Author: Jiashi Wang

After completing several projects, I’ve gained some experience in creating 3D models—some of which took me a long time to figure out. Had I known these things earlier, my work would have gone much more smoothly. So, I’m documenting them here in the hope that they might help others.

First, you need a clear plan. You must identify all possible details in your animation, including the model’s movements, behaviors, and facial expressions. List them all in advance—only then will you know what functionalities your model requires. Does it need to smile? Should its eyes be modeled separately? Will you need multiple texture maps? The earlier you prepare, the more you can avoid disastrous revisions later.

While modeling, check the topology of every joint to ensure they move as intended. If you don’t inspect them repeatedly, you’ll face endless modifications and reworks in later stages. The sooner you spot issues, the more time you’ll have to address other problems. Defining requirements early can save over 30% of total production time.

When confirming your model’s functionalities, I believe the following aspects are the most critical:

• Motion Structure—e.g., human walking or animal reverse-joint designs.
• Facial Expressions—basic emotions like happiness, anger, or sadness, including blinking and eye tracking.
• Materials—adding clothing or other surface details.
• Scene Compatibility—polygon count control. Don’t just optimize for one software; excessive polygons may cause bugs elsewhere.
• Rigging—it’s best to design your own skeleton controls because only you know how your model should move and how its weight affects its behavior.

After completing these initial designs, manually test short animations (e.g., a walk cycle) to check if the model and rig work seamlessly. This step will take considerable time, but trust me—it’s worth it. It’s far more efficient than redoing everything later!

Character models play a significant role in 3D animation. Your model determines the upper and lower limits of your animation’s quality. The more patience you invest in it, the greater the returns your animation will bring!

The rise of 3D technology has brought unprecedented changes to the animation industry. It not only raises the boundaries of visual expression, but also gives birth to a new creative model and industrial ecology.

1. Technological breakthrough: breaking through the imagination ceiling of traditional animation

Special visual presentation

Through core capabilities such as modeling, material rendering, and dynamic lighting, 3D technology can accurately simulate the real physical world, and can also build fantasy scenes (such as the comic-style particle effects in “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”). Character expression capture technology makes the character’s expression more in line with the audience’s aesthetics

Creation efficiency revolution

Asset reuse mechanism: The accumulation of 3D model libraries and action libraries can greatly shorten the production cycle (such as the “Love, Death  +  Robot” series achieves efficient output through modular production).

Real-time rendering technology: Tools such as Unreal Engine allow creators to instantly preview light and shadow effects, reducing the time cost of traditional frame-by-frame debugging. At the same time, if you need to adjust the lens angle, you only need to re-render, which is more convenient than traditional painting.

2. Industry Upgrading: From Single Film and Television to Multi-Field Penetration

Pan-Entertainment Industry Integration

Game Animation Integration: The deep integration of 3D animation and game engines (Unity/Unreal) has spawned cross-media experiences such as the “Fortnite” concert.

Virtual Idol Economy: The performances and sales of 3D virtual idols such as Hatsune Miku and A-Soul have formed a complete industrial chain.

Industrial Application Extension

3D animation technology is widely used in medical visualization such as surgical simulation animation, product structure disassembly, etc., expanding the boundaries of the industry.

3. Future Outlook: Possible Golden Age of 3D Animation

With the popularization of technologies such as AI-assisted generation (such as NVIDIA Canvas fast concept map), cloud rendering (reducing hardware costs), and real-time motion capture, 3D animation creation will become more democratic. Mastering 3D skills means getting a job

The future is here, and 3D animation is not only a technical tool, but also the ultimate canvas of human imagination. By joining in, you will have the opportunity to redefine the rules of visual narrative and become the builder of the next generation of digital civilization

Sometimes, I would stay alone in my dormitory, concentrating on my animation production. I would make the details of the animation according to some ideas in my mind, including the movements of the characters or the design of the scenes. Sometimes after I finished them, no matter how many times I modified them, I would feel that there was something wrong.

