3D Animation

Students who study at Digital Elf Studios will be instructed in the art of computer animation on state of the art computers. We are stictly 3D computer animation here, not stop motion.
All of our characters are modeled on the computer as in WALL-E or Shrek.

Animation has changed since the days of Mickey Mouse. The world of 3D animation today is being developed to simulate real world properties. Today's animator must learn to simulate the effect of light, pay attention to the effect of gravity, make and use complex geometric shapes, study anatomical shapes, use graphs, use scientific formulas to calculate motion effects, write stories and understand artistic principals in order to make whatever it is that is
being created, look good. In short, the world of 3D animation is an immersion into math, science, physics and art and music.

Children who have come here to study animation have used it to immerse themselves in school projects about Egypt, to describe the various parts of the human brain or explain Newton's laws of motion. That doesn't mean that they don't have fun making silly animals
like Frankenbunny or talking penguins. In fact having fun is a prerequisite here. 3D animation is a wonderful tool to motivatestudents to learn exactly what today's education system is trying to teach, with the added benefits of requiring creativity and
extraordinary critical thinking.

Teachers come here to learn how to use animation to help students understand concepts in
the subjects they teach and to learn how to use it for themselves as a teaching aid.

Progress in technology has propelled the field of the digital arts forward at an amazing speed.
The market for scientific visualizations, architectural visualizations, historical visualizations, forensic visualizations, and informational simulations is exploding. 3D animation is being used to save lives and explain concepts that would otherwise be impossible to understand.

Although I use many different kinds of animation software, the software of my preference is Lightwave 3D which I consider to be the biggest bang for the buck. It plays well with other software, isn't too difficult to learn, does wonderful special effects and has been around the
longest of any animation software that I know of. It is being used for major motion pictures, television special effects and it teaches a lot of fundamental concepts that can be applied most other software that is used for the digital arts.