"Under The Sea" Animation Reel

Our latest demo reel above is a selection of some of the best aquatic animation done by students at Animation Apprentice; it features crabs, squid, jellies, dolphins, sharks and fish. Undersea animation poses a range of challenges, not least in how to light the animation to get a realistic underwater effect. You can see some tutorials on undersea animation below.

Animate a Swimming Jelly with Caustics

Jelly animation by Maeva Israel

In this super simple tutorial we show how to animate a cartoony jelly (or squid?) traveling underwater. This is a very basic tutorial aimed at beginners in Maya.

The idea is to do some very simple animation of an underwater scene, then add a caustic effect to reproduce the effect of light penetrating water.  

The Jelly/Squid rig can be downloaded for free here. 

Fish Swim - Free Animation Tutorial

Animate a fish swimming in Maya

In this simple tutorial we show how to animate a fish swimming, and then add some underwater lighting using Maya's software renderer. 

Start with a single side-to-side rotation of the fish; then copy and paste the curves down the fish's body, offsetting each curves by a frame or two. 

The result is the distinctive swish of a fish's tail.  The underwater lighting with caustics can be done with a few clicks.