3D Animation

I need some help!

My initial intentwas to learn how to make some animations for my grand kids that wouldtell some of my stories like the one about a bluebird and a fox, somekids that find lost pirate treasure, or even the more ambitious storyentitled “The Mouse House Caper”! Perhaps I am naive but forcertain I was uneducated about “computer based animation”.Nonetheless, I ventured out into the online world to find out what Ididn’t know but needed to know about “animation”. So far, ithas been a wonderful and exciting journey. At 69 years old I havefinally discovered what I want to do when I grow up! However I stillfeel a bit lost and unsure how to move forward. That is what I wouldlike to know – what is a viable pathway to travel down the road to3D animation competence! To that end I’d like to ask for youradvice and experience hoping that will help me map out my “animationtravel plans”!

Perhaps a broad, butbrief review, of where I have been so far may be helpful toconsidering a recommendation of where I should go next. I’ll alsolist a few constraints that impact my 3d animation travel plans.Hence, here are some points for context:

1. I cannot affordexpensive software platforms. That includes software such as anyAdobe products (or any “subscription” type products for thatmatter), AutoDesk Maya, or anything that cost more than $1000.

2. I will work on alaptop. My current plan is an HP Omen Laptop, (16.1” screen, I-7Intel CPU, NVIDIA RTX 3060 GPU, 32 GB ram, 1 TB SSD).

3. I am not inclinedto pay for basic tutorials as they seem to be a “pig in a poke”situation. That said, however, I have kissed many, many YouTube“frogs” looking for the rare tutorial “prince”! It has beenexceedingly tiresome and seemingly never ending search sometimes!

4. I have studiedthe history of animation including the twelve principles, etc.

4. I researched,done the tutorials, and worked on trial versions from a variety ofdifferent animation software platforms including the following:

   A. ReallusionCartoon Animator (2D animation)

   B. ReallusionCharacter Creator 3 (3D Characters)

   C. ReallusionIclone 7

   D. DAZ3D Studio

   E. Epic GamesUnreal Engine

5. I am currently“hip deep” in learning Unreal Engine and find it very powerfulbut I also find it ….

   A. Exceedinglycomplicated but viable

   B. Very, very gameconstruction oriented,

   C. An unintuitiveGUI arrangement – unobvious to me on how to insert a character intoa scene!

   D. The tutorialsare a strange mix of both very good and very bad teachingpresentations,

   E. Epic Games hassome excellent animator development initiatives such as metahumans(genuinely exquisite photo realistic characters), a 30 day“fellowship”, and a recent symposium for telling stories withunreal engine to name a few)!

At this stage of my3d animation journey my simple mind finds that “computer basedanimation” has the following major production components!

1. Characterconstruction and development (modeling, rigging, texturizing)

2. Environmentand/or scene construction

3. Integration ofcharacters into an environment (movements, expressions, props,dialogue, sounds)

4. Rendering

5. Compositing

6. Final touches

My simple mind alsobelieves that the proverbial “pipeline” notion in 3D animationmeans that there is no one software that can handle all 6 componentsof the process. The trouble I have is that I do not know whichsoftware will easily fit together to make a strong “flow” of 3Dproduct or even more importantly which software is best suited forwhich 3D production components.

Today I amfrustrated, disheartened, and rudderless about what compass heading Ishould be sailing to get back on my 3D Animation proficiency journey. Any advice that may get me back on course?    

Hi Clifford,

I've done a lot of thinking on this,  and the answer is probably somewhere you haven't thought of looking yet.

firstly -  who are you ?  a Story teller or an animator. - Choose 1 ..don't say both because each path is a lifetime of mastery,  and even if you started as a toddler,  it would still take a lifetime to truly gain a mastery in either path.

now..if you are the animator - then your end game is to have the skills in  the mainstream software that all the major studios use,  to hire you...your story telling skills will lack because you won't have the time to sit back and imagine all the stories you can write,  then learn the proper way to write them as a script in the correct format that will appeal to investors for your story.

if you are a story teller,  then your time will be spent reading many stories,  watching many performers, movies and television shows and learning about story arcs, character arcs, pacing,  presentation and even how to package your idea in a way that investors ..or fans want it to be presented to them,  you won't have the time to learn the multitude of disciplines and software to get the shinest possible character. - in that path,  you will learn enough animation to present your story neatly to your audience.  Not perfectly,  not the latest cutting edge,  just enough to tell your story as you imagined it.

so to really answer where you should go,  you need to decide who you are so you know where you belong.  - this matters more than you think, because given that "time" is a major factor - you have to decide where you want to spend it - making great renders and getting gigs,  or telling great stories and selling merchandise. - for argument’s sake,  no - you can't master both,  to say you can is to disregard the plethora of detail, work and history that have gone into building each path, many lifetimes have gone into building both.

it's not to say you can't be talented at both and do great work, but aiming for the best in everything will only work against you.

This video is the work of a master story teller that didn't need unreal or maya to capture his audiences imagination, and even at that it could be 3+ artists - one who wrote the script,  one who did the voice acting,  and one who did the video editing.  - give space for one who did the casting lol - it's easy to get lost in the detail. that's why it's important to know who you are, so you build around "that".  

otherwise the simple answer is to learn blender.

