The Best 3D Of 2024
MipMap #047: A Year Of Outstanding Art
To say that 2024 has been an incredible year for 3D would be an understatement. Tools are becoming more democratized, immaculate art is being made, and the wider world is beginning to let go of the “kid-friendly” weight that has dragged down the medium for so many years. A large chunk of this success can be attributed to the explosive growth of independent animation, especially with 3D productions now beginning to catch up to their 2D counterparts. While 2023 might have given us smash hits like Lackadaisy and Helluva Boss, 2024 stole the spotlight with The Amazing Digital Circus and many smaller efforts.
I won’t ramble on for long, as this will be a shorter article highlighting some of my favourite works from the past year. If you’ve seen them before, then you’ll know that everything here can speak for itself. Also, if I’ve missed something, please let me know as I am always on the lookout for more animated excellence!
Big Budget Animations
Up first, let’s take a look at what the big studios have released over the past twelve months.
Arcane Season 2
After a long three year hiatus, Riot Games and Fortiche brought us the abrupt ending to their mega-smash hit series. Set immediately after the events of season one, Arcane continues the intricately woven story set with the League of Legends universe known as Runeterra.
While there are definitely things to be said about the quality of the writing, what is not up for debate is how studio Fortiche brought their absolute best. No little detail is overlooked and every frame can be considered an exquisite painting. Especially once you consider that all of the textures are hand-painted and the animation is meticulously crafted, the series elevates itself to a whole new level. Indeed, it seems that Fortiche came into season two with a mission to beat all expectations. There is so much more that I could go over with regards to Arcane and how innovative and full of detail the series is, but that would require a whole article to itself.
The Wild Robot
When it comes to animated films, Disney and Pixar have normally been the outliers among the big studios. In recent years though, the gap has narrowed considerably. Long-time rival studio Dreamworks has been at the forefront, opting to take their own creative path. Whether it’s been pandas, dragons, or even talking fairy tale creatures, Dreamworks has been absolutely killing it as of late. The Wild Robot is just the latest of the bunch.
The beauty in the Wild Robot comes from it’s look. While the story is certainly touching, I’m here to talk about the art. In a similar vein to Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Dreamworks continues to iterate upon a distinctive painterly look that is doing a surprising amount to contrast it against the “plastic-realism” that I’d assign Pixar and Disney films. Foliage, feathers, fur, and even wood all have a distinct fuzziness that reaffirms a whimsical painterly look. I am in love with this style of art and it’s gotten me to reevaluate my opinions of the cartoony-painterly look that 3D animations are beginning to turn to.
Secret Level
To round out the heavy-hitters we have Secret Level, a series that might have gone slightly under the radar for some. Helmed by Tim Miller (of Love, Death, and Robots fame), this animated anthology dedicates each episode to telling short stories set in different video game franchise universes. Admittedly, I have yet to watch Secret Level so I can’t definitively say if it’s a masterpiece. That isn’t going to stop me from promoting a 3D animated anthology though. Be thankful I wasn’t writing back when Love, Death, and Robots was airing otherwise there would’ve been many articles glazing that anthology.
Animated Indie Darlings
Indie animation is continuing to carve out it’s own niche thanks to online platforms. Even though there weren’t many 3D standouts to talk about, there’s a still a handful of gems that are worth discussing.
The Amazing Digital Circus
Glitch Productions continues their smash-hit series about a group of people trapped in a virtual game and forced to don toy-like appearances. Even though the pilot technically aired back in 2023, The Amazing Digital Circus has skyrocketed in popularity over the last year, with each episode pulling in mind-boggling views. There’s also the fact that Glitch is giving back to the indie scene, showcasing other independent animations in their GlitchX 2024 showcase that was live-streamed a month ago. Here’s hoping to more amazing animation from Glitch in the new year!
Flow
Even though Flow is located in the middle of this list, I’d be lying to say that it wasn’t the most visually stunning and moving pieces I’d seen all year. Following the adventure of a cat trying to weather a never-ending flood, Flow is an independent Latvian production that I nearly missed seeing (Go watch films at your local film festival, there is so much great stuff you might be missing out on!). Leaning towards the more painterly style, Flow tells it’s story through it’s art depicting a world that can be bright and optimistic at some points, while dark and foreboding at others. If you watch anything from this list, please let it be Flow!
Dynamo Dream Episode 2
Ian Hubert is widely known for his lightning-quick Blender tutorials, but did you know that he’s also making a full show in his spare time? I wouldn’t blame you if you didn’t, since it seems like we’re only getting one episode a year. However, it’s worth keeping in mind that this is a (mostly) one man production. The fact that one guy in his workshop is making virtual environments that are more compelling than fully established studios should balance out any criticism on the release schedule. For this effort alone I implore you to check out Dynamo Dream, it’s really intriguing stuff.
3D Community Efforts
To round out 2024’s last article, I wanted to highlight a couple of community efforts that have been amazing to both participate in and watch grow.
Eternal Ascent / Kinetic Rush Community Challenges
Naturally, Clinton “Pwnisher” Jones’ art challenge is at the top of this section. It’s easy to dismiss this as just another gimmick, but I challenge you to not be impressed when you watch the top one hundred entries compilation. It’s hard to state just how much creativity is showcased by these community challenges. Should you wish to partake in such challenges, make sure to keep your eye out over the next couple of months for the next iteration.
GooEngine
Last, but certainly not least, is a NPR fork of Blender. GooEngine is a project focused on developing and supporting features that strengthen the NPR (non-photo-realistic) style that has seen a surge in popularity over the last five years. Namely, GooEngine looks to continue expanding out the old EEVEE render engine that was deprecated in Blender 4.1. The differences between the two are a bit complicated to list out here, but let’s just say that EEVEE Next is more aligned with modern day real-time engines (like those found in Unreal Engine and Unity), while the older EEVEE was simplified and straightforward.
However, a Blender fork by itself normally isn’t enough to get me excited. There are probably dozens of forks thanks to Blender’s open-sourced nature, but GooEngine in particular is exciting because Blender themselves have selected GooEngine and their team to assist in building out a fully NPR-focused render engine that will be included in the mainline Blender software. Even if you aren’t into the anime aesthetic, this is cause for celebration as both EEVEE Next and Cycles are PBR focused. Hopefully this NPR-based renderer will be up and running with Blender 4.4, since I want to see what the big differences are between creating NPR versus PBR artstyles.
These have been my standout moments from the 3D world in 2024, how did I do? Did I miss anything important? I would’ve liked to talk about tools and new software releases, but those are better saved for a dedicated article.
With this, we’re officially putting a wrap on MipMap for 2024! I am very proud of (mostly) sticking to a schedule and putting out a fresh newsletter every week. MipMap has grown from a couple of dedicated readers at the start to a small host of professionals and hobbyists alike. I cannot thank you all enough for reading, I hope you’ll continue to stick with me as I look to keep innovating and evolving this newsletter well into the New Year!
Until next week, have a great holiday seasons and a happy New Years!
- Adam