Blender Animation Bootcamp 2023

Instructor:
Wayne Dixon

This Blender course is designed for the motivated learner who wants to perfect their animation skills. Before you can truly bring a character to life in a believable way, you will need to learn to control your animation.

5 lessons now unlocked for free!

Looking to perfect your animation skills? Our Blender course is designed for motivated students with a beginner's understanding of Blender animation. Led by pro animator Wayne Dixon, the Animation Bootcamp is the perfect next step to becoming a first-class animator. Start your journey today!

Get caught up

We recommend that you take our Fundamentals of Animation course before tackling this one.

What You'll Learn

Through focused lessons and 12 exercises, this course fleshes out key animation principles 

Timing & Spacing

Timing and spacing is what separates good animation from great animation. timing is how long it takes for something to move. Spacing is how it gets there.

Squash & Stretch

Showing the change of shape through squash and stretch can add a lot of appeal and life to any action.

Overlap & Drag

Not everything should move at once. Learning how to drag things behind and then overshoot the target can be a lot of fun.

Walking the walk

Once you've practised each of the principles, you will learn to put them all together and create some entertaining walk cycles.

Plus much more!

Our goal is for you to understand the foundation for crafting compelling animation; that everything complex is the collection of its simple parts. Like for example, how all motion can be understood in the context of a bouncing ball.

Updated Characters:
The Vonnbots!


Our 3 Vonnbot characters have been updated with new features. They are rigged and ready for animation. By gradually layering the simple principles of animation together in a way that’s easy to understand, you’ll learn to breathe life into them just like a professional.

Get this course and 266 others by joining CG Cookie

Awarded upon completion:
100xp +
Course Curriculum
9 Reviews
  • Nathi Tappan(nathitappan) ·

    I have a motion graphics background and had no idea how much this course would change the way I SEE keyframes and curves. Holy moly, this course is packed! 

    It is incredibly dense but Wayne takes us through it in a way that we don't even realize how much we have learned, until we blink and suddenly our bouncing ball has grown limbs and starts running 😅

    The level of feedback I received was also unparalleled! Hearing how Wayne gets excited with our improvement from one exercise to the next is also a huge motivation boost.

    I not only recommend taking the course, but taking it slow and redoing steps when needed. It's the CGCookie course that took me the longest but oh, so rewarding!

  • m
    mahjiko ·

    I started this course in January and finished it around the beginning of March. I didn't do the bonus run animation (yet), but this course was exactly what I needed to get started with animation. It teaches you the basics and has you create a lot of animations. He also provided excellent critiques along the way. I am very happy with the course. Now that I've finished it, I feel like I'm able to continue studying animation by working on more walk animations and eventually move into body mechanics.

    Good look to everyone who decides to take the course.

  • Lewis Thorpe(DripInspector) ·

    A true masterclass in animation. This course lays a solid foundation for you to launch your animation journey off of. I would highly recommend taking this course if animation interests you :) 10/10 

  • Jasson Aguirre(JasonA) ·

    I wasn't really sure if I should get this course but I am very happy I did.

    The problem I see in a lot of animation courses online is that the instructors tend to be very boring and the classes are not very well structured, but this course one is different.

    Wayne is an awesome teacher. He explains everything very well and makes it fun to learn taking away a lot of the anxiety I had when it came to animating.

    This Bootcamp is very well designed and the lessons are easy to follow along. You also get to do exercises and submit them just like if you where in an actual animation school.

    One of the things I really love is that I am finally able to use the f-curves.
    I never thought  I would ever able to animate something using only the graph editor! 🤯
    Learning animation using f-Curves first is brilliant!

    Totally worth every penny for my subscription ❤️

  • i
    Lee icellent(icellent) ·

    This Bootcamp has been excellent, featuring a well-paced curriculum and thorough explanations from the instructor. The seamless progression allowed for a comprehensive learning experience, and the instructor's detailed guidance has equipped me with valuable skills. Moreover, the personalized touch of recording videos to address specific shortcomings in excercised demonstrates a commitment to individualized instruction, making the course particularly impactful.

    I am so grateful to finding this course. Thank you CG Cookie, Thank you instructor Wayne.

  • Sébastien Lenaerts(slenaerts) ·

    3D animation was new to me, and my current Blender knowledge of modeling and rendering did barely give me something to hold on to.  This course is the way to start. If you start this course: Take the time to absorb the matter because it's not only about learning to use the tools, Wayne teaches us to SEE, and that is not an easy one to do (I mean for me it wasn't).  

    I feel I made already major steps thanks to the course and especially thanks to the feedback from Wayne.  He really went above and beyond to help me see and improve the results step by step each time I sent an exercise.  

    There still is a lot of progress to make for me personally, but at least I have a basis I can refer to whenever I get stuck.  Thank you Wayne for this gem of a course!



  • Aalma ·

    The 3D animation was a true mystery for me [almost wanted to quite Blender after several weeks of trying to understand it] but this Bootcamp made it so simple and enjoyable. Also, I am so in love with how Wayne explains things, teaches techniques, and shares tricks. But the most important is the feedback provided alongside each exercise submission. 

    Thank you for the Bootcamp! Amazing exercises and practice!

  • Phil Osterbauer(phoenix4690) ·

    I’ve wanted to animate for as long as I can remember, and the Animation Bootcamp has been foundational to my animation journey. Bouncing balls may seem trivial from the outside looking in but it is quickly apparent to how these lessons will follow you as you progress to more advanced topics. The lessons have a great mix of technical explanation, theory, and exercises to test your newly found knowledge. Wayne Dixon was an incredible teacher/mentor by providing the feedback I needed to further improve each exercise. He’s the first to show me what it is to truly see animation and I’m forever grateful.

  • F
    Jose Fernando Villegas(Fergamer12) ·

    Although I have not yet finished the course, I already looked at every class in the course.

    By personal preference and recommendation, I recommend first watching the entire course and then following the steps while watching the course.

    I want to thank the instructor, he is very charismatic and even though learning is a bit difficult, because animating is not easy, the instructor makes it much simpler and more understandable and also, what can be better than having a good time and learning a new skill.