--- title: What Is 3D Animation? How It Works, From Rigs to Game Animation description: What is 3D animation? How 3D computer animation is made, from rigs and keyframes to the graph editor, and what changes when you animate for games. image: https://cada-edu.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/gabrielBachmann_ganesha_actionPose.png --- [Go Back Up](https://cada-edu.com/guides/animation#top) [Skip to Content](https://cada-edu.com/guides/animation#body) [![Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts](https://cada-edu.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Logo_CADA_White_AlphaHD.png?width=200&height=60&name=Logo_CADA_White_AlphaHD.png "Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts")](https://cada-edu.com/) Toggle Menu - [Educations](https://cada-edu.com/educations) Toggle children for Educations Main Menu (Press to Return) \> Educations - [Certificate in 3D for Games](https://cada-edu.com/certificate-in-3d-for-games) - [Diploma / BA (Hons) Degree](https://cada-edu.com/3d-digital-artist) - [Courses](https://cada-edu.com/courses) Toggle children for Courses Main Menu (Press to Return) \> Courses - [Free 3D Bootcamp](https://cada-edu.com/3dbootcamp) - [3D Animation Essentials](https://cada-edu.com/3d-animation-essentials) - [3D Portfolio Essentials](https://cada-edu.com/3d-portfolio-essentials) - [Sculpting in ZBrush](https://cada-edu.com/sculpting-in-zbrush-course) - [Unreal Engine for Filmmaking](https://cada-edu.com/unreal-engine-filmmaking-virtual-production) - [Continuing Education](https://cada-edu.com/continuing-education) - [Contact Us](https://cada-edu.com/contact) - Resources Toggle children for Resources Main Menu (Press to Return) \> Resources - [News](https://cada-edu.com/news) - [Guides](https://cada-edu.com/guides) - [Book Meeting](https://meetings-eu1.hubspot.com/adam-mayes) - - [English](https://cada-edu.com/guides/animation) - [Danish](https://cada-edu.com/da/guides/animation) # What Is 3D Animation? How It Works, From Rigs to Game Animation [mailto:?subject=What%20Is%203D%20Animation%3F%20How%20It%20Works%2C%20From%20Rigs%20to%20Game%20Animation&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcada-edu.com%2Fguides%2Fanimation](mailto:?subject=What%20Is%203D%20Animation%3F%20How%20It%20Works%2C%20From%20Rigs%20to%20Game%20Animation&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcada-edu.com%2Fguides%2Fanimation) 3D animation is the craft of making digital characters and objects move inside a 3D scene. An animator poses a rigged model at key moments in time, the software fills in the motion between those poses, and the animator then refines that motion until it reads as weight, intent and personality. In games, the same work also has to respond to a player's input, loop cleanly and blend into other moves. This guide explains how 3D animation is made, how game animation differs from cinematic work, which principles and software matter most, and what to learn first if you want to animate for games. ## What is 3D animation? In 2D animation, the artist draws each frame or key drawing by hand. In 3D computer animation you do not draw frames at all. You work with a 3D model that has a rig: a hidden skeleton of joints plus a set of controls that you select and move. You pose those controls, set a keyframe (a stored value at a point in time) and move on to the next pose. The software calculates the in-between frames, and because the character is a real 3D object, you can view it from any angle. Your job is to decide where the keys go, what each pose says, and how the motion travels between them. That last part is where 3D animation art lives. The software will happily give you smooth, even, lifeless movement. A good animator controls timing (how long an action takes) and spacing (how the movement is distributed across those frames), so that a sword swing feels heavy, a jump feels powerful and an idle feels like a living character rather than a statue. ![3D character render by CADA student Michael David Larsen](https://cada-edu.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/class18_MichaelDavidLarsen.png?width=780&height=457&name=class18_MichaelDavidLarsen.png) *Created by Michael David Larsen, Class 18* ## How 3D animation is made Most character animation, in games and film alike, follows the same basic workflow. If you have never opened a 3D application, learn to move around a scene, select objects and set keys first. The [free Blender 3D Bootcamp](https://cada-edu.com/3dbootcamp) covers those basics before you try to animate a character. ### 1. Start with a rigged character Animators usually receive a character that has already been modelled, skinned and rigged by other artists. The rig gives you controls for the hips, spine, head, arms, legs, fingers and often the face. Many rigs let you switch arms and legs between FK (forward kinematics, where you rotate each joint down the chain) and IK (inverse kinematics, where you place a hand or foot and the joints above it follow). Feet usually stay in IK so they stick to the ground. Arms swing more naturally in FK. ### 2. Plan with reference Before setting a single key, you plan. Film yourself doing the action, or find reference footage, and work out the main poses and the timing. Beginners skip this step more than any other, and it shows. A jump attack planned from