Character Animation Training and Tutorials

Learn the 2D and 3D techiques used to make an animation and bring a character to life. Join expert instructors to create character animations and explore character rigging, create a walk cycle, and make an animated movie.

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Creating Hair with Maya nHair
Aaron F. Ross

3h 8m 43,949 Views
Blender: Creating a Game Character
Christian Bradley

4h 56m 48,748 Views
Getting Started with CAT Rigging Tools in 3ds Max
Joel Bradley

2h 33m 69,002 Views
2D Animation: Walk Cycles Basics
Dermot O' Connor

57m 36s 31,440 Views
Carrara 5 Essential Training
Jack Whitney

8h 22m 95,183 Views
Rendering for Composites inside 3ds Max
Joel Bradley

1h 50m 23,605 Views
Chris Landreth: Oscar-Winning Animation Director
Chris Landreth

22m 40s 2,143 Views
2D Animation: Character & Attitude Walk Cycles
Dermot O' Connor

57m 13s 15,919 Views

Top Courses in Character Animation

release date (newest first)

71 Character Animation Courses • 2385 video tutorials

Animation Foundations: Gesture
Andrew Gordon
Gestures make animated characters more interesting and believable. Veteran Pixar animator Andrew Gordon shows how to use reference material and simple animation principles to create more expressive gestures.

1h 19m Appropriate for all 1,242 Views
2D Animation: Tips & Tricks
Dermot O' Connor
Get a new 2D animation tip every Tuesday. Learn the tricks professional animators use to save time and create more compelling characters.

37m 43s Appropriate for all 4,485 Views
Learn Adobe Animate CC: Animation
Dermot O' Connor
Create your first digital animation with Adobe Animate CC. Learn how to create symbols, tweens, keyframes, effects, and more.

2h 17m Beginner 31,614 Views
Animation Foundations: Storyboarding
Dermot O' Connor
Get started in storyboard animation. Learn storyboarding techniques for illustrating action, angles, shot composition, character, and drama.

1h 32m Appropriate for all 14,469 Views
Traditional 2D Animation in Harmony
Dermot O' Connor
Learn how to draw and animate a simple gesture in Toon Boom Harmony. Animator and cartoonist Dermot O'Connor shows you how to draw lines, create extremes and in-betweens, use a virtual light table, make timing charts, test poses, color the animation, and more.

27m 7s Appropriate for all 7,726 Views
Introduction to 3D
George Maestri
Learn the basic concepts underlying all 3D modeling and rendering software: navigating 3D space, modeling, texturing, rendering, and more.

4h 23m Beginner 106,852 Views
Learn Adobe Fuse CC: The Basics
Steve Caplin
Make custom 3D characters for your Photoshop projects with Adobe Fuse, the powerful app for building realistic human models that can be fully posed and animated.

1h 25m Beginner 27,453 Views
Story and Character Development for Animation
Andrew Gordon
Learn the secrets of developing great characters and telling stories for animation. Animators Andrew Gordon and Nate Stanton recreate the story process for us.

15m 4s Appropriate for all 11,794 Views
2D Animation: Character & Attitude Walk Cycles
Dermot O' Connor
Learn 2D animation techniques to express personality, body type, and attitude in a walk cycle, and turn walks into full-on runs.

57m 13s Appropriate for all 15,919 Views
2D Animation: Walk Cycles Basics
Dermot O' Connor
Learn how to create a walk cycle for 2D animation. This tutorial is appropriate for all levels of animators, using any software.

57m 36s Appropriate for all 31,440 Views
Darin McGowan: The Storyboard Artist's Life
Darin McGowan
Darin McGowan, a storyboard artist for shows such as The Wild Thornberrys, The Loud House, and Futurama, offers insights into the storyboard artist's life.

26m 8s Appropriate for all 2,929 Views
Sharon Ross: Character Designer for 2D Animation
Sharon Ross
Get insights from a real character designer. In this interview, Sharon Ross explains how she went from art student to illustrator to character designer for Family Guy.

