Hey Reader,

Zach here,

With a fresh collection of news, inspiration and resources from the 3D world.

Today I have for you two fantastic animated shorts made in Blender, a 100% free Ghost Rig from ToAnimate and a series of tutorials on 90s anime-styled modeling, shading, and rigging.

Let’s dive in.
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​"Koji" Blender animated short - Suzanne Award 2024 winner​

I’m back from the Blender Conference in Amsterdam, and one of the great things there was the Suzanne Awards Festival, where I got to have a theater like experience, and see many amazing Blender animations on the big screen (including our nominated Master 3D Characters Course Trailer 😎).

The winner of the Best Short Film category was "Koji", a dynamic samurai fight scene with stylized low-poly characters. The shots, the framing, the sword fight choreography, and the lighting are excellent.

​Watch it here​

​Free cartoony Ghost rig from ToAnimate​

Halloween was yesterday, but if you’re still in the spooky mood, I have something perfect for that. ToAnimate prepared a 100% free rigged model of a cartoony ghost.

The model and rig are very high quality (the ToAnimate team are masters of animation and rigging witchcraft). Now you can scare (or impress) your friends with your animations.

​Download the free rig here​

​"Freelance" - a hilarious short animation made in Blender​

If you like funny and wacky cartoons, you’ll love this one.

Luciano Munoz (The LollypopMan) has released his Blender animated short about a brave and (initially) enthusiastic knight slaying multiple dragons for a peculiar King. Anyone who’s ever done freelance work for a picky client will deeply resonate with the story. 😁

​Watch the short film here​

​Free 90s Anime-styled Robot tutorial series​

If you’re thinking of diving into making animated robots in Blender, PIXXO 3D has prepared a nice free 3-part tutorial series on making a 90s anime-styled bot.

The tutorials cover modeling, toon-shading, and Grease Pencil lineart as well as some basic rigging.

​You can watch all the 3 parts here​

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

For even more in-depth and advanced hard-surface bot modeling, rigging, and animation I recommend checking our Robotic Planet course where Louis du Mont will guide you step by step from a simple camera-bot to more advanced bot animations.

You can check out some of our students’ results here to see what the course can teach you.
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That’s all from me today.

Have a great week and till next time.

~Zach