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This is the question everyone is asking these days. With college becoming more expensive and, dare I say, outdated, everyone is wondering the same thing. Is a college degree necessary? The reality is complicated.
Personally, I went to school for a degree in video editing and design. I don’t necessarily regret it, but it was extremely expensive and I honestly could have learned everything on my own. And this was long before online training courses and video tutorials. I went to college during the age of written tutorials, like a dinosaur!
Today you have more options than ever. You can go to college, you can self learn through courses, or you can go the completely free route and piece meal together your education for free on YouTube. Each has it’s benefits.
The benefits of college are community and connections and also a fancy document that may or may not help you stand out in job searches.
Online courses have the benefit of giving you a comprehensive overview of a specific software or discipline in a way that is well thought out, organized, and that builds on itself so you get a linear education. You often have external motivation through teachers, curriculum, and the simple fact that you have some money on the line.
Learning for free is more challenging and piecemeal, but you can slowly put the concepts together if you have the dedication and focus needed.
I will follow up later with a post on great YouTube channels to follow, but this post is a monster compilation of the best online courses available to learn motion design, 3D, animation, CGI and VFX.
These were curated by polls and asking my newsletter audience for recommendations. I haven’t personally gone through most of these courses, but these were recommended by people I respect. Huge shoutout to David Ariew in particular for his help on this project!
I have tried to make this as objective as possible. Some of these trainers are my friends, some are affiliates, some I don’t know and some are even our competitors. I added all the recommended courses I was sent to so you have an exhaustive list to start your journey. I hope this is helpful to you!
You can go to design school for tens of thousands of dollars a year, or you can go through a handful of courses led by the best artists in our field for a few hundred. These course range from $50 to multiple hundreds of dollars, but I would argue that compared to a design school, the prices are an absolute steal. Good luck on your learning journey!
Advanced 3D Lighting & Cinematography. This is one of the most recommended courses in my poll, with tons of great reviews. It’s an in-depth, advanced Cinema 4D course, from my friend David Ariew. This course will teach you all of the invaluable skills that make up the core of cinematography, helping to propel your career to the next level. It comes packed with valuable assets, and tips on tools and best practices that are critical to creating stunning work that will wow your clients!
Master the 3D skills that will take your career to the next level. Learn Cinema 4D from the ground up in this introductory C4D course led by Maxon Certified Trainer, EJ Hassenfratz. Unlock your creative potential as you master the essentials of 3D modeling, lighting, and animation—key skills for 3D motion design.
Next-Level Cinema 4D techniques. In Cinema 4D Ascent, you’ll learn to master marketable 3D concepts in Cinema 4D from Maxon Certified Trainer, EJ Hassenfratz. Over the course of 12 weeks, this class will teach you the fundamental 3D concepts you need to know to create beautiful renders and tackle any task a studio or client might throw at you.
“Bring your motion graphic skills to the next level. Join my class and develop a keen eye for design and a strong sense of animation.” This class will teach you a wide range of motion design skills from mograph animation, dynamic transitions, design theory, texturing and lighting with Octane, and professional workflows. Art Director Woosung Kang shares personal tips learned from directing and working on numerous Hollywood projects so you can get a better grasp of design and motion graphics.
This course is led by a trio of incredible C4D artists: Woosung Kang, Gryun Kim, Taehoon Park, in an unprecedented collaboration. It’s in Korean with English subtitles. This advanced master class covers a wide range of subjects, including creating realistic character designs, AE compositing, simulations, Octane texturing and lighting in addition to building an effective pipeline. Learn the overall production process of well-executed projects, and get an in-depth overview of the advanced techniques of professional artists. Dave Ariew called this course “the most mind-blowing C4D class ever!”
Eager to create photo-realistic artwork that seems like a scene from a Hollywood movie? Taking you from shot composition to lighting theory, to rendering techniques which result in high-quality work! You will learn design theories, style frame workflows, realistic texturing, lighting and finishing touches in post. This is led by master artist Taehoon Park and is in Korean with English subtitles.
If you have already worked with Cinema 4D and you want to master this tool in greater detail, you are in the right place. This course will help you understand the core aspects of Cinema 4D more thoroughly and will teach you to use the tools you are already familiar with in a new way. It’s led by Alexander Kratinov, a CG Generalist.
Discover a treasure trove of Cinema 4D art and animation as the complete production pipeline comes together in one exceptional course. Prepare to embark on a mind-blowing journey, encompassing 3D production, animation, editing, compositing, and screenwriting.
