What is 3D Animation?

In its most basic form, animation is the concept of organizing static images in such a way to look as if they were moving. While that's still applicable, animation has now evolved to be more than that.

In a larger sense, we can define animation as a graphic technique that uses motion, in order to bring characters, objects, props, and more to life.

The 3D aspect comes into play when those concepts are developed within a digital environment, to give the illusion that they're moving in a three-dimensional space.

We start this process with a concept called 3D Modeling. This uses a series of polygons, edges, and vertices to create objects (aka "models") within a 3D space. These 3D models are then further developed, to have textures for the desired final looks, and a digital "skeleton" which allows our objects to move.

Finally, these animations are rendered into a sequence of images to create the illusion of motion.

Currently, there are three main categories we can group everything into:

• Passive Animation - A movie, show, or other form of medium where the audience engages with it, without the ability to influence the medium themselves.
  Traditionally, this is the most common form of animation.

• Interactive Animation - Games and some simulations. Really, anything where audiences can actively interact with what's happening, often via something like a mouse and keyboard, or a console controller.

• Immersive Animation - This one is comparatively much newer than the other two. It includes any format where the audience can actively interact AND the medium supports full immersion for the audience, such as "Virtual Reality" or "Immersive Art".

In the early days of 3D Animation, it was generally limited to two styles: Either CGI in movies, which attempted full realism, or Pixar cartoony-realism. Note that these are both great styles on their own, with very real uses to this day. However, the industry at large has realized 3D Animation can be much more than that too.

Now, we have a spectrum of wildly varying 3D Animation styles, starting with "simple stick figures" on one extreme, and "CGI that's so lifelike, it's hard to realize that it's not real" on the other extreme.

Between those two extremes, we can find everything and everything. From flattened lighting that evokes a feeling of 2D Animation, to the incredibly stylized world of Spiderverse, 3D Animation is now evolving past the point of being defined by a select few styles.

If it's a style you can imagine, then it's now probably possible to achieve in 3D Animation.

The end-goals of animation (3D or otherwise) are as wide and varied as the styles therein.

We can have work that's merely functional, such as modeling a house for use in an advertisement, or a creating a single model to be sold on a 3D marketplace.

We can work that's purely artistic, such as an animation as part of a larger movie, game, or show, meant to evoke feelings and share a story.

Or we can have work that's meant to inspire, illustrate, or otherwise share knowledge. Such as various interactive tutorials that have been emerging in businesses, over recent years.