real reference almost always beats one invented from memory. ### 3. Block the key poses Blocking means setting only the most important poses: the storytelling poses (keys), the extremes of the motion, and a few breakdowns that define how you get from one key to the next. Animators usually block in stepped mode, where each pose holds until the next one pops in, so you judge poses and timing without the software smoothing anything. If the blocking does not read clearly, no amount of polish will save it. ### 4. Spline and work the curves Once the blocking works, you switch the keys to spline interpolation (Bezier in Blender) and the software creates smooth motion between them. This first pass always looks floaty, because the computer eases everything evenly. Now you work in the graph editor, which shows each control's movement as a curve over time. Steep sections mean fast motion, flat sections mean slow motion or holds. You adjust tangents, add or remove keys, and shape the curves until the timing and spacing match what you blocked. ### 5. Polish Polish is the detail pass: fixing feet that slide, cleaning arcs on hands and head, offsetting keys so parts of the body overlap rather than moving in unison, adding small settles at the end of a move, and checking contact points. This is also where you remove pops and jitters that only show up when you scrub frame by frame. ## Keyframe animation vs motion capture Everything above describes keyframe animation, where the animator creates every pose by hand. The other main source of motion is motion capture, where an actor's real movement is recorded and applied to the character. Many game studios use both: capture for realistic locomotion and cinematics, keyframe for stylised characters, creatures, exaggerated attacks and anything a human actor cannot perform. Captured data is not finished animation. It still needs cleaning, retiming and often pushing to read well in play, and that work uses the same skills as keyframing. We cover the capture process itself in our guide to [motion capture](https://cada-edu.com/guides/motion-capture). If you are starting out, learn keyframe animation first. It teaches you what good motion is, which is exactly what you need to judge and fix capture. ## Game animation vs cinematic animation Cinematic animation plays once, from a fixed camera, exactly as the animator made it. Game animation is a set of pieces that the engine plays, loops, blends and interrupts based on what the player does. That changes how you build each move. ### Loops and cycles Idles, walks, runs and many other moves are cycles. The first and last frames must match so the loop has no visible hitch, and the motion inside the loop has to stay interesting without anything that draws attention every time it repeats. A cough in an idle looks fine once and silly on the tenth loop. ### Root motion and in-place animation In an in-place animation the character runs on the spot and gameplay code moves it through the world. With root motion, the animator moves the character's root bone and the engine uses that movement to drive the character. Root motion suits moves where the exact distance matters, such as a dodge roll or a climbing move. In-place often suits locomotion that code needs to control closely. Which one a studio uses depends on the game, so learn what both mean. ### State machines and blending In a game engine, animations sit inside a state machine: a set of states (idle, walk, run, jump, attack) with rules for moving between them. The engine blends from one animation to the next over a few frames, and can blend several at once, for example mixing walk and run by speed. As an animator you need clean start and end poses that blend well, and you need to understand that your animation will rarely play from start to finish untouched. ### Responsiveness The biggest difference is control. When a player presses a button, they expect the character to react almost immediately. A long, beautiful wind-up that would work in a cutscene makes a game feel sluggish. Game animators keep anticipation short, put the important pose early, and often let the player cancel out of the end of a move. The aim is motion that looks good and feels good in the hands. ![Noir-style 3D scene by CADA student Frederik Sejrsen](https://cada-edu.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/frederikSejrsen_4sem_noir03-1200x675.png?width=780&height=439&name=frederikSejrsen_4sem_noir03-1200x675.png) *Created by Frederik Sejrsen* ## The principles that matter most The 12 principles of animation still apply in 3D. A few of them do most of the work for a beginner in games: - **Timing and spacing:** they decide whether a move feels heavy or light, fast or slow. In combat they also decide how long the player waits and how long an enemy's attack can be read. - **Anticipation:** a small move before the main action. In games, keep it short on player moves and use longer, clearer anticipation on enemy attacks so the player can react. - **Arcs:** limbs rotate around joints, so hands, heads and feet travel in curves. Straight-line paths look robotic. - **Follow-through and overlapping action:** hair, cloth, tails and loose body parts keep moving after the main body stops. This is what keeps idles and loops alive. - **Exaggeration:** at gameplay distance, on a small part of the screen, subtle