Hi,
I am 100% new to animation. I work for a company, and have been asked to try and learn animation for training purposes. All we need is very simple animations. We do have very good looking 3D models of workers, our machines, and possibly the environment they work in as well. I just need to figure out how to pull them all together and start learning the animation part.
Is there any videos you guys know of that could help me out here? I appreciate it.
***NOTE: I am not interested in learning to make these models at this point. I would love to know how, but I want to try and learn how to animate these models as fast as possible to start pushing out new training material. Maybe one day if I get the time, I will try and learn the modeling side. I am having to work all overtime to learn this part, so right now I do not want to take on more than I have to.
Exporting the models to either .FBX or .OBJ will work fine. Those two are the most universal formats. If they have materials, shaders, and/or textures applied, I think they might be saved out, too, as .MTL. Might have to do a little finagling to get the materials in (no experience with that, sorry). There should be animation courses here under the Blender section, give me a sec and I can find them for you.
Hey Brett, I would recommend these courses:
https://cgcookie.com/course/fundamentals-of-animation
https://cgcookie.com/course/fundamentals-of-rigging
https://cgcookie.com/course/animation-workflow-body-mechanics
https://cgcookie.com/course/animation-bootcamp
https://cgcookie.com/course/demystifying-lip-sync-animation
I think with all those courses you should have more than enough to build animations within Blender. I placed them in order of what to watch first. Wayne Dixon created these courses and they quite frankly some of the best animation courses you'll find.
Thanks so much guys! Very helpful site. Didn't expect this much help this quick.
Fundamentals of Animation: https://cgcookie.com/course/fundamentals-of-animation
Fundamentals of Rigging (needed for animating): https://cgcookie.com/course/fundamentals-of-rigging
Fundamentals of Dynamics (if you want): https://cgcookie.com/course/fundamentals-of-dynamics
I would start with those, then find anything that has animation in it and see if you need it.
Another thing to look at is The 12 Basic Principles of Animation. These principles will be used in animation all the time, so might as well read up on them now. Heck, read up, then take a look at your favorite animation (Disney invented the principles, so they're a good resource) and try to identify what's being used where. Hayao Miyazaki is fantastic at animation (Spirited Away, Howl's Moving Castle, etc.) as well.
Hope this helps!
Good luck Brett! Another one I'd recommend is Understanding Blender Data, if you need more info on importing, exporting, appending, linking, etc...