🏃 ANIMATION

Resources for learning about animation methods & tools.

September 07, 2026

THUNDEER'S 3D LEARNING RESOURCES

🏃 ANIMATION

Resources for learning about animation methods & tools.

Resources directed primarily for learning character creation in 3D.

Pick resources that fit your learning style, instead of brute forcing learning in a way you don't enjoy - that's why I tried including multiple options in each topic for you to pick from!

Software Agnostic

Animation (Software Agnostic)

📺 YOUTUBE

The 12 Principles of Animation Explained — The Most Important Rules for Animating

StudioBinder

The Animation Cheat Sheet - Workflow Demo

Chester Sampson

The Ultimate Animation Workflow for Beginners

Chester Sampson

Animation Blocking + Finding Key Poses w/ Reference

Sir Wade Neistadt

Animating HEAVY Weight (Objects, Punches, Throwing)

Sir Wade Neistadt

Why Your Stepped Animation Sucks in Spline

Sir Wade Neistadt

📚 BOOKS

Animator's Survival Kit

Richard Williams

The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation

Frank Thomas, Cllie Johnston, Ollie Johnson

Timing for Animation, 40th Anniversary Edition, 3rd Edition

Harold Whitaker, Tom Sito, John Halas

Physics for Animators

Michele Bousquet

Rig it Right! Maya Animation Rigging Concepts

Tina O'Hailey

Acting and Performance for Animation

Derek Hayes

Blender

Fresh Start!

Animation - Fresh Start! (Blender)

At this stage, in Blender, you should learn these concepts:

Adding & Editing Keyframes, creating the simplest form of animation
Graph Editor & Spline editing (Interpolation)
Blockout key poses
A notion of Timing & Spacing
Gimbal lock
Animate a rigged character (this assumes you already have a rigged character)

👨‍🎓 STANDALONE COURSES

⭐ FREE

Blender Fundamentals 4.5 LTS

Blender Studio

Blender Studio's own training course

Blender Fundamentals 4.5 LTS: 3D Animation - Blender Studio

Start learning Blender at your own pace with this complete fundamental course.

https://studio.blender.org/training/blender-fundamentals-45-lts/chapter/blender-5_2-animation/

PAID ($89)

Alive! Animation course in Blender

P2Design Academy

Alive! animation course in Blender

The most extensive animation course in Blender

https://www.p2design-academy.com/p/alive-animation-course-in-blender

PAID ($25/month)

Agora Community

Agora.community | Home

Get weekly critique from Alex Ferreira Simoes, Head of Education at Agora Community.

https://agora.community/

📺 YOUTUBE COURSES

Beginners Guide to Rigging

Dikko

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLL3OEv6vd5VCrqZiupP2m68qSWHYAjoiW

📺YOUTUBE

Animation Quick Start Guide for Absolute Beginners (Blender Tutorial)

Ryan King Art

Animation for Beginners! (Blender Tutorial)

Ryan King Art

How to Use the Graph Editor for Beginners (Blender Tutorial)

Ryan King Art

How to Animate ANYTHING in Blender!

SharpWind

Intermediate

Animation - Intermediate! (Blender)

📺YOUTUBE

⭐The principles of animation in Blender

Pierrick Picaut

An masterclass that's shockingly just available for free on Youtube

Your Animation Workflow is About to Get SO Much Faster

Pierrick Picaut

Create a Walk Cycle animation in Blender

Pierrick Picaut

Pose & Flow : The 2 Essentials of Great Action Animation

Pierrick Picaut

The 5 steps to great 3D animation in Blender

Pierrick Picaut

How to use Blender's Graph Editor like a Professional Animator

Pierrick Picaut

How to make your poses more EXPRESSIVE!

Pierrick Picaut

💻 BLOG POSTS

Creating expressions in 4 easy steps

Pablander Academy

Creating expressions in 4 easy steps | Pablander Academy

I thought I share a simple but effective 4-steps workflow to help you create expressions on your characters… this technique works for anything but to keep it simple I’m going to sculpt a ‘laughing’ expression on a generic male head:

https://www.pablander.academy/newsletter/creating-expressions-in-4-easy-steps

Easy blendshapes!

Pablander Academy

Easy blendshapes! | Pablander Academy

I thought I share an easy way of animating and testing blend shapes with Blender. This is something that I’ve been doing recently for a project and it works great to test things like micro-expressions. This is how it works:

https://www.pablander.academy/newsletter/easy-blendshapes

Layered Sculpting for Einar

Julien Kaspar

Layered Sculpting for Einar - Blender Studio

Julien shares the current workflow of layered sculpting for realistic expressions and poses in the Heist film production.

https://studio.blender.org/blog/layered-sculpting-for-einar/

Maya

Fresh Start!

👨‍🎓 STANDALONE COURSES