poses disappear. Push them so they read. Our guide to [the 12 principles of animation](https://cada-edu.com/guides/understanding-the-12-principles-of-animation) goes through every principle with examples. ## Which software to use Maya is the standard animation tool in many game studios, and many studio animation pipelines are built around it. If your goal is a job as a game animator, you will want to be comfortable in Maya at some point. Blender is the best place to learn. It is free, it runs on Windows, Mac and Linux, and its animation tools (keyframes, a graph editor, a dope sheet for timing, FK and IK rigs) work on the same ideas as Maya. Once you understand blocking, splining and curves in one, the other is quick to pick up. Do not spend your first year comparing software. Pick Blender, animate, and switch when you need to. You will also meet a game engine such as Unreal Engine, where your animations end up in state machines and blends. You do not need it to start animating, but seeing your work in engine early teaches you what game animation needs. ## What to learn first Follow the classic exercise order. It exists because each exercise isolates one skill: 1. **A bouncing ball:** timing, spacing, squash and stretch, and the graph editor, without a rig getting in the way. 2. **A pendulum or tail:** overlap and follow-through. 3. **Simple body mechanics:** a weight shift, a jump, lifting something heavy. This is where you learn weight and balance. 4. **A walk cycle, then a run cycle:** your first loops, and core game animation. 5. **Game moves:** an idle, a jump with take-off, loop and landing, a light and a heavy attack. 6. **Acting and lip sync:** once the mechanics are solid. If you want this path with structure and feedback, [3D Animation Essentials](https://cada-edu.com/3d-animation-essentials) is CADA's online beginner course in Blender. It is self-paced, covers the bouncing ball through walk and run cycles, body mechanics, pantomime and lip sync in 14 modules, and its mentorship options include live group feedback and, on the higher tiers, 1:1 sessions with experienced industry artists. ## Common beginner mistakes - **Skipping blocking:** going straight into smooth curves hides weak poses until it is too late to fix them. - **Floaty motion:** leaving the default even easing on every key. Real weight needs fast moves, hard stops and clear holds. - **Everything moves at once:** no overlap, so the body looks like one stiff object. - **Twinning:** both arms or both legs doing the same thing at the same time. Break the symmetry. - **Sliding feet:** feet that drift during contact destroy the sense of weight. - **Starting too big:** a two-minute fight scene as a first project. Short, finished, polished shots teach more. - **No reference:** animating from memory instead of watching how bodies really move. ## Jobs in 3D animation In game studios, animators usually work as gameplay animators (player and enemy moves, locomotion, combat) or cinematic animators (cutscenes and story moments). Some specialise in facial animation or creatures. Studios judge you mainly on a short reel of finished, polished animation: clear body mechanics and a few game-style moves count for more than one long, unfinished project. Showing that you understand loops, responsiveness and how animation works in engine helps you stand out for gameplay roles. ## Start learning 3D animation If you are completely new to 3D, start with the free Blender 3D Bootcamp: six live, one-hour online sessions over three weeks, starting in Blender and finishing in Unreal Engine. Sessions are recorded and you need no experience to join. If you are ready to commit to games, the [Certificate in 3D for Games](https://cada-edu.com/certificate-in-3d-for-games) is a 60-week online programme with recorded lectures and one live feedback session a week. You try all four specialisations before you choose one, and Animation is taught in Maya. Each term ends in a team project: a walkable story environment, a playable level and a vertical slice. ## CADA ## Ready to Transform your Business with Little Effort Using Brightlane? [Register Now](https://www.example.com) You May Like These ## Related Articles ![](https://cada-edu.com/hs-fs/hubfs/animation_movement%20-%20cropped.png?width=700&name=animation_movement%20-%20cropped.png) ### [Understanding The 12 Principles Of Animation](https://cada-edu.com/guides/understanding-the-12-principles-of-animation) ![](https://cada-edu.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Artwork/Posters/class18_MichaelDavidLarsen.png?width=700&name=class18_MichaelDavidLarsen.png) ### [3D Animation Pipeline: From Modeling to Final Render](https://cada-edu.com/guides/3d-animation-pipeline) ![](https://cada-edu.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Artwork/characterDesign/Alien_Zbrush_MarieAlsing.png?width=700&name=Alien_Zbrush_MarieAlsing.png) ### [Shading in Animation: The Art of Creating Texture and Mood](https://cada-edu.com/guides/shading-in-animation) --- [![Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts](https://cada-edu.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Logo_CADA_White_AlphaHD.png?width=200&height=60&name=Logo_CADA_White_AlphaHD.png "Copenhagen Academy of Digital Arts")](https://cada-edu.com) **Nyropsgade 23, 4. 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