Animation Courses

Improve your drawing skills with free online animation courses on edX today!

Related topics - Augmented Reality | Art History | CGI Animation | Creativity | Culture | Digital Content Creation | Fashion | Film | Humanities | Music | Music and Arts | Procedural Modeling | Simulation

What is Animation?

Whether you create a film that's drawn, painted, or computer-generated, it's animation. Animators use a variety of artistic tools to bring their visions to life from animated short films to full-length features. The biggest names in animation, Disney or Pixar, for example, use a variety of tools to bring movies to life. Though animation software for computer-generated action is most common, there are still some animated features that use old-school techniques like stop motion or figure drawing.

Learn about Animation

Animated videos still capture attention and can be used to get across valuable points such as normally boring infographics or informational series. Whether you're making high-quality animation for business or creating the next Toy Story, edX.org has courses and certifications that can teach you everything you need to know. Whether you need art lessons or training with computer animation, you can cover everything necessary to get your idea off the ground. Let's take a look at some courses designed to provide those foundational skills.

Animation Courses and Certifications

Columbia offers a design course on computer animation and CGI motion, tackling a variety of topics. You'll learn the physical principles behind creating lifelike animations, including things like equations of motion and hair simulation. It will teach you to build incredibly lifelike figures or to break the rules for a fun take on "reality." IIT Bombay offers a course specifically for Blender, a program used to design videos and characters for animation. It will teach you the principles of the video maker program and how to apply what you know to create a variety of simulations. You can even get a little history under your belt with courses like the Smithsonian's Rise of Superheros, where you'll get a taste of how animated superheroes have infiltrated our public consciousness.

Animation for Careers or Hobbies

The best animation helps us see things we may not have noticed or just have a few minutes of enjoyment during the day. High-quality animation is a skill you can learn for your career or a hobby, and edX.org can help you build that understanding to get you on your way. Warner Brothers had to start somewhere. Netflix understands the value of a new animated series. Before you know it, you might be helping to create big things in the world of animation with your skills. Dig out that old storyboard and bring your most magnificent animation ideas back to life. We can't wait.