What Are the Best Schools for 3D Computer Animation

It's a question that's been asked over and over, and in an effort to focus on animation a little bit more around here, it's a question we'll try to answer.

While we firmly believe that a dedicated student can become a successful animator from anywhere (even self-taught), there are a handful of schools that really do things the right way and give their students all the right tools for success.

Here are our picks for the best degree programs in computer animation.

Note: Our picks are pretty North America centric, but we do include a few choices from across the pond.

40 CG Profiles You Should Be Following on Twitter

Twitter has become an information fire-hose, and most major brands and high-profile public figures are on board.

Stories unfold very rapidly in the computer graphics industry, and it gets tiresome trying to keep up by checking several different news sites, forums, and blogs multiple times per day.

Thankfully, Twitter has made it incredibly easy to keep tabs on the the industry without the need to jump between websites.

Here are 40+ (we'll keep adding) Twitter profiles to help you stay on top of the latest news in the 3D computer graphics industry:

40+ CG Profiles You Should Be Following on Twitter

Software Review Moment of Inspiration MoI 3D

Hey folks!

I've been using Maya as my primary modeling suite for as long as I've been making 3D, so I decided it would be fun to take a few alternative modeling packages for a spin.

I spent the last week taking Triple Squid Software's MoI (Moment of Inspiration) CAD style modeler for a test drive, and I must say... it was a lot of fun.

Here are some thoughts and first impressions from my time with the software:

Software Review - MoI 3D

Software Focus nDo2 for Normal Mapping

About a week and a half ago I downloaded Quixel's new texturing/normal mapping utility, nDo2.

Although I don't want to pass down any firm judgement until I've played with it a little longer, I'm pretty happy with what I've experienced so far.

nDo has the power to make the normal mapping process (which is often tedious and mystifying) as easy as drawing shapes in Photoshop, and that alone is something to be excited about.

Here are some of my first impressions about the software, and a little bit more background information on what it can be used for:

Software Focus - nDo2 for Normal Mapping

Tutorial Series Introduction to UV Mapping

UV Mapping is one of the most difficult parts of the CG process to wrap your head around as a beginner.

Luckily for us, cylindrical shapes are really quite easy to create UV maps for, and the column's cap will be a good opportunity to introduce some of Maya's UV tools.

In this lesson, we'll create and export UV maps for our Greek column so that we can begin the texturing process in later lessons:

Maya Tutorial Series - Unrwapping the Greek Column

Maya Tutorial Series Basic Render Settings

Just a heads up, the third portion of our Greek Column tutorial series is now live.

In preparation for the texturing and lighting process, we introduce Maya's render settings panel, and show you how to activate Mental Ray and bump up the settings to get a decent preview render:

Maya Tutorial Settings - Basic Mental Ray Render Settings

How to Make Really Bad CG

Every artist dreams of producing terrible looking 3D images, so here are eight tips and tricks to help you create the worst renders you've ever made!

From turning off anti-aliasing and not beveling edges, to never using reference—take our advice and your CG will look worse than ever before:

How to Make Really Bad CG

Yes, the article is a tiny bit sarcastic. Cheers!

Maya Lesson 15 Selection Duplication

Another day, another bit of training!

For the final entry in Lesson 1, we're tackling Maya's selection and duplication options.

It's all fairly straightforward, but (for selection at least) there are quite a few keyboard commands to be memorized.

Be sure to spend some time practicing the concepts we introduce—repetition is the easiest way to learn this stuff!

Here's the lesson: Selection & Duplication Tools in Maya.

What Will 48fps Mean for 3D

Last month, a fifteen minute clip of Peter Jackson's hotly anticipated adaptation of The Hobbit was debuted to show off the production's revolutionary frame rate technology (The Hobbit was shot at 48fps instead of the standard 24).

Unfortunately, reception to the new footage was mixed, with many audience members complaining that the heightened frame rate gave the film an artificial feel, and made it difficult to suspend their disbelief as they watched events unfold.

There's been plenty of time for the dust to settle, so we figured now would be a great time to weigh in on the new technology, and what it will mean for the future of 3D film presentations.

How to Kickstart Your Indie Game

Yesterday we published a long editorial piece on why we thing this is a better time than ever before to start working on that indie project you've been thinking about all these years.

We promised we'd follow it up with a second article focused on the rise of crowdfunding through sites like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo.

The article just went up, and it's packed with useful advice to help you set your campaign in motion and avoid some common crowdfunding pitfalls:

How to Successfully Fund Your Indie Project

New Maya Tutorials All Week Long

Hello everyone! Awhile back we started our introductory crash course in Autodesk Maya, but it fell by the wayside while we worked on other things.

This month we made it our, and have begun working to make our Maya training series the best resource it can possible be.

There's still a ton of work to be done, but we're happy to say that we'll be adding new additions to the training series every day for the rest of the month!

Today's addition is Lesson 1.3, which focuses on Creating Primitive Objects in Maya.

Creating 3D Illustrations Part 2

The second part of our series on making 3D illustrations just went live.

We've got five more tips and strategies for making the image creation process a little less daunting:

Creating 3D Illustrations - Part 2

Amazing Facial Rigging Demo Reel

Want to see what a pro-level rig for facial animation looks like?

Check out the unbelievable rigging reel that Ozgur Aydogdu posted on Vimeo a few weeks ago for his character, "Cenk."

