If you are fascinated by games, animation, and movies and want to know How to learn Animation Online Then this guide is for you.
Many people need honest advice to have a career in computer graphics. but afraid of information overload or not having access to world-class education which needs lots of money. Well friends, Do not worry after reading this article, you will not think the same way. So sit back, grab a coffee and start reading.
How To Learn Animation Online
Learning Animation is an art, a technique which actually is used to play some still frames at a continuous speed of motion which helps to give us an illusion of moving objects. Animation can be learned by self or under by guidance of Senior Animators, Directors and computer graphics professionals.
Often question or curiosity arises in mind of everyone, If I need to create an animation like this, Then where should I start, What I should do in order to be successful in this industry as an animator. If your mind is more having questions about 3d computer animation like this.
Relax, We are providing a detailed guide to you which will help you understand about Animation and know some basics which can help you decide what should be your next step towards mastering animation.
How To Learn Animation In This Digital Age
The best way to learn and understand Animation is by studying and mastering Animation basics. Before diving deep into 3d, its important to first grabbing fundamentals of 2d. Learning how things work and behave in the 2d environment, When and How volume changes, How movement of a particular object, the character is affecting him.
Learning 2d animation should be an obvious first choice for any animation aspirant. Taking life drawing classes along with deep understanding of sketching will help to become a 2d animator.
Watching a lot of Disney animation movies from old age along with cartoon serials like Tom and Jerry, Aladdin can also help in understanding movement of characters and maintaining volume in characters. We already answered about What Is Computer Animation in our another article.
Some people may also choose online 2d animation courses which are also a nice way to starting your journey in this digital industry. There are a lot of training courses online which is providing a lot of information for people who cannot afford expensive animation colleges or are unable to pay their fees. With the Internet easily available to everyone in today’s time.
Learning 3D Animation Online
With so many Animation schools entering into the field of computer animation, offering animation courses for basic, intermediate and advanced levels. Learning animation is also possible for people who are not able to afford costly animation courses in Animation schools which offer 3 and 4-year degree programs.
Pros Of Learning Animation Online:
- You don’t need huge money like thousands of dollars to invest. Can be started with as little as few hundred dollars which can be paid semester by semester.
- No need to leave your country or home.
- The format of education will be in the video and they can be watched again and again.
- Having professional feedback from industry professionals n your inbox.
- A student can choose his specialization and then focus more on his strengths and improve his areas of weakness according to his or her needs.
- Learning professional workflow which can take months and years if you work alone and do not have proper guidance.
- A chance to know what is going inside the animation industry. What is working and what is not working.
- Time to time webinars depending on the need of the students.
- Guidance to prepare professional demo reel.
- Industry contacts which can help you in getting good jobs in the animation industry.
- A forum like a community where you can watch and read comments, case studies, articles and lot of discussions where you can learn more insights about the animation industry.
Cons Of Learning Animation Online:
- You need to wait for the assignment or exercise to be reviewed by your mentor which will happen according to the schedule of your animation school like once a week.
- You need to sit and spend most of your time on the computer. Sometimes watching videos again and again.
- Get ready to watch lots of animation movies and serials, again and again, to learn how movement during animation takes place. So most of the time will be spent on computers again and learning animation workflow.
- No live or face to face feedback or two-way interaction.
- Many times you will feel burned out because you have to work hard again and again till your work will get approval.
Some Online animation schools:
- Animation Mentor.
- Ianimate.
- Animschool.
Learning 2D Animation Online
For learning 2d Animation Online in a serious way, One of best ways is to join a professional course by some one like Don Bluth’s animation course from his website.
A Bit About Don Bluth – Master Animator
Don Bluth is one of the animators who has worked on a lot of animation movies of Disney. Buying some DVD of his animation course and joining his community will help you learn a lot which further will help you develop your skills as an animator.
There are a lot of Dvd collections which can help decide what to do and what not to do while learning animation. Following are the DVD’s available at Don Bluth’s animation course store at his website.
- Dvd 1 – Learn to animate – The bouncing ball.
- Dvd 2 – Learn to animate – Nuts and Bolts.
- Dvd 3 – Don animates. Disc 1
- Dvd 4 – Don animates. Disc 2
- Dvd 5 – Don animates. Disc 3
- Dvd 6 – Learn to Draw – Getting the feeling.
- Dvd 7 – Learn to Draw – Monkey see Monkey do.
- Dvd 8 – Learn to storyboard 01.
- Dvd 9 – Set of 9 animation tutorials.
- Learning Animation Online
While above two resources for learning animation were from the creators and animators from biggest masterpieces whether its movies, commercials, games or anything else. If you cannot afford above courses, they are out of your budget and you do not even have few hundreds or thousands of dollars to spend.
You can still join online 2d animation courses from websites like Udemy.com, Lynda.com and learn a lot from there as well. the difference between these two will be of course quality of information.
Along with that joining youtube videos, joining one of most amazing online communities like the 11second club where you can find and interact with hundreds of fellow animators from basic, intermediate and advanced level.
Getting feedbacks from these websites can also help in learning animation. But progress will be a bit slow.
How To Animate For Beginners
Purchasing few Animation Books for beginners can work as one of the best investments ever for anyone who wants to make a career in computer graphics industry. Developing mindset of an artist is required to improve slowly slow as an artist
They can also be considered as gold mines along with any course mentioned above. Even though there are a lot of books which can help anyone learn basics and fundamentals and help people who are looking forward to knowing How to learn Animation online.
- Animator survival kit by Richard Williams.
- Disney’s The Illusion of life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston.
- Character Animation Crash course by Eric Goldberg.
And there are a lot of others books as well which are considered as the must and very important in the library of animators.
- Timing for Animation by Harold Whitakar.
- Cartoon Animation by Preston Blair.
- Simplified Drawing for Animators by Wayne Gilbert.
- The Animators Workbook by Tony White.
- Force: Dynamic Life Drawing for Animators by Mike Mattesi.
Final Thoughts.
So This was our article over How to learn animation online by using various resources spread over the internet. We assure you that this is one of the best articles over the internet over this topic and you have observed a lot of points from this article.
We are glad to have you on our website and giving us a chance to share you the knowledge.
Happy Animating.