Learn the workflow for small scale VFX inside Cinema4D. We will teach simulations from rigid bodies to liquids. Cloth, fluids, and smoke can be art directed as a tool for design. We will set up projects so that they are animation-ready. We will dissect plugins like X-Particles, Turbulence FD and Realflow without ever leaving Cinema 4D. We will also discuss the importance of art directing your shots in such a way so that they are presentable to clients, along with a brief overview of Octane renderer’s features that are applicable in simulations. Led by industry expert Thanos Kagkalos.
Learn to create compelling, production-ready styleframes, in Cinema 4D and After Effects with award-winning art director Michael Rigley. Michael will guide you through his entire creative process, from interpreting a project brief, all the way through procedurally generating and rendering complex 3D scenes. Students can expect a high level look at the creative and design processes, walking away with some solid portfolio work as well as a fundamental understanding of professional workflow.
Bring your Cinema 4D designs to life as award-winning art director Michael Rigley guides you through his entire 3D animation and production workflow. Start off by planning out your scenes, experiment with the editorial process, learn detailed 3D animation techniques in Cinema 4D, and finish up by compositing in After Effects. Whether you’re taking this course as a follow-up to Design for Production: Workflow, or just want to follow along and sharpen your skills, this class will teach you professional workflows to produce incredible projects of your own.
Mind + Motion is an interactive workshop. You will learn C4D and Redshift but we’ll also go beyond these skills and dive into the mental health impact of being a creative. You’ll be creating your own renders and animations and building a portfolio you can be proud of as you build a strong foundation and understanding of both Cinema 4D and Redshift Render Engine. You’ll also have access to exclusive interviews with industry experts. In these interviews, we’ll chat about topics like imposter syndrome, self-doubt, and other mental health issues.
Create beautiful, nature-inspired 3D jewel-like designs using Zbrush, Cinema 4D and Redshift. Throughout the course, you’ll gain essential skills in digital artistry. Sasha will guide you through the process of conducting stylistic research, sketching with Photoshop, mastering ZBrush techniques for creating natural elements, and seamlessly integrating your designs into Cinema 4D. You’ll also delve into the world of materials, lighting, and rendering using Redshift. By the end, you’ll have the tools to craft intricate, jewel-like compositions that will elevate your portfolio to new heights.
Get familiar with Cinema 4D, step-by-step, from creating characters from scratch to rendering the final loop so you can fill your portfolio with cute and eye-catching loops! We will build six kinetic characters from scratch to later model and animate them. After that, we will create perfect and seamless character loops and render them with Octane. They will weave together the right dose of realism and cute design. This mini-project can become your perfect entry into the world of 3D.
Use simple Mograph objects to design mind-blowing tricks for creating Procedural Systems in Cinema 4D. In the lessons, Zach Corzine gives you the keys to unlocking some seriously impressive Mograph looks and effects.
Industry-renowned 3D motion designer Jan Sladecko will be your guide to walk you through the exciting world of 3D animation. In this comprehensive online class, Jan will be sharing his extensive experience as a 3D motion designer to provide you with an in-depth exploration of the art and techniques behind crafting seven captivating animations, which cover a full spectrum of 3D animation techniques. Master X-Particles, Cinema 4D, Redshift, and more.
Lighting Principles: Cinematic Rendering. Understand how to render realistic materials in Octane Render and Cinema 4D. A comprehensive overview of types of lights, systems of lighting, lighting methods, realworld lighting, interior lighting and exterior lighting. Taught by an incredible CG artist and designer named Zaoeyo.
Learn Cinema 4D in one day with industry legend and Maxon Authorized Master Trainer Tim Clapham. Aimed at beginners or new users of C4D, this course will cover modeling, Mograph, type, Xpresso, rigging, cameras, animation, lighting, materials & rendering in Redshift
A bundle of 5 training series. Part 1-5 of Mograph Techniques covers a huge array of Cinema 4D topics like deformers, rigging type, blending clones, Xpresso, OpenVDB, fracturing, dynamics, cloth dynamics and simulation systems for rope and soft body effects. Taught by expert C4D user, Tim Clapham, with over 20 years of experience, these are some of Tim’s go-to techniques, guaranteed to provide you with essential skills for your motion graphics projects.