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"To define Tao is to defile it" - Lao Tzu

Thanks for your timely reply. It was well reasoned and thoughtful. I would share that I have realized I cannot even become a "3D animator" without specializing in a particular segment of the animation process! There is just too much to learn, retain and employ. Such a broad term by definition is impossible for any one single person to master - I'd suggest it is analogous to saying you want to be a "football team" before you realize it is a team sport that has many vital contributors both on and off the playing field. You'll do well if you can understand all the different roles but if you want to play on a winning team, you'd best focus on mastering your particular role/position!

Really appreciate your feedback ....and by the way, I've downloaded Blender!

awesome, blender is the perfect middle of the road software being that they link up with pretty much all relevant softwares these days and it's free.  I kept myself in check for many years with just iclone and getting stuff to make my iclone game stronger -  i'm just starting to open up to blender now ..but even then limiting myself there too...just because i can learn something,  doesn't mean I should - which comes back to my goals ...to still have time to make music and sleep on occasion lol

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"To define Tao is to defile it" - Lao Tzu

@CliffordJee: I, of course, didn't know you couldn't be both storyteller and animator, but then again, even though I'm a few years older than you, I started about 20 years ago, so I have had time to learn.

I had used a few other products before I discovered iClone in 2006, which was then much simpler (with less features) than it is now. It spoke to me; it is important that an application feels right. No one size fits all.

I still took me a few years to finally create something, which was based on a radio play. A radio play has the advantage that the dialog and the story are already there, so you can just concentrate on the visualization.

From then on I just moved forward. I didn't have to worry about making it my profession or selling my movies, as dealing with the business side would be a complete headache for me. I do like my movies to be seen and for that there are film festivals. In your case you have your grandkids, so you have already an audience.

My preference has been for 3D animation, because I have no particular flair for 2D. So I use primarily iClone and Character Creator. To put things together I use a video editor. I like working with sound, and iClone is not suited for that.

You should early on decide on what tools you want to use primarily because you could get in a situation of just testing tools rather than creating something, which is where the fun is, I think.

Things don't have to be perfect. We have one user, Arie Noort (pinguintje), who creates very simple, but enjoyable videos, often based on fairy tales.

Check out his channel as it may inspire you and give you some ideas: https://www.youtube.com/user/RandstadRailRETBW/videos. It is in Dutch, but you'll get the gist.

One simple 3D application that might be suitable for you is muvizu. It was in receivership a few years ago but seemed to have emerged from that. It is far more restrictive than iClone, but there is a free version you can try and a full version is only $69.99.

---

I would not bother with Daz studio except only to export Daz Characters to CC3 PIPELINE if you find some you wish to use I Iclone.

There is a free tool to export  animated characters from CC3 Pipeline to Blender with perfect texture conversion.

But IMHO you should focus on learning the character animation tools of Iclone first.

RAG DOLL COLLISION ANIMATIONS FOR ICLONE 8 & 7
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Ghost Origins

My latest Feature length film created with Iclone.

My IMDB listing
Anabran Abdhul Quarnain - IMDb

I think it is not difficult to implement your story if you are a good animator.
You just have to be someone who is inclined to make up stories.

With zero knowledge, blender is very unnecessary for you.
It makes more sense to use ready-made assets instead.

I didn't even need any tutorials for CC3 and iC7.
I learned by myself by constantly fiddling with the program, I only asked questions and watched videos in the parts I got stuck on.
I learn programs directly by starting a project.

Unreal is a very powerful engine with which you can create your story.
Of course, you can also create your stories with iClone.
It's about the time you give to learn these programs.

In short, what you need to learn first is to be a good animator.Then it will be easy for you to implement your stories.

My advice
CC3 + ic7 + Unreal + Movavi Suite, the simplest


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Hi Clifford....  Welcome!

For my 2 cents.... From your description of what you are looking to create, you can do everything you need with iClone, and Character creator for customizing your characters.  The software is fairly easy to use.  The people here are great for helping when you get stuck. And there are a lot of helpful videos on YouTube that are free to help you learn. The software is reasonable in price and is not rental like Adobe, 3DS Max, Maya and others.  But again, it is also not free like Blender and there are a few for 2D animation too that are open source but I forget their names.  I really like this option.  I can choose to upgrade or decide if the current version is good enough for what I am doing. 

I am going into my 2nd year with Reallusion and I do love it. It makes animating less tedious.  The only draw back for me is that you do end up spending a bit for content.  But then again unless you can make hair, clothing and so on, that would be with anything.  If you keep it simple and stay focused on one project at a time it should not be an issue.  I started with the basics back in Jan 2021.... I have collected most of the add-ons and plug-ins offered as well as a lot of clothing, hair and props/scenes.  I'm about to do my taxes, I'm afraid to total all that up LMAO! 

I tend to take breaks in my learning to start learning other things.  I wanted to learn to make my own buildings so I switched my learning to Blender for a bit so I can learn to make my own content and expand my creativity for my projects. Where there is great stuff for downlaod and for sale out there, I do not like to be limited to what is available.  I don't need to be a master or specialize.... I like to know how it all works and be able to do it all, and hopefully, do it well. 

I do highly recommend this software!!  But don't take my word for it...  Download the demos and give it a try, you will be glad you did!! 



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I'm afraid I have to dissagree with the idea that you can't be a story teller and an animator.  Dr. Suess comes to mind immediately.  Kipling did great illustrations as well.  For me, I am in the process of making images to help market my novel. Let's hope we can learn to do both.  I would strongly suggest though that you have your story clear first.  If you have it clear, you know what the right scene to illustrate is and you know what the mood and tone need to be.