Which is better: to learn 2D or 3D animation?

[kellyxmartin]

Learning either one will inform the other, like learning to sculpt a head out of clay will improve your ability to draw it, and so forth. When you pose a character in 3d you can really get a sense of the perspective which can help your drawing, though frankly you might have an easier time trying stop motion w/ pose-able figures if you are mostly doing it to improve your 2d animation. (I actually really recommend that, it's very fun as well!) Depending on your skill level, just plain ol' drawing will help either one the most. Try drawing a moving person very quickly without stopping, over and over. (If you can, try drawing people doing Tai Chi or Butoh dancing, they move very slowly and methodically which is really great practice.) If you are interested in backgrounds, draw complete scenes from life at all different locations and angles, also quickly. Another fun project if you want to work with characters is pausing dvds during actions and drawing what you see. You can then go on to try to draw different style characters doing the same pose. If you build up these kind of skills you can apply them to either 2d or 3d animation.
Oh if you want to practice 3d animation, try animating a biped to convey different emotions. If you can get those silly looking mannequins to express human emotion, you will be well prepared for any kind of animation. This is good practice because you have to rely on posing and body language, rather than facial expression, to show a feeling.
Good luck! :3

[LVUER]

@kellyxmartin:
Woooow! Thank you very much >_</b The best answer until now. I feel some part of the question of mine has been answered now. I guess best answer really should come from one who already study and work in animation field.

Right now I'm waiting for a special course that held by a certain university. They say that it has international course (and international standard too). Totaling for more than 400 hours of lessons and costing about US$1.400 (that's a lot for standard in my country), I really hope it's worth the money.

The courses are:
- vector art illustration (Corel Draw & Adobe Illustrator)
- digital painting (Corel Painter)
- coloring & digital imaging (Adobe Photoshop)
- 3D modelling with Maya (Maya)
- 3D modelling with 3DMAX (3DMAX)
- 3D modelling with ZBrush (ZBrush)
- video editing and visual effects (Adobe After Effects & Premiere)

I want to hear your opinion about these courses. BTW, they say if I complete all the courses, I already fulfill the requirement to work in international company (like Disney or alike, if I have the ability of course)

@Maverynthia:
I never think "my computer will do everything", but rather it will do the calculation (or other menial tasks) that I must done if I draw using traditional 2D method. Of course I need to think about the pose, keyframe, SFX, timing, etc. So I think it's easier than drawing 2D animation (especially when using frame-by-frame animation).

But thanks for the feedback, I really appreciate it ^_^

[Wintermoon]

The courses are:
- vector art illustration (Corel Draw & Adobe Illustrator)
- digital painting (Corel Painter)
- coloring & digital imaging (Adobe Photoshop)
- 3D modelling with Maya (Maya)
- 3D modelling with 3DMAX (3DMAX)
- 3D modelling with ZBrush (ZBrush)
- video editing and visual effects (Adobe After Effects & Premiere)

Sounds like they are trying to teach you how to use software packages instead of trying to teach you fundamental skills.

I want to hear your opinion about these courses. BTW, they say if I complete all the courses, I already fulfill the requirement to work in international company (like Disney or alike, if I have the ability of course)

This also sounds suspicious. Schools should not emphasize the jobs you can get over the skills you will learn.

[adrix89]

The courses are:
- vector art illustration (Corel Draw & Adobe Illustrator)
- digital painting (Corel Painter)
- coloring & digital imaging (Adobe Photoshop)
- 3D modelling with Maya (Maya)
- 3D modelling with 3DMAX (3DMAX)
- 3D modelling with ZBrush (ZBrush)
- video editing and visual effects (Adobe After Effects & Premiere)

The courses are bullshit! There is no animation in them!
I would recommend rather some books on the fundamentals of animation than the courses
Also might try looking at http://www.synfig.org/Main_Page although it is kinda buggy right now
Edit: Depending on what country you are from you might not have the opportunity to get a job in animation other than commercial animations which are almost all 3d and even for that you need a studio or might need to relocate to another country
You might try to make your own studio but theres a heck of allot of hard work to make an animation
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p ... 81F6D1D522

[Samu-kun]

Most college art programs here always make sure that students have a good grasp of the fundamentals before they let you draw people. I'd be more concerned about the lack of any mention of anatomy, still lives, perspective, etc in the curriculum. It's not as sexy as animation or 3D modeling, but if you want to get into art, you first need to master the fundamentals. (Or so I hear anyways. I ain't no art major.)

[LVUER]

The animation is inside the 3D-modeling course (although the name is 3D modeling, they indeed say that it was divided into two: 3D modeling and animation). One who take professional illustrator doesn't need to take the animation (only the modeling).

Indeed I know that the courses seem only want to teach me how to use software... but what can I do, most of the courses (even university) in my country are like this. The university (working together with another company) where I'm going to take the course is one of the best in animation, manga, magazine, and publishing (anyone familiar with Megindo?) field I know in my country.

Oh, and since this is a 'crash' course, where everything is cramped into only 400+ hours (only 1 year, art college need 4 years to finish). I could only hope that they teach all necessary fundamental inside those courses. Of course I really want to take the real art/animation college but financially (and I'm already 28, no much time left I guess) I couldn't go to like Japan or US (or any other country) to take one.