After the animation production was finished one day, I was going to go out for a walk. I observed the people by the river, I watched their movements, I watched their movements and fell into thinking. Suddenly I understood why the animation I made always looked wrong, because that was the movement I thought of in my mind, not necessarily the posture that people would appear in life. Every step of a person’s movement is controlled by a potential switch. Their movements will not suddenly jump from one step to or even fast forward to another step. My animation ignores these details, and the movements they make do not match the real movements. This is why my brain will give me feedback that I feel wrong after watching what I made.

Animation is a way of recording. It reproduces the creator’s memory on the screen, but memory alone is not enough. We need a lot, even a huge amount of references. If you blindly hide in your own world to create, you can only end up with an animation that you appreciate. We need to have more contact with the real world and record the details of life rather than the fictional content in our minds. Only by taking this step can we become a qualified animator.

With the popularization of technology in modern society, most people have the opportunity to publish the content they create in their leisure time on the Internet for people to share. From the previous hard work of making animations in front of the drawing table to now being able to make them with just a mobile phone or tablet, the advancement of the times has omitted most of the processes, and the advancement of technology has greatly reduced the time people need to create.

For the above reasons, we can find many animators or illustrators with personal power on various video websites. They often share their daily creations, and most of the content they create is to promote their favorite movies, animations, or game plots for others.

For a large company, whether their products are games, animations, or movies, they hope that someone will promote their content and let more people know about their products. Therefore, they will spend a lot of money on publicity, and advertisements everywhere are just part of their publicity methods. Imagine, are you impressed by the advertisements you see on the street every day, or by the videos made by some independent media or independent video bloggers that you follow? Because of the convenience of the Internet, most company managers have found that instead of spending a lot of money on inefficient advertising without purpose, it is better to go to some video websites, recruit some independent video producers with a large fan base, and then let them promote their products. This approach is more efficient.

CircleToonsHD, Cas van de Pol, CarbotAnimations, and many other video hosts have similar experiences. They used to be individual animators, but when their videos became popular, a large number of commercial companies began to place orders with them, hoping that they could make animations and promote their products.

Animators may not know why their works can be so popular and popular quickly, but the audience and the people in the community like their works, which also attracts the attention of the company. This is a very positive two-way feedback. Painters can rely on orders to work for their favorite careers while getting a lot of remuneration, and companies and communities have also received extensive promotion and attention.

In my opinion, no matter what kind of movie or game, or even a series of products such as novels, in reality, they will have their own area, in which people will actively discuss or promote their favorite content and try to let more people know what they like. I call them community culture.

The community plays a vital role in the success and influence expansion of an IP. People in the community are not only the main consumers of the IP, but also its disseminators, supporters and creators. They can continue to produce derivative works of the IP, whether they are illustrations or animations made by themselves, or even the birth of games. These are immeasurable for the growth of an IP. No company manager can predict when the next community work that can attract a lot of social attention will appear, but once it appears, the benefits it can bring to the IP are immeasurable.

For example, Cas van de Pol (https://www.youtube.com/@cas), who makes personal videos on YouTube, most of his videos are some resets of movies and TV shows. He has attracted many fans through his personal style and a lot of changes to the plot.

Not long ago, he made an animated adaptation of (How to Train Your Dragon) and added a funny dance to it. It was this dance that caused the video to spread like a virus. In just one day, it received a very high number of views on video websites around the world, and the original movie once again received a lot of attention.

（https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MCiixIkzUk&t=34s）

（Funny dance produced by CAS）

The community is like a catalyst for the development of an IP. Even if an IP no longer has as much influence as before due to the passage of time, as long as there are authors like Cas, the IP may regain its influence at any time. This is a very positive development.

