer' can sometimes can be very unpleasant. It's as if 3D career is reserved for the lowest
performing individual in academics and to the doomed and vagabonds - the unworthy scum
who has no intellect. Artist are those who smoke pot and succumb themselves to unsocial
habits, a pervert at times and in extreme cases an anti-social element in the self-proclaimed
'perfect Hindustani society' of self proclaimed and virtuous class of individual.

However say you own a company that deals with animation, the perception changes, 'cause
you run a business and that makes a lot of difference in Indian society. Even though this is
my first reason, I would still say that we can come out of the reserved web of society, go out
there and do what we love. "I am thankful we aren't ruled by extremists." however this
notion can be argued upon & not entirely true, I have counteracted my statement below!

The next and the major reason for the sub-standard quality of Indian animation are the self-
styled, fake but then rich & influential CGi film-makers like Soundarya R. Ashwin (I kindly
request my sensitive Tamil friends not to get offended, as I have nothing personal against
Soundrya R Ashwin, but I am disgusted at her body of work and there is nothing to
appreciate or to be proud about Kochadaiyaan. And she is one of the example, there are a
few like her out there), Anil Goyal who makes movies like Crackers (2011 film). I do not
understand why they do, what they do. People like them assume that learning few general
topics, watching the ‘making of’ of Hollywood animated movies and few tutorials will make
them John Lasseter - do they even know or understand story telling? I wonder. After
Kochadaiyaan was released, Soundrya claims that she has set a quality of benchmark for
Indian industry, can you believe that? And Anil Goyal claims that his film is special as its not
mythology and the typical movie that Indian Industry keeps making, embarrassing us further
more. Well to me it seems like their creative eyes are tightly shut and oblivious to what’s
happening outside. Look at these team of youngsters from France, ArtFx they started as
students and now they are crafting very inspiring CGi shorts. Or this couple who struggled to
make a game, that won them many awards.

Don’t you think people like Soundrya should at least learn something from them? Do these
guys even get inspired? Sometimes I wonder whether they are all a big joke, and we can
laugh them out. Have a look at how much detail they get into when designing a 3D
character for the film. It looks very simple, but you will be surprised at the amount of work
and thought process that goes into creating that simple character. If you are not from the
industry and has managed to read thus far, please watch the video below for the first 20
minutes to get in-sight on how the process of design goes. You can skip the rest if you
choose too.

In 2016, 3D Animation is one among the greatest buzz words in the entertainment world.
Since its emergence to the now seen stage, 3D animation has grown swiftly and steeply.
Animation is 70 percentage art and 30 percentage technology. Skills and knacks are the
prerequisites to shine in this field. Indian animation companies have especially benefited
from the global giants of animation like Walt Disney, Sony, and Warner Brothers, since they
are outsourcing animation characters and special effects to Indian firms. With the increasing
demands in outsourcing, various animation companies have emerged across India.
Animation companies are forming animation hubs in major cities like Mumbai, Bangalore,
Chennai, Trivandrum, and Hyderabad.

Indian companies integrate their passion for art with new sophisticated technologies that
produce world class designs that go shoulder to shoulder with the designs from most
famous animation companies from all around the world. The most modern animation
companies own high-tech studio with the right ambience to produce artworks,
strengthened by eminent engineers and backed by the state-of-the-art equipment.
Dedicated companies offer a full range of services from designing, story board, 2D
animation, 3D animation, medical animation and animatic to logos, demos, viral videos,
portraits, banner ads, etc.

The development of new 3D animation software and technologies has driven the rapid
growth of new tactics for 3D content creation. Autodesk 3dsmax, Autodesk Maya, Motion
Builder, Adobe Premiere, etc. are some examples of 3D animation software. The 3D
animation market growth is influenced mainly by favourable regulations by the
Government, by multi-industrial applications, 3D character merchandise and by blooming
entertainment industry. Apart from all these, the low cost compatible hardware and
availability of comparatively cheaper internet connectivity have led to the proliferation of
the free software downloads.

The animation industry in India typically has three business models, namely Content
Production, Outsourced Animation and Collaborative Animation Services. ‘Chhota Bheem’ is
one example for content production in India that reaps grand revenue and circulates over
popular kids channels. The market has also been categorized into Plug-in-software,
Packaged software and Software Development Kits (SDK). With less time, the animation
software market has exhibited a very high growth rate with the help of animation
computers and stereoscopic imaging software. The motion capturing (Mocap) systems,
video cards and GPU strengthens the hardware segment.

