Beginning with the times of the early cave paintings to the contemporary age, art has taken many aspects and been on different media. With time art has changed its form and with quick advancement in technology, computers have had their impact on art. Animation, which is an important art form of our age, has entered the domain of computer technology from its traditional beginnings.

An application of 3D Computer Graphics, 3D Animation is the art of creating moving images with a three dimensional photo realism on a two dimensional screen. 3D Animation holds its distinction from 2D animation due to its depiction of stunningly realistic animated pictures. Computer 3d graphics animation is used in computer games, architecture, motion pictures, special effects, simulations and in whatever way it can be used to illustrate an idea.

These amazing works are brought into reality through a process of 3D Modeling, Texturing, Animation and 3D Rendering. 3D Modeling is a process of creating virtual 3d models. Once a 3 Dimensional model is build, it goes through the texturing which add the detail that makes the objects and characters so realistic and related to our lives. It determines how things look and is just like an artist painting on a sculpture.

Three Dimensional Animation may not relate to movies where characters like Mickey Mouse were first displayed, yet the central principle of animation remains the same as in traditional animation. These concepts have taken the shape of Motion Capture and Key-framing with technological advancements. Key-framing, descendent of techniques like flip book and stop motion, involves setting up of two or more key object positions in different time frames , these frames were then called key frames. After this the animator assistant was drawing all the frames in between the key frames by hand, these gradual changes in repetitive illustrations that made up the animations where called in-betweens. Today the computer fills the 3D Animation with automatically calculated in-betweens.

Motion Capture is another one of the advanced animation procedures, the use of which is very popular when animating realistic digital actors. It brings life to characters in animations by translating the recorded movements of real actors or models into the 3D Animation. 3D Animations also require a much higher frame rate to support its photorealism and effectiveness, which exceeds 24 frames per second, which is used for old two dimensional animation and television broadcast.

Such fascination inspires thousands of people for a career in animation. Many of the aspiring animators take short duration animation courses and only concentrate on developing skills in 3D Animation software, which is not quite enough. In order to learn the art of 3D animation you must seek schools like School of Visual Arts California and Academy of Digital Animation, which offer excellent technical and informational facilities to allow the students to focus on developing their animation skills.

Along with formal education, you should be focusing on refining and developing some skills to become a successful animator. You should be well versed with key animation concepts and skills like constructing Avars, or Animation Variables, which are the building blocks of animatable characters.

You must be able to work with colors in an effective manner and be familiar with the color theory. Usually a degree in arts will even help you in your cause. You should also have an comprehension of shading, lighting and rendering, which are fundamental to the realism of your animation. You should have a taste for story-telling, an eye for detail and the creativity of an artist.

But what if you are not a professional animator? That still does not stop you from benefiting from it. A number of 3 Dimensional Animation packages exist to help you out. Maya, 3ds max, Lightwave, Softimage and Blender 3d are very wide spread but sophisticated software, and top choices of professionals. Although some of them are accommodating to novices, you could find yourself more at ease with simpler software like 3D Canvas, Art of Illusion and Xara 3D. You should research carefully before buying one of them, as you would want all the features and utility you need from a single package as per your requirements.

3D Animations like banners and other features can make a website more interesting and can communicate messages more efficiently, attracting more traffic to the sites. The myriad of 3D software applications have plainly removed all obstacles to the access to 3D Animation and have opened doors to new possibilities for the utilization of this effective communication method. 3D Animation can efficiently improve the output of your business and products. Look into how you can use it.

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