A simple bird character on a swing

Blender Essentials for Animators

Learning 3D Character Animation can be hard.

There are animation principles to be learnt alongside understanding acting and performance. This is further complicated by the fact that, before you can even start your first basic exercise, you must learn to use a complex software application.

This course is designed to teach you the software essentials that you need to get started without being overwhelming.

Watch the trailer
  • Course duration: 3h 10m
  • Number of lessons: 30
  • Software used: Blender
  • Prerequisites: None
  • Self paced learning

"Fantastic class, I didn't believe I could learn so much about Blender!
So happy about the result!"

Angelina Casu

(Student Feedback - Into Animation: Blender Essentials for Animators)

About the course

Blender is a powerful application, providing everything that is required to create high quality character animation. But, with that power comes complexity.

Thankfully, as an animator, you will only ever need to know a small subset of the features available in the application.

This course will teach you the essentials that you need to get started and provide a solid foundation of knowledge which we will build upon in the future.

By the end of this course, you will have created your first simple animated scene in Blender, and you will be ready to start learning character animation with confidence.

Selected student work

Examples of simple 3D scenes

This is just a small selection of the many projects submitted by students of this course.

Once you have completed the course, you will have the skills to start getting creative and go beyond simply reproducing the example scene.

“I loved this class! Very informative and easy to understand. I tried other classes on Blender and this is the one I recommend. Looking forward to learning more from John :)”

Maria Kovalenko

(Student Feedback - Into Animation: Blender Essentials for Animators)

What you will learn

You will be introduced to the Blender interface before going on to build a simple scene.

We'll then cover the essential animation tools within Blender and use them to add some simple motion before learning to light, render and export our final scene.

By the end of the course you will have built your first, animated, 3D scene in Blender and will have created a rendered version which you can share with others.

Behind the scenes of 3D animation

Good to know

Blender logo

This is an entry level course using the free 3D software application Blender.

No prior knowledge of animation software or principles is required to complete the course, although, if you are already familiar with another application then this course will provide a solid introduction to Blender.

This course has been updated to be fully compatible with Blender 4 and higher.

The Blender software application can be downloaded for free from: blender.org

Ready to get started?

  • Over 3 hours of lessons
  • Instant streaming access
  • One-time payment - Lifetime access
$30
+ tax
Profile picture of John Knowles

Your instructor

Hi, I'm John!

Before building Into Animation I worked as an animator and animation director in children's television for over 15 years.

I love animation and my goal is to give you the best start possible in this exciting and rewarding craft.

Meet your instructor