An animation or an excellent game is created to serve people. There are many characters in the animation and the game, and each character has his own story. The stories of these characters will attract the audience or players to browse again after watching the work. This content will attract people to continue to pay attention to the update of the work. And this will make people spontaneously form discussion groups to discuss the story content or characters they are interested in, so there is IP.
A good work, its IP must be full of attraction, people will spontaneously form a community to discuss it, share it, and spread it, which is also a means for the company to expand its influence. Most excellent companies will have their own IP products. How to develop and how to communicate with fans in the community is the secret of their survival to the present.
If players like this IP, they will spontaneously create some content for it, such as derivative novels, illustrations, or animations. I used to follow an independent animation studio called “CarbotAnimations”. They are loyal fans of “StarCraft 2”. They love this game and have made many animated shorts for the game and posted them on YouTube. Soon after, they were hired by the official and became a professional animation team, producing many other game animations for Blizzard Entertainment.
I think this is my future goal. I will focus on an IP, which may be a game or an animation. I will try to make some content for them, some content that will be loved by the community, and spread the IP content I like, which will make me very proud.

Video Reference：https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-wT6SyGphA&t=30s

Honestly, what impressed me the most during this internship experience is the importance of ensuring effective communication channels between both parties. When and how to initiate contact, which software to use for communication, and how to ensure continued communication are all crucial. If one party remains unreachable when the other needs to get in touch, it results in wasted time for both parties, and the impact on the project could be immeasurable.

After successfully establishing communication between both parties, the internship is considered officially underway. According to the description provided by the year 2 student, her story aims to depict a shift in the era, portraying a conflict between cash and mobile payments. The elderly protagonist prefers using cash, while most young people opt for mobile payment methods. Social support for cash payments is dwindling, and the story unfolds in the small town where the protagonist grew up.

Before starting the job, I presented some ideas about how mobile payments became popular in my country. During our discussion, I suggested some improvements to the story’s setting, such as incorporating a custom where people need to bow to complete a payment transaction.

The year 2 student wants to create a 3D animation, so my job is to help her create some models that will appear in the animation. She will send me references, and then I will create the models based on them.

After completing these initial models, she provided me with reference images of certain items she urgently needed, hoping I could recreate them. Of course, we enjoyed working together because our communication was very timely. I would try to complete her requests as quickly as possible and communicate promptly, asking if there were any areas that needed modification, until the models were completely problem-free and ready for use.

After completing this preliminary work, her story setting was approved by the supervisor, allowing our project to proceed further. The year 2 student then provided additional reference images of scene objects she needed.

In addition, I also helped her create a simple 3D design of the supermarket, which could assist her in clarifying the characters’ actions and layout within the supermarket.

Except for the initial struggle to establish contact, our direct collaboration went very smoothly. The year 2 student shared her ideas with me, and I provided her with some suggestions and improvements. Because these things are happening where I live, my references and suggestions were greatly helpful to her. Additionally, in terms of modeling, because we maintained constant communication, there were no major mistakes or instances where I created something she didn’t need. It was a fantastic experience overall.

After completing these internship tasks, I realized that I still have some shortcomings in using 3D software. I need more practice. Many models that might take others a short time to create end up taking me a lot of time. This highlights my lack of proficiency, and I need to learn more about software usage and undergo additional training.

Reflect on what I’ve learned

In the first unit, the initial attempt was to simulate the jumping of certain characters using simple ball bouncing motion. While the creation of ball animations may not seem difficult, in reality, there are many physical details that should be taken into account when creating the script.

Firstly, regardless of the object, it possesses a physical factor within it. It may be highly elastic or nearly non-deformable. During its descent, subsequent motion patterns are influenced by the angle, and I cannot arbitrarily plot its trajectory. I need to consider its energy changes and acceleration variations. Additionally, based on its descent speed, it can indirectly reflect the physical environment it is in—whether it’s low or high gravity, or its inherent weight situation. When it collides, how it deforms must align with my set parameters for this bouncing ball. These are all aspects I should be mindful of when crafting the storyboard script.

After completing the production of the bouncing ball, we incorporated the jumping animation of a character. I chose a spider as my moving character. The spider, with its multiple leg joints, relies on its muscles to control the impact from each jump or landing.

How to effectively portray these muscles is something I need to pay close attention to. It’s crucial for me to focus on these keyframes when creating the storyboard script.

In the subsequent push-pull animations, we extracted keyframes from real-life actions and then added fluid motions to them. This process was quite intriguing. Despite having videos as references, when we translated them into drawings, we still unconsciously mimicked the same actions, simulating them in our minds before putting them on paper.

