30 resources · 29 free
3D & Animation
3D modeling, sculpting, and animation — Blender, Maya, and motion craft.
SketchUp: How to Start Modelling Simple 3D Objects (Coursera GP)
Coursera Guided Project: model simple 3D objects in SketchUp for Web — free account, drawing tools, modelling tools, arranging objects, views and export. ~1 hour, desktop only, shareable certificate.
Blender Manual (Official Documentation)
The official, always-current reference manual for Blender — modeling, sculpting, rigging, animation, shading, geometry nodes and more. Every tool, modifier and operator is documented with explanations and screenshots, organized by workflow. The Animation & Rigging and Grease Pencil chapters are essential reading for 3D animators. Completely free, open, and updated with every Blender release.
Blender Official Tutorials Hub
Blender.org's official tutorials page, the starting point recommended by the Blender Foundation itself. Points beginners to the free Blender Fundamentals training, community channels, and the #b3d hashtag ecosystem. Also links to Blender Studio for professional-grade training and production assets. Free; a dependable, non-scammy entry route into the Blender community.
Blender Studio
The Blender Foundation's own studio platform publishing open movies and production-focused training. The free Blender Fundamentals intro training covers the full pipeline including an Animation Fundamentals chapter. Full training library, assets and films require a subscription that also funds Blender development. Free tier: fundamentals course and open movies; paid tier: complete production training.
Blender Guru (Andrew Price) — YouTube
One of the most famous Blender channels, run by Andrew Price, with millions of views per tutorial. Best known for the iconic beginner 'Donut' series plus deep dives into photorealism, lighting, textures and Eevee. Explains the 'why' behind every step, making it ideal for absolute beginners. All videos free on YouTube.
Blender Guru Beginner Donut Course
The legendary free beginner course: model, sculpt, shade, light and render a donut (plus coffee mug) in Blender. The official Blender Guru page hosts the full video plus all links, hotkey sheets and resources in one place. Widely considered the best first Blender project for complete newcomers. 100% free, updated for the latest Blender versions.
CG Cookie
Long-running Blender education platform with structured learning paths for modeling, sculpting, rigging and animation. Free tutorials and articles cover the basics; a membership unlocks the full course library and project files. Known for the popular 'Flow' character course and human anatomy training. Free tier exists; membership is subscription-based.
Polyfjord — YouTube
Norwegian 3D artist known for whimsical, story-driven Blender projects and clean, relaxing tutorials. Famous for the 'Grenade' and creature-tracking series, plus motion design experiments. Great for learning character animation, physics sims and creative problem-solving in Blender. All content free on YouTube.
Grant Abbitt (Gabbitt) — YouTube
Beginner-focused Blender educator with complete free series for absolute beginners, low-poly game art and animation. Famous 'Get Good at Blender' and character creation playlists; also runs a friendly Discord community. Methodical teaching style with downloadable practice files. Free YouTube tutorials; optional paid courses on gabbitt.co.uk.
Ryan King Art — YouTube
Clean, calm Blender tutorials covering complete beginner series, geometry nodes, texture painting and UV workflows. Popular 'Blender for Complete Beginners' and 'Geometry Nodes for Complete Beginners' series. Great for stylized 3D illustration and hand-painted texture workflows. All tutorials free on YouTube.
Ducky 3D — YouTube
Specializes in Blender motion graphics, abstract loops and geometry nodes tutorials with a fast, practical style. Great source of inspiration for 3D animation loops, shaders and Eevee rendering tricks. Regular uploads keep pace with new Blender features like geometry nodes. Free on YouTube; optional paid motion-graphics course on ducky3d.com.
12 Principles of Animation (Alan Becker — Official Full Series)
The definitive free video explainer of Disney's 12 principles of animation, based on Frank Thomas & Ollie Johnston's 'The Illusion of Life'. Alan Becker's 24-minute official full series uses clear motion examples for squash & stretch, anticipation, arcs, timing, appeal and more. Watched over 15 million times; the standard first lesson for animators. Free on YouTube.
Animator Island
Educational site founded by animator JD with deep articles on animation principles, exercises and workflow. Hosts a free 2D Animation for Beginners class plus the famous '51 Animation Exercises for Beginners' list. Premium lessons and live workshops cover physics, walk cycles and character animation in depth. Core articles and class lesson 1 are free; premium lessons are paid.
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Pixar in a Box — Khan Academy
Free collaboration between Pixar and Khan Academy showing how math, science and art power Pixar filmmaking. Includes the Animation unit with interactive lessons on curves, timing and the art of storytelling. Hands-on exercises let you animate bouncing balls, build robot swarms and more in the browser. 100% free, self-paced, suitable for teens and adults.