Everything you need to get started in VFX and CGI. An absolute powerhouse of a training site, led by Urban Bradesko aka The Explosions Guy. With DoubleJump you will have your own Personal Board of VFX Mentors and Advisors. So regardless of what’s happening in your life, you have a community that’s helping you improve and level up. This is a true global community of VFX artists combined with top tier training.
A deep dive course on material creation in Octane. Learn fundamentals, mix materials, composite materials, material conversion, scatter, car paint, Quixel, translucent, jade, skin, leaf, ocean and much more. After this course you will be able to tackle any material in your project and make it photoreal!
This course is the first part in a series regarding Rendering and Lighting with Octane Renderer for Cinema 4D. It is great for Octane beginners, but also has many cool workflow tips for more experienced users. Learn from Thanos Kagkalos aka Motionpunk, a world renowned motion design director. Thanos shares real world tips and tricks on mastering this incredible render engine, and offers fundamental advice on the most essential nodes and materials. Get up to speed with Octane quickly!
Three tutorial videos, containing scene management for big scenes, texture projection inside Octane for C4D and a tutorial on how to shade a robot without UVs. All tutorials were made with Cinema 4D using Octane for C4D 3.06 as a render engine.
If you want to make exquisite, life-like motion graphics, Motion Designer Gryun Kim’s first premium online class has all the answers to your questions. Learning-by-doing goes a long way. Understand the theories of motion graphics by completing design exercises. Create realistic textures and original artwork following the tips and pipelines for efficient workflows used by professionals. This course is in Korean with English subtitles.
This in-depth exploration spans over almost 20 hours of on-demand videos, encompassing 95 meticulously structured lessons, leaving no stone unturned as you delve into the world of Octane. A comprehensive overview of Octane lighting, material creation, cameras, rendering and much more.
This course will teach you everything you need to know about lighting, shading, texturing and rendering in Redshift! This is a soup to nuts resource that will guide you all the way from beginner to an expert Redshift user. The course is led by Roland Friedrich who has worked as a lead/senior visual effects compositor on movies such as Star Wars, Avengers, Transformers, Warcraft, Interstellar, Gravity, Iron Man, Thor, Ready Player One, Aquaman, Bumblebee and many more. I’m friends with him, and we actually have had this training series in our store for a few years. It’s by far the most comprehensive RS training available.
Learn Redshift for Cinema 4D with this amazing bundle of training from leading industry professionals Rich Nosworthy and Tim Clapham. It includes Redshift for Cinema 4D Volume 1 & 2 and Pro Lighting with Cinema 4D and Redshift. This will give you all you need to go from zero to hero in RS!
A full course on Redshift 3 by Kame Kherzri, and also a follow up course with new features in 3.5. This covers everything from lighting, global illumination, shading, camera work, rendering and more. It’s a comprehensive overview to take a beginner through everything they need to know to become comfortable in RS.
In this course, you learn how to light, shade and render realistic interior scenes using Cinema 4D and Redshift. Step one will go through references and lighting techniques, step two goes through creating 60 different realistic shaders including advanced techniques like randomizing textures, colors and materials per geomtery. The final step will be going through preparing the scene for final render and going over best rendering practices.
Acclaimed Artist Vincent Schwenk explains his complete pipeline, creative processes, working in Cinema 4D with Redshift and compositing with DaVinci Resolve. We’ll start with an introduction and some creative process ideas, after that we look at some fun exercises in Cinema 4D and Redshift, then move on to real-life projects such as a job for Microsoft. After that we’ll look into editing, basic tools which can help with creativity and your workflow.
Design Bootcamp shows you how to put design knowledge into practice through several real-world client jobs. You’ll create style frames and storyboards while watching typography, composition, and color theory lessons in a challenging, social environment.
Perfect your pitch! Styleframes are an invaluable part of films, games, TV shows, commercials and more, allowing the artist to shape a project’s look and feel. Across four in-depth lessons, motion graphics legend Zaoeyo has constructed an incredible learning experience for you. Covering the ins and outs of his process in Cinema 4D and Octane Render, you’ll learn to quickly create stunning styleframes to tell your stories, pitch your projects, and land bigger jobs with ease and simplicity.
Get an in-depth look at what it takes to be a Motion Designer in this free, 10 day course. Along the way, you’ll learn about the software, principles, and techniques used in the field through in-depth case-studies and tons of bonus material.