Indian animation industry is being tapped by North American film and TV program
producers largely. There are many reasons behind this increasing demand for Indian studios
worldwide. The North American and European countries from the beginning show immense
readiness to outsource their animation contents to companies in the Asian and Pacific Rim
countries. The bulk animation in earlier years included 2D animation contents along with
some 3D contents only. But now, the scenario has changed a lot. When compared with the
past, Indian Animation Industry has gained its foothold in the International space by
investing more in technology, moulding eminent artists and developing better infrastructure
in film making. As we can see now, there are numerous Animation Studios, VFX, Game
development and Film making institutes providing several high-end educational programs
all over India. Students are also interested in overseas education because of the increasing
opportunities and decent pay scale.

The VFX industry is estimated to be nearer to 50 billion. It is expected to have a significant

growth by the year 2020, up to Rs.87.1 billion. The film and television space play a vital role
in boosting the industry. With the emergence of newer gadgets, the gaming industry has
also boomed beyond boundaries. Still, more improved growth rate is expected in the next
couple of years. Sophisticated techniques along with creative expression have paved strong
basement for the foreseen growth. Now, the animation industry has entered into an
important growth phase. India is now one among the most sought-after destinations for
providing animation and content services.

3D techniques acted as a backbone to develop the innovative 4D technology. This new

technology is widely used in feature films as well as in other animation projects. The most
popularly used animation and artistic application is the 4D Cinema. Disney, Sony, Pixar and
IMAX are examples of studios that have created and promoted cartoons using this
technology. The key players in the animation industry include Newtek Inc., Autodesk Inc.,
Smith Micro Software, Inc., Credo Interactive Inc., Electric Rain Inc., Strata, Electric Image
Inc., Toon Boom Animation Inc., Side Effects Software Inc., and Maxon Computer GmbH.
Without any doubt, we can see Indian 3D animation industry attaining higher position in the
global market.

here is quite a lot of potential as far as animation in India is concerned. The demand for
talented animators is always high. The animators are paid well and there are a number of
opportunities to move ahead as well. Established animators can start their own businesses.
There is scope to start your own freelance work as well as long as you undergo the right vfx
course. You can even choose to join a big or small animation studio or advertising agency,
game developer, media house or a TV and film production house. However, to reach a level
where you get regular work, you need to have a lot of good work to show for yourself. It
may take time and patience however; you need to prove your capability. There are a
number of animators that do not get anywhere in their career. This is because of poor
institutes where they do their 3d animation course. Such animators are forced to work at
training institutes and photography studios.
These institutes lure students with the promise of lucrative jobs and then do not deliver on
their promise. The students end up getting poor training because of the lack of study
material and quality faculty at such institutes. One problem that these institutes cause is
reducing the demand for animators. This is because these institutes churn out large number
of animators and flood the job market. This has caused saturation in the market.

ccording to a Redseer report done with Lumikai, India’s gaming market is expected to jump
from $2.2 billion in value in 2021 to $7 billion by 2026. Also, India’s gamer base is expected
to touch 700 million by 2025. The report also found that gaming company studios increased
from just 25 in 2015 to over 500 in 2021. Speaking to Firstpost, Salone Sehgal, general
partner at Lumikai said that the taskforce was a step in the right direction. “Task forces are
useful for achieving awareness and education as well as recommending actions to policy
makers. It can result in outcomes such as increased employment in the sector, clarity on
regulations, and private sector funding attracting more domestic and global venture capital
funds,” said Sehgal.

Back in December 2020, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Prakash Javadekar called
AVGC a sunrise sector. He also announced that the government was forming a Centre of
Excellence [CoE] in partnership with IIT Bombay, where courses in the AVGC sector would
be provided. The Karnataka government has also launched an AVGC Centre of Excellence in
Bengaluru. When asked about the challenges facing the task force when it comes to the
gaming industry, Sehgal outlined four aspects that needed immediate attention to ensure
the task force led to policy outcomes.

Another area where Sehgal felt the task force could help was in popularising Indian gaming
events. “Right now, a lot of gaming focused events such as the India GDC are managed by
game developers and enthusiasts. There is immense scope to make it a global gaming
event.” According to Paavan Nanda, co-founder of WinZO, the gaming industry has the
potential to become a trillion-dollar industry. WinZO has announced a $20 mn Game
Developer's Fund with an aim to provide a platform to the best minds to disrupt this
emerging global gaming industry.

One of the major roadblocks when it comes to the sector is the talent. According to
Sitharaman, the All India Council for Technical Education [AICTE], which regulates technical
education in India, will be one of the stakeholders on the educational front, and will also
seek recommendations from industry bodies.

Unless you have been living under a rock, there is no way you have not heard of the term
metaverse. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg changed the name of his company to Meta
Platforms Inc.

