Today we are going to talk about 6 Blender animation courses that can help you understand how animation works in Blender. These are not animation courses but they are a great introduction to some of the most important concepts and techniques you will need as an animator using Blender.
How can these Blender animation courses help you learn for real?
Just like any other 3D package, the process of learning anything in Blender relies on simple yet very important principles. If you happen to read our previous post about the best Blender artists and their gorgeous artworks, you’ll notice that they all have one thing in common: they learned by doing. The key to master anything is to keep the theory at its minimal, and actually dive in and get your hands dirty. And that’s exactly what these great Blender animation courses will offer you.
6- Build And Animate A Low Poly Rocket In Blender For Beginners
This is a very basic and introductory course that will help you start creating and animating a stylized low Poly rocket in Blender. In my opinion, this is a great start not only to animating but also to modeling, creating an environment in addition to create simulations of fire and smoke. And to help you out even more on your journey, we have listed the best Blender addons for modeling that can be a great asset combined with this course.
First of all, you go through in introduction of Blender. Then you will be modeling the rocket, thrusters, and fins, in addition to the environment and of course animating the rocket. Finally you will learn how to add materials, in addition to fire and smoke simulation to finish the project.
Overall this course is very short and sweet if you want to get started with Blender, and you can find it here: https://blendermarket.com/products/build-and-animate-a-low-poly-rocket-in-blender-for-beginners?ref=247
5- Create A Skateboard Animation With Blender (Skillshare)
This is a very light 1-hour Blender animation course in which you will learn how to create simple skateboard animations easily. You will learn how to model a skateboard in addition to the background for animation. This training will also touch upon some of the basic techniques of animation (you’ll particularly find these great Blender addons for animation to be very handy at this stage!). When it comes to the particle system, you will learn to create easy and quickly moving background animation which later you can easily edit and add or remove stuff from.
Not only that but you will also learn how to animate the camera and light. It’s certainly not very noticeable compared to the skateboard animation, but it will add a lot and will make the whole thing look better. You can find this course and many others here: https://skillshare.eqcm.net/inspirationTuts
4- Fundamentals Of Animation In Blender
This course is one of the most basic Blender animation courses. First of all, because it is not a character animation course (although we have covered some of the best Blender character creation courses before to help you out). Furthermore, it is created to cater to new people who don’t have any experience or whatsoever learning Blender. You will learn about keyframes and channels, interpolation, the timeline, graph editor, dope sheet, and more.
In my opinion, if you have never animated before, then will be tremendously valuable. Because it will give you the basic and necessary understanding that is needed to lay the foundation for what is more complicated. Also, starting from the very bottom will give you the confidence to pave the way for what is more impressive like character animation. If you’re interested in this awesome course, you can find it here: https://blendermarket.com/products/fundamentals-of-animation-in-blender-2?ref=247
3- Create AWESOME animations! (skillshare)
This Blender animation course is a little bit different. It is going to help you understand and create looping animations, similar to those you see motion graphics artists creating. Of course, you could use Blender addons for motion graphics but it’s a lot more interesting to learn the process in depth before. Some of these animations include looping cone animation, cloth simulation, Hexagonal loop, looping spiral, Text animation, Dynamic snow animation and much more.
This training includes 15 lessons in total, which gives you enough understanding and knowledge to hopefully start creating your own cool animations in Blender. It’s available on Skillshare among other amazing courses that you can find here: https://skillshare.eqcm.net/inspirationTuts
2- Clothes In Motion
This is fantastic course about clothes animation in Blender. You will learn:
- Cloth Modelling & Simulation.
- Adding Detail and Rendering.
- Fixing Simulations when they are not ideal.
- Fixing Simulations Examples to understand the process further.
- Adding Detail.
What you will get is not just training because you will also get an addon, very similar to the list we made on the best Blender cloth modeling addons. In addition to a nice library of assets that can be a great start when you need resources to apply different techniques and learn faced with different situations.
Some of the features that come with the addon include the ability to Slap Decals & Objects onto Cloth Simulations such as Zips, Buttons, Thread, Pockets,…etc.
Slowing down & Speeding up Cloth Simulations After Baking, Editing Cloth Simulations on the Go. Furthermore, it has a Sculpt Mode & Edit Mode enabled after baking. Letting you fix simulations and even go as far as animating hands into pockets using ShapeKeys, and more.
The library comes with 5 shoes, 6 glasses, 4 sandals, 17 different buttons and pockets, in addition to watches and hats. In other words, it will definitely be worth it and you can find it here: https://blendermarket.com/products/clothes-in-motion
1- Animating First Person Character Weapons In Blender
This course from CGcookie is a fantastic Blender training for learning how to create all different types of fire weapon animations. We can mention for example reloading, melee attack, and transforming the rifle into a sniper. In addition to other animations while holding the weapon such as standing in an idle position, walking, and running.
This training is divided into 5 chapters:
- In the first one, you will learn about the rigs and how set them up for animation. By the way, There are 3 weapon rigs and 1 character rig.
- In Chapter 2 you will learn how to create the main animations in video games such as the idle position, semi-auto rifle animation, and full auto animation.
- The next chapter is dedicated completely to the reload animation cause it is the most important and the most impressive. Or at least the one that you are aware of when playing a video game since it is needed often.
- In Chapter 4, you will learn how to take care of other animations that are not directly weapon animations yet they are very important in a first shooter video game.
- Animations such as running, jumping, transitions in addition to rifle transformations. These animations are kind of different when carrying a weapon. But overall for the most part, pretty much you will be only seeing the weapon and the arms of the character.
- Finally, in chapter 5, you will learn how to export everything together in a video game engine.
You can find this amazing course here: https://blendermarket.com/products/animating-first-person-character-weapons-in-blender?ref=247