10m 56s Appropriate for all 2,672 Views
Blender: Creating a Finished Character Animation
David Andrade
Learn how to sketch, animate, and render a character in Blender, and create a fully rendered animation with dialog and complex facial movements.

1h 29m Appropriate for all 38,913 Views
Rigging Mechanical Objects in Maya
George Maestri
Learn techniques for rigging mechanical objects, machines, and other inanimate objects in Maya.

1h 27m Intermediate 18,714 Views
Lindsey Pollard: Supervising Animation Director
Lindsey Pollard
In this interview, Lindsey Pollard, animation director for shows such as The Simpsons and Sanjay and Craig, talks about her career and offers advice for aspiring animators.

23m 30s Appropriate for all 613 Views
Animating Cartoon Characters in Maya
George Maestri
Teaches simple steps to creating exaggerated cartoon animation in Maya, using principles such as squash and stretch, exaggeration, follow-through, and overlapping action.

2h 17m Intermediate 29,977 Views
Chris Landreth: Oscar-Winning Animation Director
Chris Landreth
An interview with Chris Landreth, a pioneering animator and director of the Oscar-winning animated short Ryan.

22m 40s Appropriate for all 2,143 Views
Carol Wyatt: 2D Background Painting and Color
Carol Wyatt
An interview with Carol Wyatt, background painter, color stylist, and color supervisor for animated shows such as Rick and Morty and HBO's Animals.

15m 19s Appropriate for all 2,040 Views
Migrating from Flash to Toon Boom Harmony
Dermot O' Connor
Migrate your animation workflow from Flash to Toon Boom Harmony. Learn about Flash tools and their Toon Boom equivalents and how to complete common drawing and animation tasks in Toon Boom Harmony.

6h Appropriate for all 24,395 Views
Blender: Creating a Game Character
Christian Bradley
Create a game character with Blender's free 3D toolset, while you build your modeling, sculpting, and texturing skills.

4h 56m Beginner 48,748 Views
Rigging a Cartoon Character in Maya
George Maestri
Add squash and stretch to a rig in Maya, using techniques specific to cartoon characters: stretchy joints, IK/FK switching, and facial rigging.

2h 34m Intermediate 47,956 Views
Foundations of Drawing Cartoon Characters for Animation
Dermot O' Connor
Learn to draw cartoon characters for classical cel animation, digital animation, comic books, or just for fun.

5h 22m Beginner 177,010 Views
Animation Techniques: Creating Smooth Motion
George Maestri
Make your animations "look" right by creating smooth motion, with these software-agnostic tricks from animation expert George Maestri.

45m 23s Intermediate 24,321 Views
Rendering for Composites inside 3ds Max
Joel Bradley
Learn how to use the extensive range of tools in 3ds Max to render out elements for compositing in After Effects.

1h 50m Intermediate 23,605 Views
Modeling a Cartoon Character in Maya
George Maestri
Learn how to use Maya to model a simple cartoon character that can be later rigged and animated in the program of your choice.

3h 6m Intermediate 99,649 Views
Toon Boom Animate and Harmony Essential Training
Dermot O' Connor
Learn to use Toon Boom Animate and Toon Boom Harmony to create traditional animated scenes, complex digital character rigs, and even some cool effects.

5h 59m Beginner 117,528 Views
Up and Running with MotionBuilder
George Maestri
An approachable and concise introduction to MotionBuilder, Autodesk's motion-editing software

2h 12m Beginner 35,705 Views
Toon Boom Storyboard Pro Essential Training
Mark Simon
Learn to storyboard commercials, features, games, or TV shows with Storyboard Pro. Get tips to speed up your storyboarding workflow and get the most from Storyboard Pro's drawing tools.

4h 29m Beginner 86,280 Views
Character Animation: Dialogue
George Maestri
Learn how to convey emotion through facial expression, and animate dialogue, with these fundamental animation principles.

2h 15m Beginner 28,738 Views
Cloth Simulation in Blender
Joel Bradley
Learn how to simulate cloth, control its appearance, and make it interact realistically with other objects in your scene, using Blender.

2h Intermediate 25,372 Views
Character Rigging in 3ds Max
George Maestri
Learn how to rig your 3D characters for realistic motion and animation with 3ds Max.