According to Matthew Bell, a venture capitalist who has also penned 'The Metaverse
Primer,' “The Metaverse is an expansive network of persistent, real-time rendered 3D
worlds and simulations that support continuity of identity, objects, history, payments, and
entitlements, and can be experienced synchronously by an effectively unlimited number of
users, each with an individual sense of presence."A major segment of the metaverse lies in
creating virtual worlds which make users feel as close to reality as possible. Disciplines
which this touches on encompass animation, visual effects, and gaming apart from the
hardware implements such as augmented reality [AR] or virtual reality [VR] glasses.
According to Jethil Thakkar, media and entertainment sector leader at Deloitte India, the
AVGC task force can help create close to 20 lakh jobs according to Deloitte projections.
“These are critical skills for growth of the metaverse, and India is poised to take advantage
of this ecosystem." But it is a future-looking technology sector such as the metaverse really
relevant for the Indian market yet? Sehgal feels the task force should have short-, medium-,
and long-term goals.

Skill development, hardware/software costs, and economic support from the government
are the three major areas that the task force needs to address, according to Agrawal. “For
each artist, a powerful workstation has to be assembled with a multitude of software
licenses, backed by a robust backend. Since this is the business of making IP, security
requirements are high. This is a barrier for entry for many studios, and also makes scaling up
very difficult. The government has to think of making this cost lower so that we get a price
arbitrage compared with other developing nations,” said Agrawal. Tax breaks and easy
credit are important boosters for the development of industries within the AVGC sector.

Sehgal from Lumikai gave examples of countries where the gaming sector thrives thanks to
government support. “The UK has creative industry support, and offers tax relief in the
gaming sector. Finland has a similar program. Even Germany has a Federal Gaming Fund.
These initiatives encourage the AVGC segment without them having to raise millions in
funding.” Agrawal gives the example of the IT industry and how government support in the
early years had made that industry thrive. “Lower taxes or easy credit to scale up is crucial.”

Now movie makers, production houses and content creators are creating stories that
depend majorly on special effects and animation. And we love it. Take the example of films
like Inception, Avengers, Baahubali and not to forget Game of thrones. Did you know that
Khaleesi’s dragon was made in India by Prana Studios!! Tenet is the latest action techno
thrill ride full of confounding visual effects and a winner of the Oscar for VFX. These are just
a few popular names in the fray and there are many more such.

These examples prove that animation and special effects, though already an integral part of
the content creating process, have reached their apogee now. As per the analysis of the
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the Indian
animation and visual effects industry has a potential to capture 20 to 25 per cent of the
global AVGC market. It currently has around 10 per cent of the global market share.

Today, Indian animation studios are increasingly realising the need to create their own IPS.
"The Indian animation industry has proved its mettle in the global markets. I think the time
is now ripe for US to come up with our own stories and productions," says Munjal Shroff,
Director and coo, Graphiti Multimedia, a concept to completion production house for
computer generated animation features. Graphiti co-produced Jai Bole tho Jadoo on
Nickelodeon. The 3D Animation industry is going day by day and I hope one day it becomes
from other countries too and they start learning from us.
 Conclusion

To summarise, this was thoroughly enjoyable assignment, giving ample opportunity to

consolidate much of the years learning into a viable game asset. This is the first time I have
used the 3D animation, although I am confident in using the technology I have experienced
difficulties with it. Rescaling the smaller frog, took time and the skinning and biped went
wrong. In the end I had to redo the skinning. The jaw went out of shape and the frog’s
position on the lily pad became out of line, these took time to readjust. For these reasons I
kept the whole process as basic as possible, now that I have gained some experience I would
use these skills to create more technically advanced 3D animations in the future. Rendering
was the biggest problem; it took so long and was very time consuming. This was something I
had not expected; it was frustrating as I was working to a deadline. This proved to be very
problematic as after the first rendering the frog’s bipeds were still on show and I had to redo
the process again. I did consider using three lights in my animation, an omni light, a spot and
a skylight. These lights give a very natural effect and they create shadows but they also
considerably increase the render time. I chose to use a skylight for my final animation, as this
reduced the render time and it kept the animation simple.

The initial idea was relatively ambitious, and took a little longer to scale back than I had of
hoped. It is certainly a project I aim to approach over the coming holiday, but it also proved a
valuable reminder of time. Though the rig would have been relatively simple, it was the
composition of the model view point that proved the biggest consumer. In hindsight, the
final mesh probably proved the most relevant and provided greater potential for learning,
due to it’s biped stature. This research helped me learn a lot of new things which I will add
into my skills this also helped me know the current situation of the Indian Animation industry
as well as the outside which helped me understand a lot of things.