The challenge I encountered arose with the connected ropes. In my animation of pulling a box, whenever the character’s arms relaxed or tensed, the rope they held onto for pulling the box needed to change accordingly—either tightening or slackening—in accordance with the laws of physics. This posed a certain level of difficulty, but I managed to overcome it.

Next, I attempted to use 3D software to create my walking animation with emotional changes. I personally learned to use Blender to create my character model and rigged it with bones for animation. In total, I rigged it with three types of bones.

During this period, I learned many practical techniques. After completing these tasks, I had the foundation for creating walking animations. Consequently, my first robot animation with a sad emotional walk emerged. However, it moved too slowly. Subsequently, I reworked it, which was a very interesting process. Transforming the imagined movements in my mind into animations and achieving success was truly an amazing feeling.

When it comes to animating animal walks, I initially attempted to create a dog’s gait. While seeking references, I discovered that when a dog starts walking, its hind legs move about 0.5 seconds faster than its front legs. In the storyboarding process, the specific technique involves making the hind legs move approximately two frames faster than the front legs. As the dog moves forward, the front legs lift off the ground slightly later than the hind legs. When the hind legs land and push backward, the front legs just touch down. While the dog walks, most of the time only one foot leaves the ground.

When creating animations, there should only be one frame at most where both feet are off the ground simultaneously, and one foot must be about to make contact with the ground while the other has just left it. Otherwise, the motion will appear as if floating. Later, I attempted to create a walking animation of a horse using Maya. The logic is similar to that of a dog, but it requires more attention to the highs and lows of the terrain.

Practice-based and theoretical research

Famous animation studio: Carbotanimation

With the development of social technology, many animation studios formed by individuals or independent teams have emerged in society. Most of them are active on platforms like YouTube or other video-based social networking websites. Their works range from niche to widely popular, catering to a diverse audience where everyone can find creative content they enjoy.

There is such a studio, they come from Canada, their name is CarBotAnimation.

Carbot Animation was founded by Jonathan Burton, one of the main employees of the Carbot Animation Studio, along with his wife and two brothers, Andrew and Sam. Carbot Animations is an online animation studio known for creating game-related animations. They are famous for producing cartoon-style animations for games such as “StarCraft II”. These animations are widely popular for their humorous, lighthearted, and dialogue-free style, attracting a large audience of gamers and animation enthusiasts.

Their most successful work, in my opinion, is the series of animated shorts they created for StarCrafts.

StarCrafts is an IP game under Activision Blizzard. They reinterpreted classic scenes and characters from the game into a unique cartoon style. These animations have not only been widely popular within the gaming community but also gained recognition among a broader audience of animation enthusiasts.

Carbot Animation initially started by adapting game plotlines into animated content. Later on, they ventured into creating a completely new storyline within the original game universe, crafting a world of their own characters. Over the course of 7 years, they developed a perfect narrative conclusion for this storyline.

Their animations have garnered global attention and recognition, and I believe their success can be attributed to several factors:

1. Simple yet recognizable art style: Despite its simplicity, each character stands out due to unique colors and designs, making them instantly recognizable to viewers.
2. Engaging storyline: The narratives are intriguing, with the creators incorporating numerous Easter eggs into the animations, adding layers of interest for the audience.
3. Use of in-game sounds: The majority of the sounds and effects used in the animations are sourced from the games themselves, enhancing viewer immersion and connection to the game universe.
4. Emphasis on visual expressiveness and entertainment: They capture viewers’ attention through exaggerated movements, facial expressions, and clever plot arrangements, creating a sense of joy and satisfaction.

As a result, after they released their second animation, they caught the attention of Kevin Johnson, the community manager at Blizzard Entertainment at the time. Blizzard expressed a strong liking for Carbot Animation’s videos and wished to promote them. This led them to join Blizzard’s player community, gaining significant attention and fostering a mutually beneficial relationship between players and the company’s IP community. This direct connection between players and the company’s IP community has catalyzed their success, helping both parties thrive together.

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