From character modeling to rigging and animation, our Blender course offers a wealth of knowledge for 3D enthusiasts and professionals alike. Unleash your imagination and bring your wildest ideas to life. We start by introducing the Blender interface and the basics of 3D modeling. You will learn how to create and manipulate simple objects and shapes in 3D space. We will then move on to more advanced modeling techniques, including sculpting, using modifiers and texturing, and lighting your creations.
Blender is fast becoming the hottest property in the worlds of film, motion graphics and game development, recently gaining huge financial and developmental support from such major players as Epic Games, Meta and Amazon. No other 3D suite on the planet is developing as quickly, averaging around four major releases a year. Join Matt on this course for foundational knowledge and great workflow tips he’s picked up in his years as a professional 3d artist.
If you’re brand new to 3D, Blender, or both, this training for Blender is the one for you! This chunky foundational class is an absolute-beginner friendly introduction to the fundamentals of 3D in Blender and a deep dive into the how and why of all the tools you’ll need to start working confidently in 3D. Follow along with Blender expert Matt Lloyd, as you start your journey with this fantastic software.
Enter the world of real-time with Unreal Engine! Get comfortable working with Unreal with this beginners course designed for motion designers from Jonathan Winbush. By the end of this course, you will learn how to import assets, world build, animate, and create cinematic sequences all in real-time. You’ll also learn how to work with materials, lights, and cameras so you’ll be able to create amazing 3D renders in no time.
A beginner’s guide to Unreal for Cinema 4D Artists and Motion Designers looking to learn about real-time production, workflow, and rendering. Instructed by Jonathan Winbush.
A beginner’s guide to Houdini for Artists and Motion Designers looking to expand their skills. Instructed by Mark Fancher, Senior Motion Designer and Houdini Artist at Already Been Chewed. Preferred 3D Companion for this course is Cinema 4D.
In this Houdini course, Rich Nosworthy creates an intricate and detailed flower shot from start to finish, 100% in Houdini. This is based on techniques used for full studio and client work, and will demonstrate a whole bunch of workflow tips for setting up your scenes efficiently. Rich covers modeling, animation, instanced geometry and alignment, VEX programming, Proxies for efficient workflow, and full lighting, camera, shaders and rendering all within Redshift Renderer. This covers a huge amount of knowledge all within SOPS to help you push your Houdini skills to the next level.
In Advanced Motion Methods you’ll learn how to structure animations according to geometric proportions found in nature, deal with complexity, create cool transitions, and learn tips that only a seasoned After Effects veteran can. This course is built for working professionals that are looking for mentorship to push themselves to add more to their compositions and push themselves to the next level.
A must-see course for any Motion Designer. It lays the foundation for all aspects of modern motion design and covers every topic from AE basics to character rigging and frame by frame animation.
Imagine and illustrate animation-ready characters. Learn the art and science of character design in this fun and jam-packed course. Learn shape language, the 80/20 rules of anatomy, how to use motifs, create appeal, and much more. You’ll learn dozens of drawing tips and hacks, plus get extremely comfortable using Procreate (though any drawing app will do).
The course will take you step by step through the entire process of creating a stylized character animation in 3D. Strap in, and follow along as we design and model our character, learn about lighting and texturing, and ultimately rig and animate our character in Cinema 4D.
An online course on how to bring almost any 3D character to life, whether it is a person, a robot, or even a jellyfish. We will start simple, with questions: Do you need a rig at all? What cases require it? And when can you avoid it by substituting with clusters, vertex maps and deformers? After that, we will gradually proceed from using Cinema 4D’s standard systems to creating our own ones.
Check out Digital Creator School or the course called Animator’s Journey. Animator’s Journey is created for people looking to switch careers into 3D animation. It’s led by Lucas Ridley, a lead animator who has worked on movies like Avengers, Ready Player One, Transformers and many more!
This beginner-friendly video course is all you need to get started working in KeyShot. Through bite-sized, easy-to-follow video courses, you’ll get comfortable with KeyShot quickly. Then, Will Gibbons will guide you through a project beginning-to-end. The course will cover materials, lighting, workflow, render settings and more!
Good luck with your learning journey. I hope this was helpful! If you have any courses you have taken and loved, shoot me an e-mail and I might add it to this list. E-mail me at joren@thepixellab.net
Joren Kandel is an Emmy Award winning artist with 15 years of experience in sports motion design. He is also Founder and CEO of The Pixel Lab, which has become the biggest collection of 3D VFX and VDB assets in the world!