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Twelve Basic Principles of Animation — Wikipedia
The encyclopedia entry documenting the 12 basic principles first introduced in Disney's 'The Illusion of Life'. Covers squash & stretch, staging, straight-ahead vs pose-to-pose, follow-through, secondary action, timing, exaggeration, solid drawing and appeal. Rich in history and context with citations to the original sources. Free, editable, and a great complement to video tutorials.
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Blender Artists Community
The official Blender Foundation forum — the largest Blender community on the web since 2001. Sections for every discipline: modeling, animation, rigging, sculpting, materials, and WIP feedback. Where professionals and hobbyists answer questions, share work-in-progress and run challenges. Free to browse and participate.
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r/blender — Reddit Community
Reddit's main Blender community with 1M+ members sharing daily renders, tutorials and critique. Great for daily inspiration, quick answers to stuck questions, and discovering new techniques. Weekly themes and challenge threads keep practice structured. Free; reddit account optional to browse.
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BlenderNation
The longest-running Blender news site, publishing daily updates on releases, addons, tutorials and artwork. Includes a curated 'Blender Tutorials' section collecting the best new free tutorials each week. A great way to stay current with the ecosystem while learning. Free; also runs a Blender community job board and marketplace listings.
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Mixamo (Adobe)
Adobe's free online auto-rigger and animation library for 3D characters. Upload a character model and get an automatic skeleton in seconds, then apply hundreds of mocap animations. Export rigged characters and animations directly to Blender, Maya or Unity. Free with an Adobe account; a fast shortcut for animation practice.
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11 Second Club
Legendary monthly character animation competition where animators animate a supplied ~11-second dialogue clip. Community votes on entries, winners receive eCritiques from professional studio animators. Active forums for animation discussion and WIP feedback; running since 2007. Free to enter and participate.
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GDC Vault — Free Game Dev Talks
The Game Developers Conference video archive, including the famous Animation Bootcamp and Animation Summit tracks. Free talks cover game animation production, procedural animation, character performance and 2D animation pipelines (e.g. Cuphead, Ori). Professional studio speakers share production knowledge you rarely find elsewhere. A large free section; full archive requires GDC Vault subscription.
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CG Boost
Blender course platform with a strong free tier: free beginner courses, robot course, sculpting course and shortcut PDFs. Paid premium courses cover characters, animation, geometry nodes, environments and cinematic storytelling. Clean, structured learning paths with project-based exercises. Free courses exist; premium courses are one-time purchase.
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Blender Secrets
Hundreds of one-minute daily Blender tips by Jan van den Hemel, covering modeling, sculpting, rigging, animation and rendering. Free daily tip videos on YouTube plus a free 30+ page sample e-book. The full 2000+ page Blender Secrets e-book is the best-selling paid reference of its kind. Freemium: tips free, e-book and courses paid.
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SculptGL
A free, in-browser WebGL sculpting app — no install required, works on any machine with a browser. Full sculpting toolset (brush, inflate, smooth, flatten), dynamic subdivision, and PBR vertex painting. Ideal for quick digital sculpting practice before committing to Blender/ZBrush. 100% free, open source (MIT).
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OpenToonz
Open-source 2D animation production software based on the Toonz system customized by Studio Ghibli. Used for professional and hobbyist 2D animation with vector and raster levels, effects and cutout animation. Free for commercial and non-commercial use; Windows/macOS/Linux. The go-to free tool for learning traditional 2D animation principles.
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Pencil2D
Simple, open-source 2D animation software for hand-drawn animation with bitmap and vector tools. Minimalist interface ideal for beginners learning frame-by-frame animation fundamentals. Cross-platform (Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD) and completely free even for commercial work. The easiest way to start practicing the 12 principles immediately.
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Synfig Studio
Free and open-source 2D vector animation software designed to produce film-quality animation without frame-by-frame drawing. Uses bone rigging, tweening and cutout animation techniques to automate motion. Good bridge between 2D illustration skills and animation production. 100% free (GPL v3), cross-platform.
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FreeCAD
Free, open-source parametric 3D CAD software where you practice mechanical design, part modeling, assemblies, and technical drawing. The site provides documentation, tutorials, and a wiki that teach everything from the workbench basics to advanced constraints and scripting with Python. The practice surface where aspiring CAD engineers do real design work. Cross-platform and completely free.
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Blender Guru
Blender Guru is Andrew Price's long-running free tutorial hub for Blender, best known for the iconic Donut series that walks absolute beginners from first launch to finished rendered scene. The site hosts full courses on Eevee, texturing, lighting, and compositing alongside shorter project tutorials and practical performance guides, making it one of the most complete free entry points into 3D modeling and animation.
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Spline Academy
Spline Academy is the official learning center for Spline, the collaborative 3D design tool used to build interactive scenes for the web and apps. It offers structured video courses and tutorials covering modeling, materials, physics, and interactivity, plus documentation for the editor. Beginners can follow project-based lessons while practicing directly in the free Spline editor, making it a practical route into interactive 3D design.
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