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I've been an animator for sometime now. I've gone to college and recieved my degree in 3d animation. One thing that is important to know when you set out to become an animator, is that it can be very frustrating and you will hit alot of road blocks. The good news is, that those road blocks are starting to be removed as time progresses. There have been so many technological enhancements from the time I started studying 3d computer graphics. I was schooled in the software called 3dsmax or 3d studio max. Even though, the hollywood standard is Maya, 3dsmax can achieve similar results if you put the work into it. The best way to model things when I started out was more calculated in practice. You would basically trace your vertexes over images from different angles or drag edges. This is also known as poly modeling.

Today, there are different standards. Zbrush is one of the best programs out there. You no longer have to trace your images, but you can sculpt them out of high poly models. At the time when I was in school, normal mapping was just being introduced. Now its an industry standard in both the film and gaming industry. You can sculpt tremendously detailed models and then map the lighting information on to low poly models, which will save you time in rendering and free up your computer memory.

On the other hand, animating itself is still very much a laborious process. It can take a long while for you to complete an animation that looks good. It's also important to never free hand your animation. Always plan it out as best as you can. That is the way you will get good results. You can spend months on animation that will only end up to be a minute long. This is what causes so many animators to quit. The important thing is to pace yourself and develop a pipeline that you can follow step by step that you can chart your progress up to the end of your animations. CGI and animation has come a long way, but there are certain aspects that will remain the same.

About the Author

Grahm Manuol is a 3d animator and modeler.