What are the Different Types of 3d Animation?

When one thinks about the types of 3D animation, the favourite 3D movie pops into mind and the imagination of 3D animation gets confined to merely the
Computer Generated Imagery. We think about our favourite action characters and that’s that! However, just like Superman’s infinite flight, the applications of
3D animations also do reach the far beyond! And, it only has 3 types!

Let’s start with the first niche:
Interactive 3D Animation:
As the name implies, it involves user interaction with the subjects/objects in the 3D environment and allows the users to move the object in the first or third point of view. The object is, of course, moved within the realm of the computer 3D world with the help of hardware equipment such as a computer mouse or keyboard. This is mostly used in developing computer games and made using 3D computer software.

The second niche is:
Virtual Reality 3D Animation:
Now, here things get very interesting because the potential of Virtual Reality in the technology realm is humongous. From offering the most immersive user experience in the gaming industry, it can also help train soldiers for future combat roles. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or as it is called, D.A.R.P.A., uses the VR technology to observe how the soldiers behave in a combat environment. Moreover, it helps the trainers to know when the combatants are under stress to help them with post-traumatic stress disorder. Just like the interactive 3D animations, it also requires computer software to be created but needs a secondary device to interact which is a VR Headset such as Google Glass or Oculus. Among all the types of 3D animations which exist, Virtual Reality is by far the hardest to create but the most immersive of them all.

The third and the last type of 3D animation is:
Passive 3D Animations:
In this niche, the animations are used to develop 3D video and film. Here, unlike the interactive 3D animations, the user does not have to interact with the
animation. Here the 3-dimensional images move in a virtual environment. The subjects move around the 3D space with motion graphics. Some of the most
common software used to create 3D animations are CGI, Maya, Unity, SketchUp Pro, Mudbox, Houdini, and LightWave, etc. It is purely used for
creating videos but don’t get bogged down if you can’t interact as you would in the VR because this is the exact category of animation used in Disney’s Pixar
Studio to create pitch-perfect animations in the movie, ‘The Incredibles’.