So thanks ^_^ I'll definitely make good use of all links you all give me. Much thanks! BTW, any other inputs?

And oh, btw, the ones who held the course are:
-Binus (Bina Nusantara). A big university in Jakarta (I guess you all know the recent bombing in Mariotte hotel... in same city). FYI, I live in Bandung, about 200km from Jakarta.
-Acoltye. The company I mention before. A subdivision of Megindo, one of the biggest publishing company in my country.
-Megindo. Like I said, a very big publishing company. Anime, manga, cinema/movies, Japan culture magazines, they have it all.
They all boast to have international standard, and international and experienced teachers...

[pkt]

Yo LVUER, I've done both 2d and 3d modeling. I suggest learning by editing some one else's work to learn the ropes. Then when you're done with that then move on to the next step in the process. Copy the things you notice and think you're ready for. Tutorials are very helpful. It's very simple when you break it down into those steps. Try the basics and move on from there.

[JinzouTamashii]

Tutorials are the greatest thing. I work in both 2D and 3D since I finished several courses and used to work for an animation studio. There's a hell of a lot more compositing going on between the two than you would ever suspect. For one thing: your 3D scene gives you the ability to move away from photographic references and control the figure, but you'll still come back to photos for lighting reference, textures, but not perspective anymore.

I could give you a list of the software I use, but it would probably spin your head around... I was twenty-something before I even made enough disposable income to save up for those kind of purchases. Man, I really miss student licenses!

See my avatar?

She was created entirely in 3D.

Then I added my own touches and style. (Except for the face). I hand-draw all faces because 3D eyes and mouths suck. Also, I find hands to be extremely stiff and need a lot of postwork. I can tell you more about the workflow and composition but it varies from program to program. I use Adobe After Effects for anything animated, Flash for lipsyncing and Cinema4D for Sketch and Toon module but most packages support something like it.

I've seen toon look done in everything from the 3D software giants Max and Maya, Pov-Ray, Vue, Lightwave, Carrara, Poser, and Blender. Nearly everyone of those has a plugin or module that exports the look, if you're willing to dig for it a little and learn its tweaks and nuances.

For modeling, you can't go wrong with Zbrush for organic figures and most packages handle architecture quite nicely.

Like in photomanipulation, the real skill isn't having all the tools: it's knowing how to marry them and use them for a convincing result. If you do it wrong, it'll be ... kind of obvious.

[this_barb]

Generally a workflow for a 3D model is: model, rig, texture, animate

Whereas the flow for 2D would be: draw, ink, color

Depending on detail, the first step of creating a 3D model will take just as long as all 3 steps of drawing a 2D figure (if not longer).

One important detail: The 3D model is reusable/re-poseable. I assume time spent making a great model is time spent efficiently.

[JinzouTamashii]

It really depends on the level of detail you need. I couldn't find a 3D icepick so I found a nice big picture and modeled it from that (by putting the pic in the background and using the locked cameras: top, front, perspective, right, left) and I focused mostly on shape since I use cel and line shaders to get the effect I want.

It looks fine under normal shaders but if I zoomed in on it for close detail, the low-polygon model starts to fall apart a little since it's just a one or two-off prop meant to be held in the hand...

[LVUER]

I think...
3D animation is great for dynamic or action scene where complicated camera movement and complex movement are involved. Special effects is also easier to make with 3D.
While 2D animation is great for scene rich with expression. And also 2D is easier to make scene with lots of natural and wide environment. Also it's easy to make lots of character/model that only appear once and for very brief moment (in 3D no matter how brief it shows up, we must make the model).

Well, anyway, right now I'm taking Maya Course (3d modelling and animation).

[Guest]

I think...
3D animation is great for dynamic or action scene where complicated camera movement and complex movement are involved. Special effects is also easier to make with 3D.
While 2D animation is great for scene rich with expression. And also 2D is easier to make scene with lots of natural and wide environment. Also it's easy to make lots of character/model that only appear once and for very brief moment (in 3D no matter how brief it shows up, we must make the model).

Well, anyway, right now I'm taking Maya Course (3d modelling and animation).

Production IG would like to have a word with you.

[JinzouTamashii]

Guest, I don't understand what your post contributes. Can you please explain?

What is Production IG?

[sake-bento]

Guest, I don't understand what your post contributes. Can you please explain?

What is Production IG?

Animation studio that produces some decidedly impressive work. They're very cutting edge and use a lot of digital and 3D CG techniques in their work.

[LVUER]

I think...
3D animation is great for dynamic or action scene where complicated camera movement and complex movement are involved. Special effects is also easier to make with 3D.
While 2D animation is great for scene rich with expression. And also 2D is easier to make scene with lots of natural and wide environment. Also it's easy to make lots of character/model that only appear once and for very brief moment (in 3D no matter how brief it shows up, we must make the model).

Well, anyway, right now I'm taking Maya Course (3d modelling and animation).

Production IG would like to have a word with you.

Hahaha. Yeah, I wish I could work at Production IG. It's gonna be like a dream comes true ^_^

Though my other dream is to work at a game company (like SEGA?)