3h 45m Intermediate 91,962 Views
Rigging a Winged Animal in Maya
Jason Baskin
Learn how to rig a bird for animation in Maya.

1h 54m Intermediate 25,019 Views
Rigging a Quadruped in Maya
Jason Baskin
Learn how to rig a four-legged creature (aka a quadruped) in Maya.

1h 55m Intermediate 34,968 Views
Character Animation: Locomotion
George Maestri
Learn how to create walk, run, and skip animations that give your character style and subtly move the story along.

2h 41m Intermediate 48,643 Views
Hand-Drawn Animation in Flash
Dermot O' Connor
Achieve a richer, more dynamic look for your Flash-based animation by incorporating hand-drawn animation techniques.

2h 51m Intermediate 112,579 Views
2D Animation Principles
Dermot O' Connor
Bring a cast of characters to life. By following the basic principles of animation, you can build characters that interact naturally with their environments, convey realistic emotion, and talk and walk convincingly.

2h 25m Beginner 267,709 Views
Cloth Simulation in 3ds Max
Joel Bradley
Create realistic garments and fabrics, from T-shirts to tablecloths, with the Cloth system in 3ds Max.

3h 20m Intermediate 28,574 Views
Facial Rigging in Maya
Jason Baskin
Use blend shapes and a joint-based approach to build facial controls that are versatile and easy to use.

2h 38m Intermediate 49,314 Views
The Creative Spark: Between Two Worlds, The Hybrid Animation of Tiny Inventions
Ru Kuwahata
The founders of Tiny Inventions explain how their (tiny) two-person animation studio evolved and share the process behind their film Between Times.

26m 1s Appropriate for all 41,745 Views
Creating Hair with Maya nHair
Aaron F. Ross
Learn to create, style, animate, and render realistic hair with Maya nHair.

3h 8m Intermediate 43,949 Views
Mograph Techniques: Rigging a Robot Arm in CINEMA 4D
EJ Hassenfratz
Learn to rig and animate a 3D robotic arm in CINEMA 4D.

1h 11m Intermediate 35,116 Views
Modeling Characters in CINEMA 4D
Christopher Broeska
Learn how to model realistic 3D characters with the powerful and flexible modeling toolset in CINEMA 4D.

3h 43m Intermediate 98,045 Views
Character Animation: Basics
George Maestri
Learn the skills all beginning animators need to know to bring their characters to life, including posing to the camera, animating from pose to pose, the basics of walking, and dialogue.

3h 32m Beginner 100,569 Views
Chris Korn's Digital Character Design: Start to Finish
Chris Korn
Chris Korn, character designer at FUSE Animation, explains how he brings his creatures to life with CINEMA 4D and Zbrush.

33m 52s Appropriate for all 36,194 Views
Character Modeling in Blender
Ryan Kittleson
Learn to model a production-ready 3D character with topology that deforms properly when it is animated, using Blender.

3h 41m Intermediate 273,493 Views
Creating Fur in Maya
Aaron F. Ross
Create, render, and customize fur and hair for your 3D models in Maya.

1h 12m Intermediate 29,895 Views
Animating Characters with Mecanim in Unity 3D
Sue Blackman
Bring 3D game characters to life with the help of Mecanim, Unity's new character animation system.

5h 28m Intermediate 130,303 Views
Working with HumanIK Rigs in Maya
Adam Crespi
Find out how to set up the HumanIK rigging system in Autodesk Maya and start creating realistic skeletons for your 3D characters.

57m 58s Intermediate 41,639 Views
Animating Characters in Toon Boom Animate
Tony Ross
An introduction to creating and animating cutout characters in Toon Boom Animate.

5h 39m Beginner 122,232 Views
Getting Started with CAT Rigging Tools in 3ds Max
Joel Bradley
Discover an alternative to the traditional character rigging workflow with the Character Animation Toolkit (CAT) toolset for 3ds Max, which offers quick preset character rigs as well as custom tools for creating a rig from scratch.

2h 33m Intermediate 69,002 Views

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