This is getting quite a response from the CG community, and deservedly so—the rig looks like it would be an absolute pleasure to animate with. No doubt we'll be seeing more of Ozgur's work in future feature animations (if we haven't already).

Maya Training Series Lesson 2

Maya has a powerful modeling tool-set with dozens of different tools.

Although it'd be impossible (and unnecessary) to cover every single one of them, there are a handful of techniques that you'll use over, and over, and over in your modeling projects.

For the next three or four entries in the Maya training series, we'll begin introducing some of these tools and how you can use them to modify the shape and topology of your polygonal models.

We'll e kick things off by taking a look at the Insert Edge Loop Tool and the Bevel command.

Lesson 2.1 - Insert Edge Loop & Bevel

Maya Training Lesson 14

We've got another training series installment for you, and this time we'll finally start moving some objects around the Maya view-port.

In this lesson we'll begin exploring the three major object manipulation tools in Maya--translate, scale, and rotate--and discuss some of the specifics for each tool.

We'll also take another look at the channel box and how it can be used in cases where extra precision is desirable.

Here's the new material:

Maya Lesson 1.4 - Translate, Scale, and Rotate.

And if you missed the first couple lessons, here's a link to the beginning.

See you tomorrow with another entry!

Maya Lesson 23 Topology Tools

Using tools like bevel and extrude can occasionally leave us with irregularities in our model's topology or "edge flow."

In this next lesson we'll take a look at how we can use some of Maya's modeling tools to modify the topology of a 3D mesh.

We'll cover edge loops, combining objects, filling holes, and re-routing edges.

Maya Lesson 2.3 - Topology Tools

Maya Keyboard Shortcut Reference Sheet

We've been gearing up to publish another round of installments in our Maya Training series, but before we do we thought it would be helpful to put together an abbreviated list containing some of Maya's most important keyboard commands.

The full list of keyboard shortcuts for Maya is pretty enormous, so we've pared it down to include just the essentials--mostly things that we've already introduced in the tutorial series, like navigation, object manipulation, display modes, and basic modeling commands.

Our upcoming tutorials will be project based, so this will be a good resource to have open if you're a beginner in the software.

Keyboard Shortcut Reference Sheet for Autodesk Maya

CG Recap April 2012

You know the drill!

Another month has passed, which means it's time for another CG Recap.

Here's a rundown of some of the biggest news stories and best artwork from April 2012.

CG Recap - April 2012

See you next month!

CG Recap May 2012

Once again, here's our monthly state-of-the-industry address.

May was a relatively slow month for industry news, but there was some serious eye-candy popping up around the forums, so kick back, check out some amazing art, and let the summer officially begin!

CG Recap - May 2012

Studio Spotlight Double Negative

And for our final article of the month, we give you another in our relatively new series of studio spotlights.

Double Negative may not be as famous as Weta Digital or ILM, but they're every bit as prolific and their work is every bit as impressive.

As the face of the Harry Potter franchise, and the team behind Christopher Nolan's Batman adaptations (and Inception) Double Negative has given us some truly spectacular effects work over the past five or six years.

Read more about the studio here!

CG Roundup February 2012

We know it's hard to keep tabs on an industry that seems to evolve and change on a daily basis, so for our latest article series we decided it'd be beneficial to publish a monthly spotlight piece that goes back and highlights some of the top news stories and visuals from the past 30 days.

So here are what we feel to be some of the most pertinent news stories and impressive 3D visuals to come out of February:

CG Roundup - February 2012

3D Recap March 2012

Well, we've made it through another month in the world of computer graphics.

March had it's share of ups and downs, but in the end a bundle of welcome product releases, training products, and three fantastic animated shorts made it a pretty good stretch for 3D.

Check out our end-of-month recap, and catch up on the news, art, and animation you might've missed:

3D Recap - March 2012

CG Recap June 2012

Wow, is it the end of June already?

That means it's time for this month's CG Recap, where we go through the industry news, software releases, and artwork that you might've missed.

This is also our one year mark here at About 3D, so we'll probably have a year-in-review type post coming early next month, and be on the lookout for a tutorial-series installment tomorrow!

Studio Spotlight Double Negative

And for our final article of the month, we give you another in our relatively new series of studio spotlights.

Double Negative may not be as famous as Weta Digital or ILM, but they're every bit as prolific and their work is every bit as impressive.

As the face of the Harry Potter franchise, and the team behind Christopher Nolan's Batman adaptations (and Inception) Double Negative has given us some truly spectacular effects work over the past five or six years.

Read more about the studio here!

CG Roundup February 2012

We know it's hard to keep tabs on an industry that seems to evolve and change on a daily basis, so for our latest article series we decided it'd be beneficial to publish a monthly spotlight piece that goes back and highlights some of the top news stories and visuals from the past 30 days.

So here are what we feel to be some of the most pertinent news stories and impressive 3D visuals to come out of February:

CG Roundup - February 2012

3D Recap March 2012

Well, we've made it through another month in the world of computer graphics.

March had it's share of ups and downs, but in the end a bundle of welcome product releases, training products, and three fantastic animated shorts made it a pretty good stretch for 3D.

Check out our end-of-month recap, and catch up on the news, art, and animation you might've missed:

3D Recap - March 2012

CG Recap June 2012

Wow, is it the end of June already?

That means it's time for this month's CG Recap, where we go through the industry news, software releases, and artwork that you might've missed.

This is also our one year mark here at About 3D, so we'll probably have a year-in-review type post coming early next month, and be on the lookout for a tutorial-series installment tomorrow!