Creating a Finished Character Animation in Blender 2.9

Learn how to sketch, animate, and render a character in Blender, and create a fully rendered animation with dialog and complex facial movements.

With its free, professional-grade toolset, Blender gives 3D artists the ability to animate and tell stories they only dreamed of in the past. In this course, learn to use Blender 2.9 to breathe life into a character and tell a story with animation and dialogue. The goal of the course is to combine video references with the principles of character animation to create a walking, talking animated person: Arthur, a disgruntled office worker and thwarted musician. Learn how to use the animation tools in Blender, work with a dialog track, and flesh out and light the scene. Your guide, David Andrade, provides tips to help you imagine your own character's inner life and an overview of the post-production process for rendering the final video.

Introduction

• Explore the magic of character animation
• How to use the exercise files
• Set up Blender and prerequisites

1. Where It All Begins, Planning Your Animation

• Listen to the dialog and sketch out ideas
• Exporting your sketches from Blender
• Learn how video reference helps guide your animation

2. Meet Arthur

• How to set up your animation file in Blender
• How to use character rigs in Blender
• How to animate in Blender
• Troubleshooting animation errors in Blender
• Challenge: Set a couple of keyframes in Blender
• Solution: Set a couple of keyframes in Blender

3. Character Animation

• Set up audio and reference
• Block out the character's key poses
• Timing is everything
• Useful animation tools in Blender
• How to preview and share your animation
• Challenge: Breaking up your animation
• Solution: Breaking up your animation

4. Refine the Details

• Refining the body movements
• Refining the arms, hands, and fingers
• Refining the face
• Animating the mouth to the audio
• Using Graph and Dope Sheet Editors to refine your animation
• Polish off the end result
• Challenge: Add a blink
• Solution: Add a blink

5. A Brief Overview of Render Settings in Blender

• Let there be light
• Time to render
• A quick overview of post-production in Blender

6. The Journey Has Just Begun

• Moving forward into animation

Introduction

• Explore the magic of character animation
• How to use the exercise files
• Set up Blender and prerequisites

1. Where It All Begins, Planning Your Animation

• Listen to the dialog and sketch out ideas
• Exporting your sketches from Blender
• Learn how video reference helps guide your animation

2. Meet Arthur

• How to set up your animation file in Blender
• How to use character rigs in Blender
• How to animate in Blender
• Troubleshooting animation errors in Blender
• Challenge: Set a couple of keyframes in Blender
• Solution: Set a couple of keyframes in Blender

3. Character Animation

• Set up audio and reference
• Block out the character's key poses
• Timing is everything
• Useful animation tools in Blender
• How to preview and share your animation
• Challenge: Breaking up your animation
• Solution: Breaking up your animation

4. Refine the Details

• Refining the body movements
• Refining the arms, hands, and fingers
• Refining the face
• Animating the mouth to the audio
• Using Graph and Dope Sheet Editors to refine your animation
• Polish off the end result
• Challenge: Add a blink
• Solution: Add a blink

5. A Brief Overview of Render Settings in Blender

• Let there be light
• Time to render
• A quick overview of post-production in Blender

6. The Journey Has Just Begun

• Moving forward into animation