This article is not about getting started in 3D animation the conventional way - the conventional way being to enroll in a media school and going through a 2 or 3 year course in Digital Design teaching you anything and everything from 2D illustrating to video production to sound design to web design to graphic design to Flash animation to storyboarding and then finally good old 3D animation.
Don’t get me wrong. I think that such courses are wonderful and provide a genuinely good path to mastering 3D animation if the school is reputable and the teachers are dedicated. Graduates from such schools usually come out with a solid foundation and go on to become some of the better CG artists.
Having clarified that, I would again like to reiterate that this article is about getting started in 3D animation - my way.
I did not go to a media school. I did not go through a 3 year diploma course in Digital Design and Animation. Before I touched animation, I did not even touch a sketch pencil! How then did I get started?
I would just like to break my experience down in 3 easy paragraphs.
First, I bought all the books I could find on 3ds Max, downloaded the trial version, and started messing around. The first book I ever owned on 3D was ‘Mastering the Art of Production with 3ds Max 4′ by Jason Busby, who is also the owner of 3d Buzz. I made the perfect choice as his book was interesting, well-explained and perfect for the beginner. His website also provided many helpful video tutorials for the beginner, which I eagerly devoured. He was also a regular contributor to the 3D World magazine. Needless to say I was a subscriber for a long while thanks to Jason’s exclusive video tutorials to the magazine.
After getting comfortable with the software and being able to do some simple modeling, texturing and lighting, I went to China for a 2 month intensive course in 3D animation. Why China? Well, at that point -Singapore where I am from - was relatively new to animation and there were barely any courses avaliable. America offered mostly long-term courses. Japan and Korea were out due to language barriers. On the other hand, China was already showing some good 3D work, the people spoke in a language I could understand and best of all, there were short term courses available!
True to my expectations, the courses did not let me down and I was thorougly happy with the lessons. My 3D skills improved drastically and I could model a relatively realistic human face by the third day. On the down side, I have to admit that I stayed in a relatively run-down flat during the 2 months I was there. But I also made many good friends there. One of the instructors later became the Creative Director in my China office. He’s still with me and we have a wonderful friendship. He’s also the co-creator of my preschooler cartoon - Katakune. I came back to Singapore, set up Mediafreaks and the rest is history.
I hope that this article has been inspiring to you, and that it offers a fresh pespective on how you could get started in this industry.
You can visit the Mediafreaks site to learn more about 3D animation and also receive a free report regarding 3D production services there.
This article was written by Aldric Chang - a creative businessman who is active in music composing and production, internet marketing, casual games production, animation production, cartoon production and character licensing. He’s currently intent on growing his up-and-coming 3D animation studio into a behemoth entertainment enterprise.
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