Let's start by changing how you think about 3D animation. It's not like motion graphics, and it's not like cell animation (2D). If you were to draw an analogy between 3D animation and any other style, it's more like claymation or stop-motion animation than anything else. This is because before you actually animate anything, you have to make it. You literally have to make a 3D model of it.

To be perfectly clear, Element 3D is an animation package and not a modeling package. Before you can jump in and animate an object, that object must exist. Therefore, you'll either need to make the objects yourself, have someone else make them, or buy them. We'll show you how to make your own basic objects in this book using other software packages and prepare them for import into Element 3D.